Kira Rudjen
(born in Nashville, 1989) received her bachelors degree from Minnesota State University Moorhead where she studied painting, pastels, and art history.
Her work has been described as a slight colorful side step from realism. By using vibrant colors and energetic lines the artist invites the viewer to see how the artist sees, and to celebrate the beauty of the world around us. She shares her process regularly on instagram.
“I’ve been working as a professional artist for about 7 years now, specializing in colorful and expressionistic paintings. I love working in landscapes and portraiture, but I also have a whole body of work related to cheeky little skeletons. Most of my work rides that line between directly realistic and impressionistic except for the skelebuddies I make, which are freely expressive.
I have my degree in painting from Minnesota State University Moorhead where I was also able to take loads of art history and anthropology classes, for which I’m eternally grateful. I’m heavily inspired by the reasons and ways humans have been making work for ages. My love of landscape painting had me competing in a few regional Plein air festivals recently, and my work was chosen as the winner at the Plein Air on Poyntz event this summer. I’ve had my work published in zines and magazines across the US, with people like Two Key Customs from New Jersey and Juste Milieu out of Detroit. I’m obsessed with vertical stripes, I take my coffee black and endless (with a good slice of carrot cake preferably), and like many other millennials I’ve accidentally found myself very interested in bird watching.” (9.13.2024 interview with JJ from The Muse Memorandum)
You can view a list of publications she was featured in here.