116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Cedar Rapids artist celebrates 85th birthday with first art show
Karen Kral showcases favorite works from lifelong journey
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CEDAR RAPIDS — Lifelong artist Karen Kral admitted to having a lump in her throat as her first art exhibition opened Nov. 8 — her 85th birthday.
Graduating from childhood crayons and dot-to-dot pages in the 1940s to exploring a wide variety of media, Kral selected three dozen works to display at Deb Crerie’s Kinheart Studio on the second floor of the Cherry Building, 329 10th Ave. SE in the NewBo District of Cedar Rapids.
It’s a space where all are welcome.
“My whole thing is, I want artists to feel welcome and seen and heard and valued and supported and loved,” Crerie said. “Karen’s art was perfect for that, and her story is perfect for that.”
Titled “1950 — Present Art Retrospective,” visitors will see Kral’s first piece, a pillow with a bird she embroidered at age 10, and her most recent work in the display, “Chinese Landscape,” painted in summer 1999.
If you go
What: Karen Kral: “1950 — Present Art Retrospective”
Where: Kinheart Studio, Cherry Building, 329 10th Ave. SE, Suite 221, Cedar Rapids
When: Through Dec. 6, by appointment, kinheartstudio@gmail.com or text or call (319) 536-4140
Closing reception: 5 to 8 p.m. Dec. 5.
Online: Find Kinheart Studio on Facebook and kinheart.art
The seeds for the exhibition were planted by chance, emerging from a previous Kinheart exhibit of decorated skateboard decks. Since son Vincent Kral has an active interest in skateboarding, Karen Kral and her husband, retired dentist Dennis Kral, of Cedar Rapids, came to the final day of that show in early May.
“We started chatting about art,” Crerie noted, “and Karen said, ‘Well, I’m an artist, and I’ve taught art, and I’ve always been involved in art.’ ”
When Crerie found out Kral would be turning 85 in the fall and had never had a showing of her works, Crerie said, “Well, let’s talk about this.”
Weeks passed, then Crerie reached out to one of Kral’s neighbors, who put her in touch with Dennis Kral, and the couple soon were meeting with Crerie. After working out the details, Karen began leafing through her collection to narrow down the pieces for her show.
Pleasant surprises
“I chose the things that mean the most to me,” she said, citing two face studies in particular. One is in the Picasso’s cubist style. It’s mounted in a frame her father gave her — an act she found encouraging. The other is a pastel portrait titled “Learning Portrait,” which she created during a workshop in Amana. Finding it was an unexpected delight.
“I just couldn’t believe that when I opened it up,” Kral said. “I knew I had all those figure drawings, but I had just completely forgotten about that workshop. … I didn’t remember having a pastel portrait, and I was just thrilled to pieces that I found that. It was wrapped and put away carefully, so (it was) easy to get out. I took that to get it framed, and I just began to think of that as my ‘Mona Lisa.’ …
“And then when we got the oils out, I realized how much I had done in landscape, and I have all the (preliminary) drawings for those. It’s really a privilege to see,” she said.
Her colorful landscapes figure prominently on the adjacent walls as viewers enter the studio’s gallery. But Kral had a hard time envisioning their placement when the room was empty.
“I couldn’t at first see how that gray wall was going to be a good background, but it’s perfect,” she said. “When I got home and looked at my paintings in those landscapes with all the greens and the grays and browns, I thought, ‘Yeah, they’ll be fine.’ ”
The collection shows the various styles Kral has explored over the years. Many other artists discussed that as they strolled the space during a sneak peek Nov. 7, during the First Thursday gallery and studio open houses in the Cherry Building
Crerie agreed.
“I really have enjoyed having (the show) here. The whole process has been wonderful,” she said. “It’s so eclectic, that’s what I find fascinating.”
The collection includes charcoal drawings, ink drawings, watercolors, oil paintings, oil abstracts, silkscreens, ceramics, sculptures, a loom weaving, a couple of still lifes and her childhood pillow project.
Most are not for sale — she loves them too much to give them up.
“I grew up with a lot of this art,” daughter Dr. Paula Kral of Cedar Rapids said as she looked around the gallery on her mother’s birthday. “I knew some of them, but not all of them. This cubist face one — I remember that from my whole life, but I did not know that was my mom’s.”
Seeing them all together is “awesome,” she said. “It’s really great, and it’s high time.”
Journey
Karen Kay Lavrenz graduated in 1957 from Burt High School in North Central Iowa. With a four-year tuition scholarship to Iowa State Teachers College, now known as the University of Northern Iowa, she intended to major in English.
“But after one semester, I was encouraged to explore other fields,” she said in her artist statement. Switching to elementary education opened doors she never expected.
She was required to take the “Man and Material” class taught by David Delafield, who saw her potential and encouraged her to consider majoring in art. The following semester, she enrolled in a drawing class but — having gone to a small rural high school that did not offer art classes — she lacked the experience of the other students from larger schools. She struggled, and decided not to pursue art.
However, after finishing the requirements for her elementary education degree, she had one more semester in which she could study whatever she wanted. She wanted art — and took all the art classes she could.
“It was then that I discovered my passion and talent for art,” she said.
She and her husband were married in 1961, and a few years later, they moved to Cape Cod, Mass., for two years while he was in the Air Force. During that time, she began taking classes at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, which piqued her interest in art history. And in 1973, by then a mother with two young children, she earned an MFA in art history from the University of Iowa.
But because she wasn’t a studio artist, she never had a showing of her work, her husband said. She kept creating, sketching the scenery on family trips to the Western U.S. mountains. When she wanted to paint at home, she gave her kids some paper and paint to keep them occupied while she worked.
She also taught art in various settings and schools, including Central City; volunteered with world hunger causes; and participated in various art workshops.
“The works you see here are the result of that journey,” she concluded in her artist statement. “I exhibit these works with humility and gratitude, hoping they bring you as much joy as they have brought me in creating them.”
And she’s not done.
“When I put these away now, they’ll last long time, and I think I can do some other things,” she said. “I have some ideas for children’s books and things like that, that I could do now that I’m older.”
Naturally, she’ll do the illustrations.
Comments: (319) 368-8508; diana.nollen@thegazette.com
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