Kris Manzanares

Artist’s Statement

As a contemporary figure painter, I explore ideas of the seemingly inconsequential affecting the actions of the whole, studying my own life in relation to currents of culture, and knowing how inevitably there are thousands of people out there thinking the same thoughts I do, which gives me a strange and elusive kind of power.

I work with the people and objects that inundate my home, especially my children, and use my own personal images as I find them; or modify the images to clarify my ideas or create a more specific truth, even when I ‘m not quite sure what that is.

My art explores a variety of themes, including the idea of women as the implicit caretakers of the home, how far that role extends, and how our daughters and sons rebel against and expand on that assumption.

Kris lives in and works from her studio in Phoenix.