by Kris Haas

Artist Statement:

The need to create has always been there, ever since I was a little girl.  It is a primal one, not an academic one which is why I chose to for the most part skip the academia route aside from a couple of classes.  It always felt as if the best classroom was in the studio, doing the work and following my intuition and then the words would come later.  Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't.  More often they don't since having had 4 concussions and a permanent Brain Injury Disability since 2004.

With that said, I am drawn to color, shapes and movement in that order mostly but not all the time.  I think it is important to give the color space to breathe in order to be understood and really seen and not crowded too much.  I like to give it space to dance, to move, to let the viewer imagine what the painting could have looked like seconds before it was finished and if it was alive what could it have looked like moments after it was created.  This I feel describes my earlier works. I feel that it is necessary to push myself, my boundaries as an artist and in staying true to my nature as a person and artist I evolve to let more complex structures into my life like my recent Disjointed Reality body of work and it's derivative Worn & Torn.

My more recent works encapsulate a putting back my 'disjointed' life', since finally being stable enough, after many years of instability since acquiring my Brain Injury, & even though I feel 'worn & torn' because of life's challenges, through it all I still chose to create something meaningful, something beautiful, instead of getting caught up in 'what might have been.'

My "Playful Reality Series" is most recent and quite new and fresh for me and is still in its infancy. My "Playful Reality Series" is just that! Me finally getting caught up into the playful reality of happiness and joy after coming out the other side of so many losses in my life. I paint a matrix image or start out with one of my paintings I created from a large body of work from many years ago, to help direct me to where the energy and movement of the paint will go. I keep it as organic, playful and freeing as possible since in my past I have lost so much due to a debilitating injury. By making the choice to be more carefree and open with my work I am inviting new energies into my world, which is very much appreciated and welcomed! I hope you enjoy these pieces as much as I enjoyed creating them for YOU!

This below is from what was on here before I took my hiatus from Zatista in 2019 but I thought that it is still relevant to have on here.

Internationally collected artist Kris Haas (selling her work online since 2009) works have been featured in 4 different television shows, such as AMC's Mad Men, Property Brothers, Leverage, and The Politician, as well as numerous corporate collections, and countless private collections in over 20 countries across the globe.

As a visual artist I found the more that I knew about me as a person, the more I knew what I wanted to create. One of the fundamental characteristics of my work is knowing and understanding the act of creation and where can it take you. 

“Into the Inbetween" 
Where the silence of the moment lies 
The place that holds no known boundaries 
The place where judgments do not exist 
The place that defines you and not 
The place bridging the gap between who we are and who we 
are becoming 
The place you can go to to be safe in who you are and 
secure with the constant knowing that it will always be 
there when you need it. It is always constant with what you 
want even when you forget its existence 
“Into the Inbetween" I slip uncovered and open 
The place I go to in the act of creation 
Kris Haas 
October '06

Education:

While I have taken a total of six art classes, three in Ashland Oregon and three in Portland Oregon about 8 years apart, varying from printmaking to painting (2 classes), I am primarily self taught.

Exhibitions:

Selected Exhibits: 
2017 Jenifer Pepin Gallery, Holiday Show, Portland OR
2014 Jenifer Pepin Gallery, Group Show, Portland OR
2009 Guardino Gallery, Portland, OR
2008 Equilibrium: The Human Mash Up, Portland, OR
2008 Poster Garden Art Exhibit, Selected Works - Portland, OR
2007 WSU Gallery, Minimalist Series - Vancouver, WA 
2006 Gallery de Haas, “Into the Inbetween" - Portland, OR
2005 - 2008 Cinetopia Theaters, Selected Works - Vancouver, WA
2005 Vancouver Hilton, Selected Works - Vancouver, WA
2005 6th Street Gallery, “Into the Interior" - Vancouver, Wa 
2005 6th Street gallery, “Portrait of a woman" Group Show - 
Vancouver, WA
2004 North Bank Gallery, Selected Works - Vancouver, WA
2004 Café Destino, “Into the Interior" Portland, OR
2004 Haze Gallery, “21 years of Studio, friends of carton 
service" Portland, OR
2003 Urban Wineworks, “iswhatiswhatis", Selected works – 
Portland, OR 
2002 JKS Gallery, Selected Works – Portland, OR
2000 P.I.C.A. Selected Works, Group Show – Portland, OR 
1998 Mark Wooley Gallery, “eye candy" Group Show – 
Portland, OR
1997 International Color Pencil Society, Juried Show, Finalist, 
Chicago Illinois
1994 International Color Pencil Society, Juried Show,
Portland, OR
 

Artistic Influences:

Curiosity. 

Pablo Picasso's ability to be free as well as disciplined in creating his art.

Jackson Pollock. I actually had a feline friend I had named after the artist. This cat was the most unusual creature I had ever met. Out of the numerous unique characteristics he had, one being adorable, one stands out the most. It was in May of 2006, while working in my studio in the basement of my home, Jackson came in through the awning window, on to the ledge of the concrete wall, jumped down on to a table, walked over to me, dropped what was in his mouth and meowed the loudest meow I had ever heard. Not more then a few inches in front of him was a beautiful white flower that he had brought in from a tree that was starting to drop flowers. From that day on, until his passing in November 8th, 2008, he had brought me more flowers then any human ever has. I stopped counting after he had reached a hundred in August of that year. It was on the day I found him dead of unexplained causes, that I had to do something to honor him. I started this latest body of work that day and one year later I had completed 10,202. Mostly what you will see here.

Tags:

abstract paintings, contemporary art, bold colors, abstract expressionism, gestural painting, landscape paintings