Since arriving in the Jemez, I’ve been moved by a very different sense of time. Time passes more slowly in vast spaces, and living within layers of deep geologic time entwines past and present in intriguing ways. Nature expresses time as process, and in my photos I try to capture this expression (one tick out of a decade, an eon) in natural objects and cultural artifacts in the process of erosion. When these resemble abstract expressionistic painting, all the better. To me, the cracking, peeling, and rusting of painted metal is reminiscent of the layering and unlayering of geologic time, evident in the veining and fracturing, the crumbling and melting of mountains. Of course, this process reverberates through metaphors of change, whether in life cycle, personal wisdom, or spiritual growth. Recently I’ve been pursuing painting that expresses these fundamentals with an emphasis on space, its vastness and layering in time and place.
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The Jemez Palette – solo show at The Laughing Lizard Cafe, Jemez Springs, NM, 2008
Shelter in Place – The Mission Street Gallery, Jemez Springs, NM, 2008
Journey –The Iron Willow Gallery, Jemez Springs, NM, 2007
Jemez In Focus: 20 Perspectives –Sandoval County Historical Society, Bernalillo, NM, 2007
Luminescence: A Light in the Dark –Moon and Mountain Gallery, Jemez Springs, NM, 2006
Monoprints –solo show at The Psychotherapy Institute, Berkeley, CA, 1994
Oakland Firestorm Project Slide Presentations /Trainings: *first responders training at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, 2006; *American Art Therapy Association National Convention, Las Vegas, NV, 1994; *Santa Monica School District, CA, 1993; *Laguna School District, CA, as part of Trauma Recovery Workshop, 1993
Appalachian Experience – solo photography show, backdrop to Pitzer College’s Folk Music Festival, Claremont, CA, 1971; *show moved to The Ashgrove (a ‘60’s folk music club), Hollywood, CA *several photos published in "Voices from the Mountains," Guy and Candie Carawan, New York: Knopf, 1975, and University of Georgia Press, Athens, GA, 1996 *also included in “The Telling Takes Me Home,” a film by Heather Carawan, 2005 *collection now archived at Appalshop Folk Culture and Media Education Center, Whitesburg, KY
In 1971, Kristen earned her BFA from Pitzer, one of the Claremont Colleges in California, where she studied ceramics under Paul Soldner. She spent time in the coal mining region of eastern Kentucky, where she sought the elderly craftspeople of the region to learn about their lives and the skills that were dying out with them. She captured these experiences on film and mounted a show that served as backdrop to Pitzer’s 1971 Folk Music Festival. In 1979, Kristen earned her Ph.D. in psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology, Los Angeles. She earned a Certificate of Art Therapy in 1989, from Notre Dame College, Belmont, CA. Putting this training to use after the devastating Oakland Firestorm of 1990, she designed and conducted a year-long program of art therapy support groups for children who had lost their homes. She retired after 25 years as a clinical psychologist in general practice, and now lives in Jemez Springs with her husband, Edmond Temple.