A Touch of Grace
AMG: You’re an innovator of your own technique. Your resin work is so contemporary, yet timeless. It almost looks like porcelain. How did you get started as an artist?
Kristina Grace: My interest in art started at an early age. My parents were collectors of contemporary art and took us to museums and exposed us to different artists during the 1970’s. As a teenager, I did ceramics and metal sculptures in school. I then went on to college to begin a major in Art. Halfway through college, my father convinced me that I wouldn’t make any money as an artist, so I switched my major to Business Economics. I then had a short stint on Wall Street in the 1980’s, and went on to marry and begin raising a family with 3 children. But I was always creating… whether it be painting, needlepointing, baking, etc, there was always a thought in my head that I had to get out with my hands. I am innately both a creator and a nurturer.
After I left my marriage 16 years ago I went back to school to pursue my passion of creative arts. I took sculpture classes and exposed myself to a variety of different mediums. Always searching to find my voice by experimenting with my hands. One day I was exposed to a work where resin was used and my mind clicked towards that direction.
Resin doesn’t operate like paint. And the typical application of it is used as a smooth covering where excess material is brushed off the surface of the substrate. I began to experiment with the recirculation of the material. Applying layer after layer as the epoxy begins to change its viscosity through chemical reaction. As the material moves towards hardening it thickens and becomes warm, then hot to the touch. I take objects that are known and deconstruct the surface of them. Always circling my work when it's in process and reapplying the resin until it reaches the point of “quickening”.
It’s a messy and physical job. I’m constantly throwing away old mechanic suits and shoes that become covered in the material and crack overtime. A respirator and gloves are worn every time as well.
AMG: Some of your most iconic works are the Skulls, and your pieces with butterflies - can you tell us more about them?
KG: Ideas are constantly coming into my mind. Everything is interconnected..and I find that the interesting point that I sometimes don’t see until I pause to reflect. People, places, religion, sin, guilt, forgiveness, family, love - these things are all reflected in my work. They’re really just the age old questions that man has been asking of himself over the millennia. Or at least that’s how I view it.
The butterflies began when I was going through a particularly difficult personal time. I wasn’t sure of the choices that I had made in my life and somehow this came to light. The Butterfly, as you know, is admired for its beauty and ability to take flight. But even more importantly are its origins as a caterpillar. One thing completely metamorphosing into another. And then there is the religious significance of the soul which is also attributed to the butterfly. I do pieces that are all butterflies, and others where they adorn a specific work.
Often covering them in gold leaf. The skulls come from my reflections about our corporal existence in life. What’s more illustrative of that than our heads which cradle our thoughts? They are whimsical and I get to have fun with them. “Queen for a Day, “King of the Hill”. Who doesn’t know a man or a woman ( or maybe themself) that they can’t attribute this to?
AMG: What about the Money Skull?
KG: You mean “Two Dollar Bill ''... that's his name. Many men see themselves through monetary lenses. That’s a pretty standard measuring stick in the world. So “Two Dollar Bill” is about a man and his money..all wrapped up in it. And then of course we have so many avenues that can be gone down on this subject like fiat vs crypto, billionaire class, the demonization and adulation of money... a lot of discourse surrounds this piece and subject.
I wanted to put a crown on Bill, but wasn’t sure what would work. Should I create a crown of laurels like Caesar wore that would connote power? Or would a crown of thorns like Christ wore depicting persecution be more suitable? Ultimately I chose Caesars headpiece and taught myself how to do Origami to create it.
AMG: There are also a lot of surf & California aesthetics in your work - what’s the story there?
KG: I live on the sand and in the surf community of Newport Beach. My boys and their friends surf and there are boards strewn across the house and in the garage; it’s our culture and community. I began working with a material about 14 years ago called precision board. It’s a super dense foam that is used in the construction industry for crown molding and other applications. So I began carving out shapes with a sawzal and getting into the details of shaping with metal files and sandpaper.
I had a neighbor who was a “shaper” (someone who makes surfboards) and asked him to teach me the technique of “glassing” which is applying resin to surfboards. The first work that I did out of the series was a 4’ peace sign that I covered in thousands of strips of colored paper and then fiberglassed it and covered it in epoxy resin. I still have that peace sign hanging in my family room today.
As for the surf pieces, one of my sons was on the Harbor High Surf team, and I went to a set up for a team dinner and one of the moms had brought these plastic surfers, like army men that we played with as kids. I was immediately entranced and knew that I had to do something with them. Again, one thing always leads to another. So I carved the shape of the state of California out of the precision board and covered it with stencil designs of waves and little surfer guys… finally applying a layer of resin over the top. These pieces represent family, both mine and others. This resonates with a lot of collectors... they surf, their sons or daughters surf, they live in a surf community - it’s joyful work.
AMG: Any hidden messages in your work?
KG: I’m not sure if it’s so hidden. My work is akin to my salvation. As I mentioned, I put my head down and focused on creating when life was shifting in new directions. It was , and is, a way to reconcile the past with a focus towards the future. My “Garden of Eden” series began with a look at the questions of sin, redemption, and forgiveness.
One of the earlier pieces in this series was titled “Original Sin”. In this work I created a snake made out of ceramic and placed it amongst a sea of flowers and one Apple with a bite out of it. Of course this was Eve's bite which was the original sin that cast man out of the garden and into the world as we now know it.
