Friends of Grace

Mission Statement 

TheArtist in Residence Program connects artists living with symptoms of mental illness with professional artists in the local community to create and exhibit art.

This collaboration fosters personal and artistic development within the context of a Recovery-Oriented Open Studio Model.

Kristine Idarius,our first artist-in-residence!

"I can still remember the moment when I knew I wanted to become an artist, when I was about 14 years old during a high school art class. While completely engaged in a novel art process and at the same time trying to push my imagination into new territories, I experienced for the first time what is sometimes called the “optimal flow experience.” Time slowed to a standstill and the creative process, for a moment, allowed me to feel completely in synch with the world, or maybe even the universe. So I was hooked.

I have since, through the course of years of study and practice, explored many art mediums: intaglio printmaking, various types of mono-printing, multiple drawing and painting mediums, and ceramic sculpture.

The common thread of content for me has always been related to emotional experience, represented by both human and animal forms. In the past, I have often tried to evoke a dream state as the context or environment in my images. Currently, I am exploring the concept of memory, which is related to dreaming as both are filtered through the unconscious.

I think that I am most motivated and inspired by the art process itself rather than a great need to convey specific ideas or messages. The forms themselves do the speaking for me on a mostly intuitive level. And always it’s the art process itself, i.e. the process of taking tool in hand and pushing both my imagination and skill in creating forms, that leads me, when I am lucky, to that time stopping, turning on the wheel of the universe sensation that spoke to me so long ago."

-Kristine Idarius