Page 13 - the NOISE March 2013

American Eagle In the Desert by Scott Kraynack is among the pieces in the artist’s new
book, Animal Crackers, due out in April.
STARRY NIGHT WITH SALAMANDER
Scott Kraynak takes a spin off the classic Van Gogh painting, Starry Night. The town stretches out behind the forefront of cypress trees and stars swirl in the blues of the sky, but where the original stops, Mr. Kraynak’s addition begins, and a stream comes pouring down between the hills, carrying a giant pink salamander, whose face seems innocent and benign as it pours pollutants into the clean water.
I ask Mr. Kraynak where the inspiration for the colored pencil interpretation of Starry Night, on this month’s cover, came from. “Vin- cent Van Gogh is my favorite artist and the in- spiration behind my drawing style, so I defi- nitely wanted to honor him somehow, but I had to find some painting of his that I could make fit into the overall theme of the book,” Mr. Kraynak explains, referring to his soon to be released book, Animal Crackers.
“I needed an idea for the lizard/salamander section of the book, and Starry Night is such a recognizable painting, so I eventually came up with the idea to add a stream with a sala- mander in the hills above the town dumping sewage into it, and voila!” he says. “I didn’t alter much at all of the original Starry Night composition. What took the longest time was doing research on salamanders and find- ing one whose colors would contrast well with Van Gogh’s original color scheme, which I tried to emulate as much as possible. Then it was just a matter of placing the salamander and stream in a position to enhance the flow of the original Starry Night piece.
Mr. Kraynak has always been passionate
about protecting and preserving wildlife, and tells me more of the significance of the salamander in his drawing. “Salamanders throughout the world are disappearing at an alarming rate, due to habitat loss, cli- mate change, pollution and chemicals being dumped into rivers and streams,” he says. “So here is a salamander doing the very same thing to us!”
Mr. Kraynak, though he has been a park ranger at Grand Canyon these past six years, is originally from Cleveland, and has worked throughout the country as a park ranger. I first met him about three years ago when he was featured at the Artists’ Coalition of Flagstaff ’s Gallery, where he showed draw- ings of animals juxtaposed in the place of people. Manatees riding jet skis, oblivious to the harm they were causing to people swimming, buffalos riding in train cars with rifles looking out to a prairie scattered with gunned down humans. Scenes of how hu- mans have treated animals are somehow more shocking and better noticed when the tables are imaginatively turned. In addition to his animal scenes, Mr. Kraynak also has en- joyed altering antique photographs with oil paint, turning the strange, sometimes beauti- ful scenes of the past into gruesome portraits.
Mr. Kraynak is the featured artist this month at the Mountain Oasis International Restaurant, located at 11 E. Aspen. In April he will be displaying art in the Recycled Art Show at Coconino Center for the Arts and this September, he will be showing his art at the Flagstaff Public Library.
His latest project of the last two years is a
collaboration with his brother, Jeff Kraynak, called, Animal Crackers. Together the broth- ers have written and illustrated a book that will be available this April.
Scott Kraynak tells me more about the creation of their book, “We are very proud to have Last Gasp as our distributor! It’s going to be one of those books that you either love or hate, we think,” Mr. Kraynak continues. “If you are a conservative Republican who doesn’t believe in human-caused global warming, and thinks the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Endangered Species Act should all be repealed, and who travels to the arctic every winter to hunt polar bears, you are going to hate it. But, if you aren’t one of those people, you are going to love it! The idea for the book stemmed from my anger at how so many species of animals have been, and continue to be needlessly killed and brought to near extinction, and at modern culture’s seeming- ly complete lack of concern or empathy for any animal other than Homo Sapiens.”
Using Scott’s paintings of animals enact- ing scenes of animal cruelty on humans, and Jeff’s poetry, the book came to life.
Jeff Kraynak, who works at the New York University School of Medicine, tells me his passion has always been for writing. “I have penned eight feature-length scripts and sev- en shorts. Animal Crackers is actually a return to where I first started, that being poetry,” he tells me. “I’m always writing. The screenplays have taken a backseat to the book for a while, but I have still been actively working on scripts and sending them out into the world. I finished one script which was accepted as
an official selection into a couple festivals. I’m polishing up another right now in a work- shop.”
Jeff Kraynak tells me how the idea for the book’s title came to be, “My parents and I were out visiting Scott one summer and we were brainstorming about the book while our parents were out doing something. At that point we didn’t have a title yet. So we’re thinking and thinking and suddenly Scott blurts out, ‘Animal Crackers!’ It was like light- ning striking. It was one of the most brilliant things he’s ever thought of and I knew, at that moment, that would be the title. It was per- fect.”
The big book release will be held at The Hive, 2 South Beaver Street, on April 5 during the April First Friday ArtWalk from 6PM on, with live music and revelry. Later in April, a book signing will be held at the Artists’ Coali- tion of Flagstaff’s Gallery. ScottKraynak.com
ABILITY IN DISABILITY
This March Brandy’s Restaurant hosts an art show for LOU Corporation (Learning Op- portunities Unlimited.) Each year, a selection of artwork accomplished by artists at LOU Corp. is chosen and beautifully displayed.
Karen Reed, the art director for 11 years, tells me about the company’s history and mission, “LOU Corporation was started in
1989 in the garage of Lou LaChat as a bulk mailing operation, working with develop- mentally disabled adults. It grew into the warehouse we now reside in from Monday through Friday, 8AM to 3PM. The bulk mail- ing has been weeded out but we still have
thenoise.us • the NOISE arts & news • MARCH 2013 • 13