Art and the Day Job

Artist Kristin Boehm of Minneapolis, 2010

What's going on out there for young artists right now? Lawrence University alumnus Kristin Boehm ('09) visited the Department of Art & Art History to talk about what she found in Minneapolis. Boehm's first video made when she was a sophomore in our Digital Processes course, Sweet Porridge, a digital adaptation of a Grimm's Fairy Tale predicted her future interests in a way. With its use of hand made yarn dolls, references to nurturing and eerie digitally synthesized dialog from an old-fashioned fairy tale, we begin to see the artist's ideas and aesthetic begin to take shape. Kristin's Reclaiming Technological Landscapes: SpinHandSpunDesigns honors project in 2009 incorporated knitting functional cozies to protect digital devices on commission. She also made larger cozies for street signs to communicate with a larger and perhaps more random public. Her visit to Lawrence was sponsored by the Coleman Foundation and the Lawrence's Department of Art and Art History as part of an initiative exploring opportunities self-employment for artists. That Boehm embarked on a series of proposals and internships related to her interests in art, knitting and technology while completing numerous commissions for iPod cozies is a testament to her determination, engagement with issues and stamina. Ironically, her attempts to be a self-employed artist lead her to a professional position as a designer working for Caring Bridge nicely merging her interests in digital culture, design, humanity, and psychology.

Kristin Boehm's "Sweet Porridge" video, 2007