mnartists.org: Kristen Toutges

jason with portrait and umbrella

Kristen Toutges — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 23:51:44 GMT

unfinished portrait of jason as he wouldn't sit still, then a photo was taken of him meandering with an umbrella.

flowers

Kristen Toutges — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 23:50:24 GMT

crayon somehow worked beautifully for me this time. i drew some flowers for my boss's daughter.

collage for my brother

Kristen Toutges — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 23:20:10 GMT

this was my brother's 17th birthday card. images are from tee shirt fronts advertised in a clothing magazine.

mary

Kristen Toutges — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 23:01:51 GMT

this i did for school as a completely undirected project, in j's storage place. a good place for me to work, tho i was surrounded by beer cans. j owns the painting now, i think he bought it so i could take patrick out for dinner. it is of her loss and her birth body. she only got to hold onto jesus for a little while.

pen portrait

Kristen Toutges — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 23:01:01 GMT

a sketch i did at work in front of the mirror during the bittersweet epic of no customer time.

self portrait with spine

Kristen Toutges — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 22:55:04 GMT

i painted this to test the studio space that i tried to carve out of the lyndale house that never worked. i sat on the floor and got mad at a mirror, then gave my self more spine, years later.

kelsi with happy tears

Kristen Toutges — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 22:48:44 GMT

kelsi smokes flowers. she has a big, strange heart and a lot of happy tears.

me + patrick

Kristen Toutges — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 22:47:38 GMT

this is my favorite painting of all time, so far. it was during my aqua period. everything was bright and the color kept turning up everywhere. it is me and my body, and the crooked way i looked up at patrick. it is my unblinking two eyes and my blurred third. it is him and his torture. it is him and his strong stomach that he was so proud of. it is his tough mouth and his good and bad words. it is everything holy between us. it is the birth of our diamonds and their decent into hell.

untitled

Kristen Toutges — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 22:41:51 GMT

this is a painting of an image i kept seeing in my head when i lived in my tiny apartment in st. paul. it is a dark animal, maybe a donkey. it is skinny and reminds me of the matter that donny darko sees floating, sort of. it has a shirtless lady between it's feet that was drawn by ariel pate, in india ink, i think.

self portrait with bike

Kristen Toutges — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 22:40:03 GMT

this is five feet tall, maybe. it was a project for art school, where we were told to do a self portrait in the style of a different artist. i chose alice neel.

abby

Kristen Toutges — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 22:39:01 GMT

self portrait with thoughts

Kristen Toutges — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 22:35:37 GMT

i drew this first as a gift to someone who can't hang my stuff anymore, it turned into a gift to myself, my bones are exposed and i'm squinting out rain to drench the city that i came from. i am having both incoherant and cognitive thoughts.

a reaction

Kristen Toutges — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 22:30:54 GMT

this was done after staying up all day all night and all day, after watching a movie that echoed in my heart of hauntings and made me very blue.

patrick

Kristen Toutges — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 22:27:49 GMT

this feels like more of a sketch than a painting, tho it is done with paint and charcoal. i did it quickly and patrick walked in on me looking devestated that i was painting again. he had broken his brushes years ago.

st. charles with heart

Kristen Toutges — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 22:25:27 GMT

i met a man named charles during the time of hurricane charlie. i had seen him wandering around st. paul clutching a book and folding his hands in prayer. he would stop and read the bible aloud in the street. he came to my house to do laundry and sat for me pulling his face and staring.