Kristine Onsrud on her Art School TRAUMA, the Florence Academy, and Studying with Odd Nerdrum

I … LOVED … THIS INTERVIEW. I deeply appreciate Kristine’s clarity in her love for painting … and wow to her creatively skilful work. She is classically Norwegian beautiful inside AND out. Cave of Apelles … Thank you …thank you … thank you for introducing Kristine to me. I fell into her story like I fall into her art … inspiringly captured. Blessings.

Wow this is an amazing interview. So much information. What an inspiration for anyone looking to go to art school. I love love Kistine’s positive attitude and her wonderful laughter.! Thank you so much!

Thanks for this interview. A very charming artist, very open and buoyant survivor of bad teaching practice. A lesson to be shown to every want to be educator that flaunts their artistic ego and subjects their students to the whipping post of conformity & convention.

Wow. This channel has given me a better clarity about art education and what I should be pursuing once I finish grasping the technical aspects. Interesting experience.

Watching this made me feel validated in my experience of art school. One I went to was for a specific art trade so it was actually ok but I went to a university first and it was nearly the exact same experience. It was terrible to put it lightly. She started art school just as I was leaving my art university, so it was around the same time.

Modern "art" (just like the modern architecture and culture) is promoted because it´s a kind of social engineering. Ugly is seen as beautiful etc. The inversion of everything what is natural, traditional and good. "Gaslighting" (a term used in psychopathology) used to confuse and manipulate, so that suddenly people question their own worldview, values, and judgment. Excellent interview from a great artist!

This experience needs shouting from the rooftops. Young people need to be told what art schools are ‘really’. They need to understand that those institutions are primarily run for the benefit of the staff and to maintain the existence of the institution. The word needs to spread, so that these institutions don’t attract any students except the ones who actually WANT to learn conceptual art. Otherwise this will happen to other students. EXACTLY the same thing happened to me in the early 1980’s but, I didn’t hang around, I left, got a place in a good university and studied Art History eventually at post graduate level and then worked for some years as a curator ‘gatekeeper’, (actually I was never important enough to keep any gates) . Ironically, I worked with a lot of contemporary art, which means I, at least, know exactly why the majority of it is so stupid. And it is. It’s actually cruel. The majority of people teaching in these institutions don’t know what else to do other than perpetuate the same system which failed them. Almost all of them have failed to be the ‘artists’ they wanted to be, doing the kind of art that they try to teach students, simply because they were either not ‘fortunate’ enough or ‘skilled enough’ to make connections with the VERY FEW institutions which are still able to make a difference to artists’ careers. The ONLY way is ‘networking’. ‘Networking’ was traditionally the function of ‘The Academy’, placing students with patrons and institutions is what they were designed to do. But that hasn’t been the case for most of the last century and a half, everything has become too fragmented. And, unfortunately we have far too many artists… This might partly explain the dreadful ‘Scissor Vandalism’ episode. The single minded pursuit of figurative work in the face of institutional opposition becomes a serious threat because it unmasks the system’s pretence. Since the beginning of the 19th century contemporary art has traditionally ascended on its perceived triumph over ‘the establishment du jour’. Ms Onsrud’s singularity of purpose inevitably highlights who and where the establishment is and who the ‘real’ rebel is. This won’t change easily either. Now that art is no more than a financial commodity, it may never evolve beyond what it is now. Any evolution would, by it’s very nature, de-value what has gone before and since art, particularly contemporary art, is now considered to be a relatively safe ‘hedge’ against broader market fluctuations, its value must remain relatively stable and it is in nobody’s interests to see that change.

This is so frighteningly similar to my experience in art college: dysfunctional, toxic and utterly useless. And that meaningless phrase I heard so many times: “express yourself!” How, with what? The only thing that they knew how to do was to charge exorbitant tuition.

This was a wonderful interview. I haven't heard anyone before articulate the problem with both extremes of the spectrum - focusing exclusively on concept, or focusing exclusively on perfect craft. I actually like conceptual art (except for the really vulgar stuff), and I like beautiful craft. But, in her story, you can see the potential dysfunction at both extremes, and how being overly critical at those extremes can completely kill one's original desire to create.

