Bridget Kranz, Artist and Writer

Hello everyone! This is Jackson and welcome to the 14th interview for my blog, 3 Art Questions With Jackson. This time I interviewed Bridget Kranz. Bridget interviewed me and my Dad for mplsart.com and she did a really good job! I think she is a really special person and a great artist and writer. Thank you for reading! 


Jackson: How did you know you wanted to be an artist? How old were you?


Bridget: I never really thought, “I want to be an artist,” I just kind of fell into it. When I was 16, I tore my ACL, and applied for the Access/Print Program at Highpoint as a way to pass the time. When I applied, I didn’t know the emotional impact that making art would have on me. It gave me an outlet to express the disjointedness I felt at the time - I was finishing high school in Saint Paul, having just come back from a year in France, and my mom had recently moved to Southern California. It was so powerful to be able to combine these different worlds through my prints, and to envision ultimately what I wanted my life to look like. That was when I knew that I wanted art to be a large part of my life, as a way for me to express, shape, and commemorate my experiences. 


Jackson: You did such a good job interviewing me and my Dad. Do you see yourself doing both writing and art?

Bridget: Yes, I would love to continue to write and to make art! For me, the desire to write and the desire to make art come from the same place. Namely, that I love to document things! Through writing for an online art magazine, I’m lucky that I get to meet new people, hear their stories, and help document them.  

Jackson: If you could meet one artist living or dead, who would it be and why?

Bridget: Right now, it would be Lois Dodd. Going to school in Maine, her style of painting was so influential for me, along with Fairfield Porter and Alex Katz. There’s this whole group of 20^th century painters who began migrating up the East Coast and spending a significant amount of time in Maine. Specifically, I love the way Dodd zooms in; she crops and distills mundane scenes into these recognizable fragments. It would also be important to me to meet an artist who’s a woman. I’d like to hear about her specific journey and the ways in which her experiences as a woman have shaped her painting (if they have!).