"Foremothers"

“The daily round on the farm has given me knowledge of the labor and life my great grandmother must have lived,” Kristi wrote about this exhibition created for the 150th anniversary of the major emigration of Norwegians from their homeland. After being on exhibit in Norway for several months, it was shipped to the USA where it was featured in galleries in Decorah, Iowa, St. Paul, MN, Moorhead, MN, and Seattle, WA. It was then purchased by the Norwegian Emigrant Museum, Hamer, Norway.

 

 

1. Mother of Generations

 

 

2. On your small Norwegian farm

 

 

3. Thriving with work, your fingers willing (detail)

 

 

4. Radiating warmth of heart and hearth

 

 

5 The mountain side you swiftly scaled

 

 

8 And intertwining with nature

 

 

10.  A dwelling midst awesome views

 

 

11. From ancient huts came calls

 

 

13. Strong hands milked soft udders

 

 

14. In your eyes lay longing

 

 

17 To help them pack their trunks

 

 

18 Threads once woven, then pulled free

 

 

19. Threads we descendants now reweave

 

About the Exhibit

 

When we use the word, “emigrant,” we usually see a man, but of course women and children emigrated as well. And some stayed behind. In this exhibition the artist wishes to clarify the role of those women who didn’t leave, but who just the same were the foundation upon which emigration was based; the ones who stayed home sat there years later with a letter in hand. Everything that woman wrote to her children is an answer to the questions not asked, and in these answers lie her questions. And today, we only have the yellowing photograph, hidden and forgotten, some letters no one can read anymore, names which are only legends from remembrances of lives past. It is that woman whom the artist wished to honor in her work. 

    When looking for our past, we seldom can prove a mighty ancestry. Usually we find our past in working people from land and sea, those who did not get their names in the histories, but who even so, were the ones who made that history. They cannot provide us with a castle or a palace, but with a boat landing or a stone wall that they laid up while clearing the land, or the stone where they rested when walking into the summer mountains. Is this wish for ancestry only sentimentality or worse, a philosophy of race and origin of species? Well, everything can be misused, but as we do not know where we are going, we will all seek a history, an origin, a place to be from. And it’s not because we want to be better than anyone else. Rather it is because we want to feel better about ourselves. So tread quietly on the old paths if you wish to hear those who walked before you. 

              (Taken from the exhibition booklet, 1994)

 

 

Biletliste/List of Works

 

  1. Slektenes mor / Mother of the Generations
  2. På det litle bruket dit / On your small Norwegian farm
  3. Du trivdes i arbeidet, har villige fingrar / Thriving with work, your fingers willing
  4. Frå deg skin det varme frå hjarte og åre / Radiating warmth of heart and hearth
  5. Fjellsida raskt du klatra / The mountain side you swiftly scaled
  6. Vegen snor seg mellom foss og fjell / The winding path past cliffs and falls
  7. Krøkt vart du i brattlende og sollende / You were formed by steepness and sun
  8. Tvinna saman med land og natur / And intertwining with nature
  9. Du kom til støls / You reached the seter
  10. En bustad med mektig utsyn / A dwelling midst awesome views
  11. Rop høyrest frå eldgamle hus / From ancient huts came calls
  12. Til kyr som dansa i steinura / To cows who danced on rocky slopes
  13. Sterke hender melka mjuke spene / Strong hands milked soft udders
  14. Lengsel i augo dine / In your eyes lay longing
  15. Lengt etter søner og døtre som drog / For sons and daughters gone away
  16. Tid frå vevstolen tok du / you had taken time from weaving
  17. Hjalp die kista å pakke / To help them pack their trunks
  18. Trådar i veven som losna og for / Threads once woven, then pulled free
  19. Trådar som etterslekt no vev på ny / Threads we descendants now reweave

 

Overview of Site

 

Current Works:

“Kristi’s brilliant work, so pure and emotional, projects the scope, the scale, the per-spective of grand space. When I look at her paintings I feel as if I am breathing the air, with no end to the canvas.” Bev Weismann, Iowa City, IA, USA

      All these oils on canvas have been painted since 2005 and exhibited in Norway at a number of galleries. The majority are now in private collections throughout southern Norway.

Early Works:

The first seven paintings are examples of work Kristi Ylvisaker did while in college. The bust and the self-portraits were created while a graduate student. The next group were painted while she lived and studied at Woodstock in 1968  and in New York City 1969-1970. The final two paintings were done during her early years in Norway.

Paintings:

“Everyone Wants Kristi on Their Walls,” the headline proclaimed. And what people want on their walls are the colorful paintings that have become Kristi Ylvisaker’s signature work. These were painted between 1985 and 2004.

Drawings:

Kristi Ylvisaker has illustrated with drawings three published books: A Time for Peace, For Everything A Season: 75 Blessings for Daily Life, and Beyond the Dead End: A Memoir. In addition, drawings of farm animals have appeared in many of her exhibits. 

Foremothers:

“The daily round on the farm has given me knowledge of the labor and life my great grandmother must have lived,” Kristi wrote about this exhibition created for the 150th anniversary of the major emigration of Norwegians from their homeland.

Family Portraits:

“Family Portraits,” created in 1999 in collaboration with Joan Stuart Ross, Seattle, WA, artist, as a follow-up to “Foremothers,” was exhibited across Norway before being shipped to the United States where it toured in 2000. This page features a number of Kristi Ylvisaker’s contributions to the exhibit.

Through the Tunnel:

Kristi Ylvisaker watched as workmen carved a tunnel through the mountain just across the lake from their farm. The tunnel became for her a metaphor for the painful physical process one goes through giving birth and metaphorically the process of creative or psychological birth. Here are seven of the nine paintings comprising the series.

Nude Truths: An Odyssey in Poetry, Painting, and Prose:

Created in collaboration with her sister, writer Mary Ylvisaker Nilsen, and based on the poetry of Denise Levertov, "Nude Truths," through 24 large paintings, leads the viewer on a cycle from innocence, into the dark places of life, and out into awe.

Cave Paintings:

A recurring theme in Kristi Ylvisaker’s drawings, since she began using her farm animals as models, is inspired by the cave paintings of Lascaux and Chauvet in France. An exhibit of these drawings traveled to the United States in 1995. She has turned the cellar under her home into an ancient cave and also has cave murals in her gallery.  In addition, she did a commissioned cave spa in Des Moines, IA.

Cards:

In 2000 the L.C. Lions Sogndal Løvetann commissioned Kristi Ylvisaker to paint one of the area historical churches. They created greeting cards from the painting, which they sold to aid charity. They also auctioned off the painting. For three more years they had paintings made of the other area historical churches, and after that suggested themes for the paintings.