The Shadows Could Not Reach Her explores the personal process of making meaning from art and text. The artist shares their art and the accompanying essays and poems that further illuminate the journey of the work and the artist over years of paintings and writings. Paintings, essays, and poems are presented in random order, disconnected from each other, to allow the reader to make their own meaning, impressions, and connections.
The Shadows Could Not Reach Her is Kristin’s first book. A study of meaning-making in the form of essays, poems, and paintings. Kristin received her BA in Art from the University of Iowa along with degrees in Psychology and Journalism & Mass Communication. A lifelong artist, Kristin’s was born and raised in Iowa and grew up visiting farms in Northeast Iowa, where her family hails from. It was this place, and these people, that inspired her to paint landscapes. “I knew what a traditional landscape should look like, but I hoped that I could paint something that would relay how I felt when I was a part of these landscapes—standing at the crest of the hill, pieces shaded by the giant hay bales, humbled by the massive clouds overhead and great expansiveness of scenery around me. I realized that these landscapes would be different, that these vistas were more powerful than passive, saturated with color, and awe-inspiring in their scale.”