Ann Krause
A simple coloring project in kindergarten art class is where Ann Krause found her love for color. The task was simple: draw a squirrel.
Krause was happy to oblige on the assignment, and quickly grabbed her 64 pack of Crayola crayons and began deciding between different blues, metallic golds and silvers. She remembers looking around the room after her classmates had finished the page, and recalled hers looked a bit different.
Not only had Krause colored her squirrel blue, rather than black or brown, she insisted on drawing herself into the image.
“I said that I had to have myself in it, because the squirrel was my friend,” Krause said. “I had this whole story about how it was my pet.”
The other kids in her class made fun of her self portrait complete with “spaghetti hair, huge eyes and disproportionate hands,” but Krause didn’t mind the ridicule. It was how she saw herself at the time, and she was proud of the blue squirrel and her crazy hair.
“My hair would never be held back, because I had a problem with cutting my hair. That’s another whole form of art I guess you could say,” Krause said with a laugh. “My hair always looked like it was sticking out and flying crazy.”
Krause is now a junior at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln studying advertising and public relations, but she wanted to make sure she could continue her love for art through schooling. She decided to pick up an art minor her freshman year after a sculpture class she took.
The sculpture class was different than anything she had ever done before, and she said it was similar to falling in love with art all over again through learning something new. In high school, her infatuation was with printmaking, so getting to work with 3 dimensional objects she was able to bring color and shape together like never before.
Krause decided she wanted to pursue photography in order to further expand her love for different forms of art, and she was easily drawn to how she can show herself through photos. Krause enjoys taking self portraits as a way to showcase her body and image in a sense of the things she deems important. Not only does she use a camera to take photos of nature and herself, but she uses this to capture her other interests in fashion and food.
Food has always played an important role in Krause’s life. She has fond memories of her mother teaching her how to bake when she was young. Aspirations for Krause include becoming a “modern day Martha Stewart” and using her skills across art forms to create a brand for herself.
Being able to combine food, photography and color is something Krause wants to carry through her entire life. She has plans to attend culinary school once she is finished with her undergrad. She says culinary school will be a way to bring color to her life, and with that degree she will have the skills necessary to fulfill her dreams of an all inclusive creative brand.
Krause relates colors to emotion, and she enjoys playing around with those emotions. Yellow to her is energetic, blue is calming. Ann sees the world in color and beauty, and she is able to take her background in art and transform that into beautiful pieces of work. Her techniques and style have improved since the spaghetti hair and huge eyes, but she still stays true to herself in her art.
“No matter how simple or sophisticated I’m trying to make something its still gonna have some goofy element of color,” Krause said. “I think that goofiness is a part of me that I showcase through art.”