Prof. Kristy Deetz publishes ‘The Singular Adventures of Rabbit and Kitty Boy’
The Singular Adventures of Rabbit and Kitty Boy
The Singular Adventures of Rabbit and Kitty Boy by UW-Green Bay Prof. Kristy Deetz (Art) and her husband, Edward S. Louis, recently came out via Elm Grove Publishing and is available through all major book sellers.
Said to be “an inspired collection of intriguing paintings by Kristy Deetz, accompanied by charming and satirical stories by Edward S. Louis. Join the shape-shifting Rabbit, along with his best friend and astute sidekick Kitty Boy (both close friends of The Artist) as they venture into a land of visual and linguistic imagination, enthusiastically posting as art critics! Clever conversations between the two characters spark interpretation of the images, connecting with ideas from art history and theory, along with subtly dark humor—and plenty of puns!”
Kristy Deetz
It’s been a busy year for Deetz: At the February College Art Association Conference, Feb. 12-15, 2020, Hilton Chicago, Deetz participated in the following events. (CAA, as the preeminent international leadership organization in the visual arts, promotes these arts and their understanding through advocacy, intellectual engagement, and a commitment to the diversity of practices and practitioners, she chaired and presented in the panel session, An Overview of Contemporary Painting and Materiality. She spent a year organizing and preparing for the session that included Jason Mitcham, one of our former artists-in-residence from the University of Florida. She is currently seeking publication options for the presentation. Here’s more:
Many contemporary painters have made materials the principal actor in their works, taking center stage with regard to meaning, form and content. What does this new materiality propose? Studying the materials in a painting uncovers process, metaphorical associations of physical substances, and evolving meaning or power to signify, as well as the materials’ aesthetic qualities. Materiality draws upon such diverse fields as material culture, anthropology, technology, and the history of science. A study of painting materials opens new dialogues and layers of interpretation that cross socio-economic and cultural boundaries, uncovering questions about our global economy. Materiality encourages reciprocal influence of studio disciplines opening new investigations of what is painted on and painted with along with possibilities of the immaterial, ephemeral, durational, or conceptual in painting. Might this current focus on materials in contemporary painting be fueled by technological breakthroughs in the world of material sciences? Is it a response to our virtual, digital world and ‘screen’ culture? Or an increasing awareness of global climate change and the environment? This session includes an overview of the topic with individual panelists presenting their unique approaches and perspectives to materials within the current milieu.
For the session Art Happens: Amazing Women, she interviewed internationally acclaimed Chicago artist, Phyllis Bramson. Through four sequential conversations, this session features successful women artists, who have maintained highly productive creative practices from 20 to 50 years. Interviews: Reni Gower and Virginia Derryberry; TeaYoun Kim-Kassor and Edra Soto; Patricia Briggs and Miriam Schaer; Kristy Deetz and Phyllis Bramson.
This year she also served as Chair of the CAA jury for the Distinguished Teaching of Art Award.
Meanwhile, her artwork has been featured in two recent traveling exhibitions: FLASHPOINT: Material / Intent / Fused. (Weavings, digital prints, and encaustic paintings.) Venues so far have been Piedmont Arts Museum, Martinsville, VA; Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, PA; and next, University of Southern California, Chico. Compulsory Measures: (Three large acrylic paintings on cotton cloth.) Venues: Esther Prangley Rice Gallery, McDaniel College, Westminster, MD, The Art Museum, SUNY Potsdam; International Museum of Art and Science, McAllen, TX; The Pauly Friedman Art Gallery, Misericordia University, Dallas, PA.
