Conversations with Reagan Kruse

Today we’d like to introduce you to Reagan Kruse

Hi Reagan, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born in Charlotte, NC, Living a 5 minute drive away from my grandmother who was an artist. I spent a lot of time in her studio, smelling the oil paint, breaking up her charcoal sticks. I could see ‘artist’ as a job and a career at a very early age. So ‘artist’ became the thing I wanted to do. It also helped that I seemed to have a natural gift with drawing and painting. That kept me inspired and assured in my path towards this lifestyle. Art school was always the dream, so I started at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago which promptly blew up with March 2020 around the corner. I decided to get out of post-apocalyptic Chicago and finished my education at College of Charleston. Since graduation in May 2023, I’ve been in full time artist mode. I moved home to Alpharetta, GA and work and play in the studio for as much time as I have.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Wow, where to start! The first struggle that comes to mind is, of course, the business of art! I had so much anxieties my senior year about not knowing myself as an artist and not having a ‘brand’. I thought that being a true painter meant someone would look at anything you have made and be able to tell “oh, obviously that is a Reagan Kruse!” In school I experimented all the time, within the medium of painting. That is what you should do in school! But I compared myself, looking left and right at peers whose vision appeared so concise and mature while mine flailed and never landed. Then you get out of school and it’s like ‘alrighty, go try and make a living!’ I felt my portfolio wouldn’t be good anywhere unless it had that cohesive look, proving my maturity in my practice. So yeah, first year out of school, this was my main concern. I would dive deeply into certain series and come out on the other side with a complete aversion to whatever I just did. This past winter, I think I finally took all the advice; “it takes time.” I put the financial pressures on hold and got a part time job so that I could step back into painting slowly, deep breathing. Figuring out what I love and what I’m trying to say and why I even paint in the first place!

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My work has been what I do to survive. It is the place where I articulate how I’m feeling or where I go to find out how I’m feeling. Lately, my paintings have been an exploration of grief. I have been watching my grandmother (the artist) die from Alzheimers. The feeling of being near her body that breaths but unable to get to her mind has brought me to my most recent series. I have these hundreds of boxes of family photographs and that is what I take from to inspire the paintings. I find images of her at a high school dance, or her and her mother at a baby shower, or whatever mundane moment someone shot. In a way, it feels like I can get to her story through images even if she can no longer tell me the story. These works are oil on canvas. I enjoy the most liquid paint as possible so there is no texture on the surface of the canvas. Most of my paint is mixed with linseed oil to get the pigment to go as far as possible. Edward Hopper is my personal hero and specific inspiration in this series of paintings. The way he distributes paint and blocks in shadow with accuracy is always what I strive for in my work.

Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
My father always told my siblings and I to ‘go for it’. He used the illustration of a safety net. If you build a safety net or a plan B below you, you will never be able to jump as far. In my endeavors towards the artist career the advice was to run at it with everything I got. If you fall on your face, figure it out then but do not make the plan to fail.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.reagankruse.com
• Instagram: @reagankrusepainting