BIOGRAPHY:

Kristine Veith Ornstein was born in St. Louis, MO in 1979. She attended the Kansas City Art Institute and received a BFA with an emphasis in Fiber and Ceramic Art in 2001. After graduation, she attended a two year residency at the Archie Bray Foundation from 2001-2003. While there, she received the Great Northern Fellowship and created a public mural titled "The Entrepreneurial Spirit of Helena". In 2003, Kristine moved to Seattle, WA and received an artist residency at Pottery Northwest. Kristine returned to school in 2005 and received an MFA in 2007 from the University of Washington.

ARTIST STATEMENT:

I tend to use whichever material that will support the content of my work. I have a limited amount of knowledge with each material I use, and I have found that my limited knowledge can lead to mistakes. However, with an open mind, my mistakes and failures can be more successful than my original goal. Any material, just as any human, can be seen as having limitations.  However, if limitations can be used favorably, than they no longer exist as such.

The figure has always been an important part of my work. It allows accessibility to the viewer.  The smallest gesture, like a tilt of the head or pouting lips, can be understood by all. I am interested in and aware of movements and gestures that the body does even without our knowledge or awareness.  I am interested in the relationships that are formed between people and the way in which they interact.  Interactions can be as quite and as beautiful as a glance or as bold as a slap on the back.  We all, by whatever means are programmed to live and move and form relationships in certain ways. 

In my work, I hope to explore human connections and withdraw, human strength and weakness, human growth and retreat, and how through movement and gestures the body can display these common human emotions.