ARTIST STATEMENT-
Beginning my career as an illustrator informs the narratives of my new work. I continue to explore the formal elements of design, but with an evolving interest in storytelling and wordplay. The work delves into socio-political iconography and popular culture idioms; using history, African culture, urban language, and recyclable objects to create sculptures that offer humorous observation to the usage of language and the definitions of words, and how this creates alternative paradigms within each individual. Exploring how words create emotion and ideologies in society; the dichotomy of language and culture is a recurring theme in my sculptural narratives. I search through discarded objects found on the streets; recently old drawers have become a ready-made shadow box, or altar-esque type of vessel for me to create my sculptures. Metal- work, bones, bedroom headboards, tools, and ceramics are used to recreate the human form. The found objects help to create multiple textural elements and unusual design aspects in the sculptures.


ARTIST BIOGRAPHY-
Kraig Blue was born and raised in The Bronx, New York. A child of two working parents, he spent many hours reading comic books and tracing characters from Disney coloring books. His parents providing anything that he needed to invest in his new found and growing talent. In 1989 he was accepted as an illustration major at Fashion Institute of Technology. At “FIT” he was able to learn portraiture, figure drawing and painting, oils, acrylics, watercolor, graphic design, and airbrushing. There he learned the commercially driven work ethic of the illustration market. For twenty-five years he has been a published illustrator, fine artist, and art educator. He finds his inspiration in the complexities of the human condition, politically and socially. In 2015 Mr. Blue received his BFA from the Laguna College of Art & Design (California) in drawing and painting with an emphasis in figurative sculpture. While in LCAD he received the Plotkin Award for Excellence in Fine Art (2014), and won The Laguna Plein Air Painters Association Next Generation Award (2013). As of September 2017 K.A. Blue has been an MFA candidate at The City College of New York in their fine arts program. He has begun experimenting with assemblage and the concept of secular altar construction relating to sociopolitical ideologies, cultural lexicons, and social preconceptions. He has received several Marie Therese Connor awards and has travelled to Cuba to study altar construction within religious context. Currently Mr. Blue works with Project Reset at the Brooklyn Museum in their museum education department as an art instructor and gallery guide.

Kraig Blue​
New York, New York, USA

CREATIVE DISCIPLINE-
painting, drawing, sculpture

PRIMARY MEDIUM(S)-
Found objects, wood, metal, bone, glass, clay, platster, and precious stones

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