My work is a meditation. I use the layered image to encourage viewers to look beyond the obvious, to interpret and to react to the image on multiple levels, whether I am creating a photograph or a surreal painting. I use my art as a visual form of communication, and I am most inspired by irony in life, finding sorrow in beauty and joy in tragedy.
A lifetime of art and thirty years of organizing creative art events have led me to understand the importance of communicating artists’ ideas.For example I started a forum that allows artists to explore Julia Cameron's 'Artist's Way' books and to share their creative glee and challenges in a supportive environment. The Artists Circle meets weekly at b.j.spoke gallery in Huntington.
I hope you enjoy my work and will return to the site often.
- Katherine Criss
Biography
Katherine Criss, is a New York City native, and the daughter of the twentieth-century American painter and collagist, Francis Criss. Both her parents encouraged young Katherine’s creative pursuits with drawing, painting and ceramics classes. Katherine embraced photography as her preferred medium while a student at New York’s High School of Music & Art, and, after a hiatus for marriage and family, she received a BFA in Photography from the School of Visual Arts.
Katherine’s eclectic photographic career includes positions as catalog manager at the commercial photography studio Leigh Charell, at three stock photography agencies: The Stock Market,Corbis and Phototake, and at Gallowitz Photographics and the Village Voice. She served as president of Professional Women Photographersfor seven years and is presently represented by b. j. spoke gallery in Huntington, Long Island.
Her career has included extensive experience in archival printing and photographic preservation, as well as contemporary digital technologies in editing and in producing images and exhibits. Ms. Criss is an art project developer, a published photographer with more than twenty years experience. She represents the Francis Criss Collection of paintings, collages and writings, as well as her trans-layered art photography and painting archive. www.CrissArtArchive.com
Resume
Ms. Criss is a fine art photographer, painter and collagist with more than twenty years experience as a curator, editor, and researcher for art and photography collections.She leads ongoing discussions on creativity based on Julia Cameron's book The Artist's Way.
Education: Mentoring workshops with Ernestine Ruben (2001-2003);
Lori Novak (1988);
Bernice Abbott (1955).
School of Visual Arts, BFA/Photography (1986);
NY School of Photography (1960);
High School of Music and Art, Art/Photography (1957)
Affiliations:Professional Women Photographers, President (1993-2000)
Board member (2005-2008)
PWP Program Chair 2005-2007
B. J. Spoke Gallery, current Member 2006
Awards:National Scholastic Honorable Mention in Photography, 1956
Juried Exhibitions:
Breaking Ground, Omni Gallery, Uniondale, NY, September 2010 – January 2011
The 1stLong Island Biennial, Heckscher Museum, Huntington, NY, July 2010
Body and Soul, Art League of Long Island, Dix Hills, NY June 2007
Life In & Out of Balance, a Juried competition, Ashforth Warburg Gallery, NY
April-May 2002
Cow Quest, Ashforth Warburg Gallery, NY, September 2000
All Americans, National Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures,
Prague, Czech Republic, Severocheske Museum, Northern Bohemia, 1996 and
Nassau Community College, NY, 1997
Solo Exhibitions
Harmony Reigns-Everyday Meditations, B.J.Spoke gallery, Huntington, NY 2011
Heal and Unite, B.J. Spoke Gallery, Huntington, NY, July 2009
City Sightings, 96th Street Public Library, New York, NY, April 2000
Curator/Producer of Photographic Exhibitions:
Francis Criss – New York Inspired, Ashforth Warburg Gallery, NY, 1999
Intimate Portraits, Duggal Gallery, New York, NY, 1994
All Americans, National Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures.Prague, Czech Republic, Severocheske Museum, Northern Bohemia, 1996 and Nassau Community College, NY, 1997
YWCA, Women First for 135 Years, national traveling exhibit, 1993-1994
All images, photographs, and text on this site are protected under United States and international copyright laws, and are the sole and exclusive property of Katherine Criss unless a third party is specified. The use of any image or text as the basis for another concept or illustration without written permission from Katherine Criss is a violation of copyright and may also violate the copyright of third parties. To request permission to use an image or text e-mail kcriss1@juno.com.
