"The future is unwritten." -Joe Strummer
Evoking a feeling of discomfort, wonder, horror, and/or intrigue. That is the goal I set forth in creating the images that illustrate a story in which can only exist in that one moment - the moment of tension and truth.
As a survivor of an abusive past, visual story telling became my outlet. Reflecting on my world, I envision an alternate reality – either doomed or filled with false hope, or even a cynical sense of beauty. The visions of characters that come into my mind are what I call to manifest in an image. I create the world in either digital or physical set form, and place my characters within, to give a glimpse of the horrors of control and helplessness of oppression, or a world far removed from it all.
Kristen Grundy (b.1981) is an American punk rocker, dark art creator, and fantasy / surrealism photographer whose works bravely call for us to look into where most may not want to: the essence of survival through the struggles that exists in the depths of our complex psyches, and personal stories.
Kristen's initial curiosity into art started through the imaginative poring of her father’s record covers, and then into her own collection of records. She later performed in her own bands (Dead Society, Dead Empty, Guns on the Run). At 14, she obtained a camera and started taking on street and documentary-style photos, capturing punk shows / bands and eventually learning darkroom printing, and years later composite techniques and digital photography in the Academy of Art University, CA.
Entering into the realm of digital art allowed for a much deeper storytelling through elaborate character-and-set productions, giving Kristen an auteur-level quality of individual style and personal stamp of uniqueness in each of her fantastic, visionary photos. The difficult themes that her work evokes are pulsing expressions stemming from her own long-term traumatic relationship abuse under an extreme abuser - the struggles of entrapment, fear, isolation and oppression, to the dreams and glimmer of self-awareness, resilience, and recovery.
Kristen is inspired by Tim Burton, Jerry Uelsmann, Man Ray, MC Escher, Joshua Hoffine, and Nick Blinko. She has just moved to live a quiet and productive life in Austin, Texas with her complimentary art partner Dave Glass - together they formed DAWN1111, providing freelance illustration, design and photography services.