Back in October 2012, we introduced you to Adonna Khare, the winner of ArtPrize 2012, the world's largest open art competition with a $200,000 prize. The elementary school art teacher turned stay-at-home mom created a massive mural that grew as time went on. The large triptych was formed to engage viewers in its transformation. In fact, the drawing even spilled over onto the museum's walls.
Over the years, we've kept in touch with the now full-time artist. She's grown her body of work but still uses the same materials, pencil on paper. “I love working in pencil,” she says. “The biggest challenge would probably be the endless amounts of them that are needed.” Adonna's larger pieces can take several months to a year to complete.
Her most recent piece is 15 feet by 6 feet and consists of mainly zebras and tigers. Though her ArtPrize piece was highly personal, or as she called it, a “kind of a biography of my life transplanted into animals,” this drawing is more about the world at large. As she tells us, “It evolved from my thoughts on climate change. Bringing animals that wouldn't ordinarily be together, forcing them to interact. It's my way of conveying connection, complacency and loss through the connecting and reconnecting of the stripes.”
Take a look at some of Adonna's highly intricate pieces and then take a peek inside her studio. Her next show is at Fullerton College Art Gallery from January 29 to February 18. If you're in the area, make sure to check it out.
Adonna Khare's website and Facebook
Photo credit: Phil Hatten Photography and Eric Minh Swensen (EMS)