This lady is clear eyed and strong,articulate. She will prevail, as she continues to consult her inner well as she proceeds …

This was so refreshing. So inspiring. She is 100% right. I feel the same within writing. Im a writer. Poetry. Soul has to be into everything. Its not Soul into art anymore. Its Ego. Real art is made out of love for what you are doing. If people loves it too, its a bonus, but only that. The old artists are the Best. They created from their soul mission, and hard work. Inspired by their intuision and their lives inner and outside. It made many of them poor, but they didnt stop anyway. It was their path. Today their art/paintings are worth in the millions. Odd.. isnt it? Kristine is right. You have to be very strong to follow the ❤ heart. Tusen Takk for sharing this Kristine ❤❤❤

I laugh and cry watching this …thanks for sharing your experiences Kristine.

I've honestly been trying to figure out how to continue making art. This video may help, I of course went through very similar issues. Thank you for this video.

Thank you for revealing your journey Kristine 🙏 Painting has been lost to two modes of formalism 1/. The modernist drift toward post painterly abstraction Where painting becomes paint - in the material fact of the medium itself 2/. The academic formalism ( which you detail within the Florentine School ) of ‘look and put’ realism which extends to every mode of photorealism. Of course the basic languages of painting must be learnt / taught / inducted / imbibed But both modes of formalism miss the point - the raison d’etre - of painting as Art, Which could be described as a poetic act of painterly language where the present must be reclaimed where both the past and the future are both at stake.

Such an interesting interview, with a wonderful painter who has learned how to be lighthearted and continue....I've also seen the full spectrum available in art education, but was fortunate enough to attend an Academy where two different personalities were strong and present. One painting master focused on very formal techniques, another great teacher concentrated on gestural work and individual development. But the shared personal values: concentration on drawing skills, the need to work from life, and knowledge of materials and methods- were always present with both mentors. My first art school experience had been also at a University, and I'd always felt cheated by my time there until I'd heard Kristine's story. At least I'd received a bit more attention and instruction, but not enough to satisfy. Many times I was alone at the end of a three-hour studio class along with one or two other students (at least 30 had been at the start)--the professor absent after the first half-hour...a situation which I could never have imagined in my later Academy years. Staying for a reason had helped- even at University, I'd connected with a graduate teaching fellow who was an interesting and diligent painter. We'd formed a sort of small community with one another, and shared ideas and knowledge in the way I'd later come to know as typical of Academy approach. I'm so glad to have this reminder, through the interview, that it's important to keep working even when an educational situation isn't settling well. Continue to learn from every new situation. Search for the new situation if the current one doesn't satisfy. ...and when I'd had renewed contact with an Art Department where teachers encouraged students to "learn painting by practicing on oak tag (cheap board)", and to use student-grade paints because they're less expensive... I was there to suggest that it's not a good idea to grow accustomed to inferior materials. Or inferior methods. ... it's always possible to draw. That seems to be the beginning and end for me, no matter how much else I've learned along the way. Drawing is the core skill in all visual arts, and is available for everyone who wants to become a better painter. Begin with the best, and it will carry you a very long way.

I would've just presented the stabbed unfinished painting to them as my final work, the concept being the toxic environment of the modern art education.

I've never been able to put words to my experience in art school, until now. I share soo many of these experiences. The difference was that I did quit. I began having panic attacks in 1st year and by the 4th year I was paralysed. My dream is one day to study with Odd Nerdrum. I applaud you determined heart and take inspiration from you. Thank you for this interview.

An excellent interview. So full of usefull insight. And such a charming lady!

This is so painfully familiar. Kristin is laughing and being coy about it, but this sort of public, directed hatred and bullying at a young age can really destroy a person and literally drive them to suicide. Something very similar happened to me when I went to art school. It almost brings me to tears listening to her account.

Excellent interview