Kara Hendershot
Figurative and conceptual narrative paintings

An Open Studio Visit
St. Paul Art Crawl
October 10th, 11th, 12th 2014
Friday 6-10 PM, Saturday 12-8 PM, Sunday 12-5 PM
Northern Warehouse, Studio #516
308 Prince Street, Lowertown St. Paul, MN

Local artist Kara Hendershot reaches a pivotal point in her career with the creation and development of a significant new body of work featuring figurative and conceptual paintings. This new work follows the recent completion of a dialogue-based research project supported by an Artist Initiative grant, and coincides with the mark of Hendershot's 10th year into her career.

Hendershot's large-scale figurative paintings explore the theme of estrangement through storytelling.  Inspired from personal experience and intimate dialogues with individuals affected by estrangement, this work unfolds as a collective story retold in visual form. Using a mixed media layering technique that begins in a raw and intuitive manner, Hendershot employs elements of realism in her paintings yet maintains fragments of abstraction to create ambiguity, surfacing a sense of uncertainty and mystery.  Portraits cast as reflections in windows and figures in desolate surroundings are slowly rendered while the early layers remain visible, quietly speaking through the work.  Each painting hints at an underlying universal story about estrangement, compassion, loss, and possibility.

 Kara Hendershot will be exhibiting new works from this current body of work at her studio location in the Northern Warehouse in Lowertown, St. Paul, MN. This open studio event will take place during the fall 2014 St. Paul Art Crawl, October 10th, 11th, and 12th, a local arts event that gives guests a chance to visit artists' studios, meet and support local artists, and engage with their work.
 
An independent artist, Hendershot funds her work and community events through artwork sales and public support. She will have a range of original works available for purchase, large and medium scale as well as affordable small scale studies - experimental pieces used to inform her painting process. All artwork sales go toward future projects and public exhibits. Hendershot began her career in Lowertown, and this will mark her 10th year at her studio location.

Kara Hendershot Open Studio Visit during the fall 2014 St. Paul Art Crawl.
October 10th, 11th, 12th, 2014. Friday 6-10 PM, Saturday 12-8 PM, Sunday 12-5 PM
Northern Warehouse - Studio 516, 308 Prince St., St. Paul, MN (in Lowertown at 4th and Broadway, above Black Dog Cafe)


About the artist:

Kara Hendershot is a mixed-media figurative painter based in Lowertown, St. Paul, MN. She has been an active participant and volunteer in the biannual St. Paul Art Crawl for the past ten years and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Saint Paul Art Collective. She has also served as a Board Member of Altered Esthetics Gallery in Minneapolis, and as a mentor for Free Arts Minnesota, an arts healing program for youth.

Hendershot actively exhibits her work, including The Absent Hours, The Phipps Center for the Arts, Hudson, WI (2014); Estrangement: Behind-the-Scenes, Northern Warehouse (2013); Primer, Morrison Gallery, Morris, MN (2013); In the Genes, Springfield Art Association, Springfield, IL (2012); Moments Extended, Stevens Square Center for the Arts, Minneapolis, MN (2011); and Slices of Life, Normandale College, Bloomington, MN (2009). She received a Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant in 2013. Hendershot’s work is included in numerous individual private collections locally and nationally. It was featured in Studio Visit, a national juried publication, in 2013 and 2010.

“My paintings explore the quiet, solitary, and widely misunderstood side of human existence. Though the root of my work is from a specific, personal experience, it is important to me to allow the viewer to have a personal dialogue with my work. I search to create a larger universal story about indifference and compassion, estrangement and attachment, and loss and hope.” - Kara Hendershot
Website: http://karahendershot.com