MEET ignacio escobar
“If you see a piece of art that moves you,
You’ll see things in it that resonates with you that transcends basic reality.
buy it. It’s life changing! ”
- Ignacio Escobar
Interview Ignacio Escobar
by Joness Jones, Andrew Myers Art Gallery
How did you start making art?
Ignacio :
I've been a tinkerer since I was a kid. I would take things apart to see how they worked. I attended Emily Carr University of Design and thereafter had a room full of design experiments in my house. I tried painting but my impatience required more immediate, 3 dimensional results. One day in 2018 I found myself hand forming a soft piece of aluminum sheet and that's when making "art" began.
AMA : Was it a tinfoil hat?
Ignacio : It could be! It’s about 10 tinfoil hats put together. It came to me out of the blue, out of the aether. It’s soft enough to form, but heavy enough to keep its form - it’s not tinfoil.
I’ve always been in the design field, and I had a piece of aluminum I was messing around with. I bought a roll and put a bunch of pieces together and liked what I saw. I decided to powder coat it to protect it and give it integrity .The powder is applied with an electrostatic charge then baked in the oven where it flows like a liquid leaving a perfect coating. It's great for color too.
Chrome Aluminum Sculpture
Ignacio Escobar
30”x40”
2018
At the same time, I was designing a full Pablo Escobar Spanish Hacienda for a friend of mine in Nicaragua. We worked in film together, and he became quite a successful writer and producer. He bought a property and asked me to help design and manage the build back in 2018.
I had just left the film industry in Vancouver.
AMA: So before you were making art, you were in the film industry?
Ignacio : I was in Set Decorating in Vancouver, Canada for over two decades.
AMA : How cool! Any favorite projects?
Ignacio: Yes! 7 Years in Tibet - I was the props guys, and I really enjoyed working with Brad Pitt. That was a life changing movie, I went to Argentina and lived in the Andes and stayed in the wine country Mendoza for months. It was unbelievable.
I met a woman, and obviously, Argentinian women are gorgeous. I ended up moving there for two years, we got married, and then moved back to Canada. That was definitely one of the highlights of my film career, but there were a lot of other great projects.
We were really fortunate to be one of the top decorating crews in Vancouver so we got to do a lot of big movies, big American movies that come from LA because the dollar was cheaper in Canada.
I loved doing sci-fi and fantasy movies. I loved the challenge of creating things that didn't exist or going back in time creating fantasy. In the fantasy movie "World of Warcraft" we made dwellings out of elephant hides - and you can’t get elephant hides - so you have to figure out how to make elephant hides. It was a blast being around super creative people all the time. It was like there was nothing we couldn't accomplish. ( With money of course).
If this gallery was a movie set, everything but the walls and paint I would have to go find. Andrew has done an amazing job of curating this place. Everything is fantastic, the art, furniture, jewelry, etc.
AMA : So you were a sourcer. A sourcerer?
Ignacio: Yes sourcery was my specialty. I was a set decorator/ buyer, so I got to run around, buying, conceptualizing and being creative. We worked well as a team and did a bunch of X-Men movies, Mission Impossible 4, etc, more than 40 pictures.
By 2007 my marriage had long ended and I met a girl in Los Angeles.
I would visit LA a lot because one of my best friend lived in Santa Monica, so I would come to his house and hang out between movies for months at a time. Our relationship was long distance, back in 2007 during the time when you had to buy phone cards with time limits and no FaceTime.
AMA : That’s dedication. You know it’s real if you survive with no FaceTime.
Ignacio : Well that phase only lasted a year or so. We remained friends and started dating again in 2012. Still long distance but now we had FaceTime. It was a game changer, we ended up getting married.
AMA : You and phone card girl?
Ignacio : Yes, her name is Maria, she's Italian. I call her Cietti. In 2014 after years of long distance, we had the DTRC - the “define the relationship chat.” I gave up the film biz and volunteered to move to LA to be with her. In 2019 we eventually bought a house in Long Beach . After I finished the house in Nicaragua I needed a creative outlet. I’d been tinkering around in the garage with aluminum and discovered epoxy to help hold it together in a colorful background. I soon realized all I wanted to do was make art. I reno'd my garage into a home studio and I've worked every day since.
AMA : So, you started in film, then aluminum and ended in epoxy. What’s a day like for you in the studio?
Ignacio : In the mornings, I’m usually forming the Epoxy that I poured the night before. In the late afternoons, I’m pouring the epoxy that I’ll form the next morning. By mid-day I experiment, frame pieces and anything else that needs to be done around the studio.
Years of love for design and a curious mind has helped me realize my art. Form, flow, depth, shadows, light, nature, harmony, experiences and emotions are all elements working together to create a piece. I'm never completely sure what it is I am creating when I start. I'm not relaxed. My nervous system is elevated, I'm on the clock because the epoxy will harden. It has a mind of its own, sometimes stiff and stubborn or soft and supple. I stop when I'm looking at something pleasing and I begin to relax. The story begins to reveal itself slowly as I sit with it. It usually feels like a part of me looking out at the world.
Perhaps a cross section of my subconscious. It's euphoric, I must do this.
