Arts
The Goddess, Art, and Me
This weekend brought a most exciting email to my in-box, from the one and only Goddess Kring:
it’s nice that you mentioned my art gallery exhibit in your “last days” write up for sept 5th 2008. thank you for spelling my name and the title of my show, and the art gallery name correctly! ha!it’s however creepy and bizarre to me that you didn’t talk about my actual photography or artwork and instead mentioned some strange and negative conversation two people had i don’t even know who drank too much wine at the opening. what a lack of actual substance in your words about the opening i had. i spoke with quite a number of intelligent and interesting people that night about my work and art in general and what it means to do self portraits etc. the snide snotty style of the stranger always shocks me! …but then again the only bad publicity is no publicity. i’d love it if the stranger had more sincere substance in their articles.
First, being called “creepy and bizarre” by the Goddess Kring feels like winning a trophy.
Second, Kringen shouldn’t take Last Days’ lack of substantive comment on her photography exhibit personally—the column regularly focuses on smaller happenings at official events. For instance: Instead of writing a review of the Sex and the City movie, I’ll share the report of the Sex and the City audience member who watched a drunk frat girl try to pee in her purse on opening night.
Regarding her art, Ms. Kringen supplied me with her “statement about the meaning of my gallery exhibit” (sic throughout, bolds are mine, and special props to Shannon for capitalizing Myself):
Self Portal: Amplified Chameleon photographs by Shannon KringenI tend towards being an introspective person. I use my camera to create Self Portraits that amplify and exaggerate different aspects of Myself that would otherwise remain hidden within and silent.
A chameleon like variety of Passionate Self Portrait Photographs capturing very different facets. From black and white high contrast to full color in natural light with face paint to the distorted face reflected in chrome. Images that symbolize the paradox of being one person and yet having many different sides to oneself simultaneously. The Self Portrait could be seen as a metaphor using the I to represent the Macrocasm of how many different cultures we have on the planet yet it’s all one humankind.
Okay.
In other news, when I shared this email with my fella Jake, he brought up the fascinating fact that Shannon Kringen has been one of the most prolific life models for Seattle art students for over a decade. (Her only competition: the man they call Naked Santa.) And while an exhibit of Shannon Kringen photos of Shannon Kringen sounds less than interesting, an exhibit of 10 years of Seattle artists’ renderings of Shannon Kringen sounds potentially interesting, or at least more interesting than Self Portal: Amplified Chameleon. Heck, I’ll curate this exhibit myself….Got a drawing of Shannon Kringen in your portfolio you want to share? Scan it and send it to schmader@thestranger.com! If the results are interesting, maybe I’ll share them here!
Comments (18)
Her coinage of "Macrocasm" gave me a microgasm.
Posted by tomasyalba | September 22, 2008 1:00 PMThat day, that first day, however many years ago, when I first saw that painted naked chick dancing in her own vagina... That was one of the greatest days of my life.
Shannon Kringen.
That we all know her name is embarrassing...
Supreme hack. Original MySpace CamWhore. She's a joke.
She's like a walking, talking, nude body-painting, eyebrow-raising and then twiddly-doo twiddly-doo bad hippydancing version of an "Art Car": no, you horrible jackass, you just glued a bunch of plastic army men on your shitty car...you are not an artist just because you said so.
Shannon Kringen: you suck. Forever.
Have a nice day!
Posted by A | September 22, 2008 1:03 PMHaven't we already seen far too much of Kringen? I certainly know I have. Far, far too much.
And for someone who claims to be "introspective", she has to be one of the most unabashedly exhibitionistic personages in Seattle in the past 12 or so years. Seriously, her level of blatant self-promotion would make Warhol spin in his grave like a hyper-velocity rotisserie (and apologies to the Late Mr. Warhol, since self-promotion is the ONLY quality he and Ms. Kringen share - certainly not talent.)
Posted by COMTE | September 22, 2008 1:03 PMI stumbled onto her cable access show several times over how many ever years it was on for. My analysis of her deal is that I was too dumb to understand it. With that answer established, I was able to move on without recrimination or regret.
Posted by Lloyd Clydesdale | September 22, 2008 1:04 PMHe Said:
Sheela-Na-Gig
Sheela-Na-Gig
YOU EXHIBITIONIST!
Posted by pj harvey | September 22, 2008 1:08 PMLocal celebraty - I think she's cool.
I liked her cable access show - and like the stuff she's doing now.
Keep on with it!
(And don't pay attention to people whose most creative statement in life is what they buy and consume.)
Posted by reverse meh | September 22, 2008 1:10 PMKring's claim that "the snide snotty style of the stranger always shocks me!" suggests that either she started reading it for the first time last week, or that she has the long-term memory of a goldfish.
No doubt the sun rising in the East (every morning!) also comes as surprise.
Posted by Tiktok | September 22, 2008 1:15 PMWho is this person?
Posted by Bellevue Ave | September 22, 2008 1:21 PMEvery time an artist whines an angel gets its wings
Posted by vooodooo84 | September 22, 2008 1:22 PMBellevue Ave, that is Shannon Kringen. She is famous around the local art community. She poses for money, she does body art, she had a public access show for awhile.
Posted by Mikki | September 22, 2008 1:45 PMi hope she dies in a fire.
Posted by derrickito | September 22, 2008 1:57 PMI remember the horror I felt having to see her plop her blubbery naked body on teh table in art class back when I was a sort-of-innocent 17 year old Running Start kid at SCCC... I don't think I have ever recovered. The thought of it still makes me wish I were dead.
Posted by Queen_of_Sleaze | September 22, 2008 2:16 PM12: That's a horrible thing to say, and something no good artist would even think.
Posted by David Schmader | September 22, 2008 2:30 PM"... who drank too much wine at the opening"
I'd prefer to not think about Kringen's "openings."
Posted by Vurp | September 22, 2008 2:56 PMPretty sure ive drawn naked santa. Sadly I don't think Kring ever made it out to digipen. Sucks you make it sound like a real badge of honor.
Posted by the Uke | September 22, 2008 3:00 PMI'm pretty sure no one in my class managed to draw her well, it was hard to look at her. Her presence in the class was very unnerving. Her freaky gaze, and the instructor telling us to "be the dove" really made for an uncomfortable class.
Posted by MarcoMan | September 22, 2008 9:47 PMWay to go, Schmade! You're cool now.
I think it's safe to say now that Bag will let you, Richie, and Potsie into the Dukes.
Bet you're relieved writing this review was your initiation rather than calling Marsha on a payphone at Arnold's and asking if she had Prince Albert in can. I know you had doubts about whether you could pull that off...
Posted by Frank Sinclair | September 23, 2008 1:29 AMShannon created a lot of tension, especially with female nudists, when she turned the World Naked Bike Ride and other nudist events into a slut-fest. So, you can't say she never created anything unusual.
Pretty funny parody of what she did in nudism: http://kannonshrigen.livejournal.com/8868.html
Posted by Humy | September 25, 2008 6:28 AMComments Closed
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