Page 18 - the Noise December 2016

DEATH and the MAIDENS — Art of Kayley Quick at Criollo
By Jen Turrell
I stopped in at Criollo the other day to meet a friend for their fantastic Happy Hour (if you haven’t tried mixing the Prickly Pear and Jalapeño margaritas yet, then you definitely need to go give it a try). On the exposed brick walls inside I noticed a number of Day of the Dead related artworks. The pieces that stood out most to me were four large, related paintings by a local artist credited as Kayley Quick.
The four paintings that Ms. Quick currently has on display at Criollo are not representative of her work as a whole. These are specifically Day of the Dead themed and much of her other work isn’t, but her clear understanding of human anatomy and her use of clean lines and delineated colors show through. The paintings have an interesting two dimensionality thanks to very little shadow and a lack of shading. Personally I love this style because it is so unapologetically two-dimensional. We are talking about paint applied to a flat surface and Ms. Quick has no problem with that.
When I asked her about this she replied, “I toyed with the idea of making them more three dimensional, but honestly I think they lost their beauty when manipulated with too much shading. I enjoyed playing with the idea of them being almost porcelain in their simplicity, removed from death enough that they still feel soft and attractive while also flirting ghostliness.”
Ms. Quick has a deep love for Dia De Los Muertos and believes it is an important
lens through which to process death. The styling in these paintings is both playful and consoling at once. Looking at the paintings I get a feeling of reverence and respect, not only for the beauty of the figure, but for death itself, not as something to be frightened of, but as an eventual coming home. Where these women are in death, is where we all eventually will be. “It is my hope that the sweetness and dark visuals within the pieces combines to create a sense of peace in the processing of death.”
I asked her about the process of creating these four related works featuring four female figures. She said that she asked a few friends to dress up and pose with her. “We had a little
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morning at my house where we put makeup on, did our hair and posed. It was fun! After
I take the pictures, I rework them in Photoshop to play with my color pallet and rework the composition to make sure it’s sharp. From there, I paint from the images from the final compositions while looking at my computer monitor.”
When an artist creates a cohesive series of works, there are more challenges that in creating a single, stand-alone piece. “I wanted each girl to express herself uniquely, but also fit comfortably into the whole series with her other “sisters” - as I imagined them. Sometimes creating one painting in a specific style is easy, but then to replicating the rest to match can be a little more complicated. For this series I did a lot of research. I wanted to see what other artists were doing with the concepts and what was most beautiful. I also wanted to create pieces that were unique to my artistic sensibilities and to express my own understanding of the juxtaposition of beauty and death.”
Besides painting, Ms. Quick is also a Graphic Design teacher at Flagstaff High School. “I’m pretty fortunate that my entire career is revolved around the arts. Teaching is a huge passion for me as I love connecting with my students and fostering a love of design. It’s a good life.”
Ms. Quick graduated from NAU in 2009 with a degree in art education. She first became interested in painting in college, but had been drawing all of her life. “Drawing and painting for me were two very distinct challenges. My background in graphic design really lends a helping hand to my painting process. Nothing in graphic design is really left for chance. It’s all extremely intentional.”
Ms. Quick is also the founder of the Indigo Art Market which appears at The Green Room on the first Friday of every month. The Indigo Art Market is a little market at The Green Room where local artists display their goods and wares. It usually includes 12 artists and a featured artist every month.
You can learn more about Ms. Quick, her art and the Indigo Art Market at www.kayleyquick.com.