Chris Dahlquist
Kansas City, Missouri

Photography on Metal “At first glance, it’s difficult to tell whether the works are gracefully aged photographs or photorealistic landscape paintings. Oris the wrong conjunction. In Dahlquist’s world, all roads meet at the intersection of brush and camera.”

Art KC 365
February 27, 2009

Chris Dahlquist learned to use a camera and the darkroom as she was learning to ride a bicycle and write in cursive. She has held a camera in her hands ever since. Chris spent the early part of her career in commercial photography, film, and teaching kids photo basics. Since 1998 she has participated in top national juried art festivals from Miami to Seattle. Chris’ photographic mixed media has won many awards, is in hundreds of private collections, and is in many corporate & municipal collections, including Winter Park, Florida, Pacific University, H&R Block and Blue Cross Blue Shield.

This artwork is inspired by the deafening concrete of my urban home, and the invisibility created by the cul-de-sacs of my youth. The possibilities offered in the big sky, the open land, the space between. The untold stories sitting on the horizon. The miles we travel, dreaming and being still. Like the landscape, this artwork is made of many subtle layers. The ground is brown steel covered with many layers of gold acrylic paint. The two combine to create a rich, luminescent, multi-textured background for one of my original photographs. The semitransparent pigments of the photograph allow the gold to shine through, transforming the land into a story. Enjoy the journey!