Name: Loren Kole Year: 2014 Hometown: Chicago, IL, but born in upstate NY Major: Visual Studies: Art in Practice Website: lorenkole.com
Street: Describe your artistic practices—what are your preferred media? Loren Kole: I am a printmaker primarily, working in linoleum cut and silkscreen. But I also work in book arts, and have been looking into fabric work more and more recently. My work all traces back to my fixations with ritual, repetition, archiving and order. I also play with gender identity a great deal, but I don’t consider that the basis of my practice.
Street: How did you first get into visual art? LK: Making things has always been a part of who I am. I am an image hoarder and used to hide catalogs in my closet when I was 3 and make collages. My kindergarten art teacher told my mom, “Loren lives in her own world, but it seems like a wonderful place.” I guess I just never left? I was just a weird kid that liked to glue things together, and all the adults in my life just let me run with it.
Street: What have been your most challenging pieces that you’ve worked on? LK: I am of the belief that each new work that you begin should be the most challenging, so that I am always pushing myself. That’s the lofty answer. The more concrete answer? Emotionally challenging: definitely Strip Me Bare, the book I created that catalogs all of the times I have felt unsafe in my own body. Technically challenging: My most recent linoleum cut, The Kind of Dying, or my fabric book, Ode to Louise.
Street: What artists do you consider influences? LK: Oh god. So many. This week? Louise Bourgeois, Helen Chadwick, Shelia Hicks, Moebius, Peter Coffin. This summer, I worked with Steve Walters of the Screwball Press in Chicago, and his silkscreen work is about as rad as it gets. And if you can visit the Mike Kelley retrospective at PS1 and not be blown away by the volume and diversity of his work, I don’t think we can be friends.
Street: How has your time at Penn influenced your work? LK: Errr, this one is hard. I often regret not going to a more art-focused program, especially when I am dragging myself to my Physical World requirement (whaddup ENVS200) in the morning. The print faculty in particular have really nurtured my growth, and most of the PennDesign faculty have given me this tremendous gift of encouragement. I can pick my ideas to death before they even make it onto paper. The advice I have always gotten, here and with artists that I have worked with elsewhere, is just to make things. Taking that advice and acting upon it has been the biggest step I have taken here at Penn.
Street: Outside of art-related endeavors, what are you involved in at Penn? LK: I am one of the Co-Chairs of the Civic House Associates Coalition, and the Finance Chair of Alternate Spring Break. I also sit on the Committee on Manufacturing Responsibility and work with the Slought Foundation in my free time. In the past, I have worked on projects at the Kelly Writer’s House and Women’s Center, but now I am just focused on my thesis.
Street: Where do you see your art taking you in the future? LK: Employment, hopefully? Art is not a very prudent career choice, but it’s the one that makes the most sense to me. Right now I’m looking at grad programs, passively googling art jobs, who knows? Maybe I’ll just buy a warehouse for $100 in Detroit and join the print collectives there. Talk to me in May.
