Kristin Skees

Kristin Skees

Virginia

USA

The ongoing Cozy Portrait portrait series combines traditional women’s craft, contemporary DIY culture, portraiture, and a love of the unexpected and absurd. This work morphs and conforms to each person I photograph and the cozy is custom made for each subject. Reminiscent of an ill-fitting handmade sweater, the cozy represents the fine line between comfort and constriction. It is simultaneously a warm cocoon and a claustrophobic straight-jacket. It is this relationship of artist and subject that represents my own journey as a daughter and a mother. For me, these primal relationships are fraught with contradictions. Where protection becomes suppression, and one’s identity is consumed, blurred and defined by that relationship. In addition to the Cozy Portrait series, these themes of motherhood and identity are explored throughout my work, including the photographic series Mother/Artist, Yawning Beagles, Tiny Trophies, and others

Cozy Portraits, solo exhibition, New Image Gallery, James Madison University, VA, 2018

Mother / Artist, solo exhibition, the Charles H. Taylor Art Center, Hampton, VA, 2018

Yawning Beagles, solo show, Charles H. Taylor Arts Center, Hampton, VA, 2013

Family Matters, PhotoPlace Gallery, (Online Annex), Middlebury, VT,, 2015