Lawrence.com

Kristen Ferrell's art is a clash of oppositions.

The Lawrence artist's pieces consist of innocent, almost cute images - but with ironic, often grotesque contortions that could only speak to the most cynical viewers.

In short, Ferrell's art evokes her generation's coming of age.

"There is more and more of this kind of art being made and I think it is a consequence of growing up in the '80s," Ferrell said. "That was when social trauma really started to come into play - teen pregnancy, drug use, HIV/AIDS all exploded. But things also became very media-driven, so we had all these unpleasant things happening around us, yet we had the media distracting us with 'Look, over here, look at Madonna, she is so pretty!'"

Ferrell grew up in Overland Park, the middle child and only girl. While her parents supported creativity in the kids, they also urged them to be proper and well behaved at all costs (one brother is a minister and the other a musician in the Lawrence band Ghosty). During this time, Ferrell learned about contradiction first hand.

"Growing up there was always this struggle because I was raised to sit quietly, smile, and be a good girl but my first instinct is to scream and throw stuff - so it was strange having to stifle my nature," said Ferrell, now 29.

Jesus Loves Me, This I Know - Ferrell's current show at the Olive Gallery - is the perfect showcase of all her skills, from painting to printmaking to drawing. Full of scenes that are caught somewhere between beautiful and grotesque, her show delves beyond simple issues of pretty vs. ugly by making the two inextricably bound.

"The style that I work in - the pretty colors and little animals paired with the icky images - that is a great duality. But there are so many inconsistencies in life in general, and my work focuses on little, tiny splotches of that."

Ferrell's work is relatively small, created both on paper and wood plaques, many no bigger than 8x11. Delicate, pleasing colors, graceful strokes and cartoon-like protagonists are fused with severed limbs, decapitated bunnies, and plenty of blood. The final products are eerie images that challenge comfort levels, and Ferrell makes no excuses, apologies, or explanations for that.

As the title of the show suggests, Ferrell takes on religion (among other things) with this collection. The choice of subjects in her pieces is no accident. Everything you see has been carefully chosen from a lexicon of images that hold meaning in a very classical sense. "During the renaissance, religious paintings were filled with symbols because most people could not read, and that is how lessons and information were communicated to the masses. There is a wealth of these symbols, every animal, flower, plant, pose - it all means something."

These are the same images you will find in Ferrell's work, except with a very modern, and slightly derisive, slant. "Historically, a pelican symbolized maternal protection. In my work, I take a pelican and chop its head off-that takes it to another level."

While some of this may be Ferrell working out a "spiritually stifling" past, it also speaks to the fact that religion, like the media, has its own affinity for glossing things over. "It seemed so fitting to have all these disturbing images, and the bad feelings they brought up, contrasted with 'Well, yes, but Jesus loves you!'"

Ferrell has enjoyed some commercial success creating magazine and record covers for Andrew W.K., F-Minus, and Punk Planet.

"Because of my commercial work, I would get so many young people at my gallery shows who didn't have the money to spend on art," she said. "So I decided to start setting up a merch table, just like a band does."

Ferrell takes images from her larger pieces and put them on buttons, purses, underwear, T-shirts, etc. She sells merch from her website - kristenferrell.com - and in 30-some stores around the U.S., Canada and Europe. Lawrencians can pick up her stuff at The Third Planet, where Ferrell works as a jewelry buyer.

"I can do product research that way," she said. "I put a painting on my site, if it gets a good response then I can put it on a t-shirt and sell it there and at my gallery shows, if that gets a good response then I can take it wholesale to the retailers."

Debuting next to Ferrell, in the Olive Gallery's "Kid's Corner," will be her 7-year-old son Sullivan Beck. Similar to his mom, Beck creates smaller pieces by drawing on wood plaques. "This is the only way he gets to play with guns, since I don't allow any of that in the house. But when it comes to art, I don't let anyone tell me what to create, so I can't tell him that either."

Kristin Ferrell's collection of new works Jesus Loves Me, This I Know will be at the Olive Gallery (15 East 8th Street) through July 27. Her work can also be found at kristenferrell.com