Kirk Waldroff Fine Art :: January 2010 solo exhibition

Northern Virginia Magazine - January, 2010

'Saints and Fables'
Artistic allegories of sideshow freaks, but don't ask why
by Janet Rems

Artist and rock musician Kirk Waldroff is not dogmatic about interpretations of his visual works. In fact, the Washington, D.C., printmaker, sculptor and bass guitarist, readily admits to irritation when people try to pin him down on significance.

Waldroff says he prefers viewers to make up their own stories about his "Saints and Fables"–the title of his exhibition at Northern Virginia Community College's Waddell Gallery this month.

"There are a lot of random associations in my work...and there's too much energy wasted on arguing over meaning. These pieces are everyone's story." explains Waldroff, 35, a self-described surrealist "hardwired for darker themes" but with the "wacky humor" of a Dadaist.

The exhibit–invented fables and fictional saints inspired by sideshow freaks–includes three versions of his woodcuts, printed on atypically dense paper and then painted in watercolors, or cast in glass or concrete. Using the techniques he's still evolving, the glass and concrete works are mounted in wood cabinets that he constructs too.

Printmaking, he says, has become a "launchpad for sculpture." Working in different modes with a variety of materials fits his eclectic lifestyle.