KRISTEN BARTEL 

Originally from the Southern United States, I currently live and work in Southeast Wisconsin. As an artist invested in contemporary print-media with a strong background in traditional printmaking, my practice remains firmly rooted in multiplicity and duplication. I combine traditional print techniques with drawing, photography and digital media.

 

Concepts in my work stem from my desire to analyze and understand common constructs of success, comfort, beauty and ownership. My work is an attempt at interpreting these constructs in connection to my personal relationships with landscapes and climates. My visual interpretations often expose contradictions.  The print has particular resonance in my conceptual analysis, as many of these constructs swelled through modernization and mechanical reproduction- histories and processes intrinsic to the printed image.

 

Most recently I am exploring the impact of consumer culture on natural resources and the American west. I am compelled by the large and small implications of the American dream.