Christina Kruse rose with spectacular speed in the mid-90's through the pages of Harper's Bazaar and Italian Vogue to become one of the Hallmark models of her era. Which is why 12 years later it is wonderful to see this beautiful woman still front and center in blue chip brigades at the SS 09 Marc Jacobs show, the current CK One ads running in print and in television as well as her upcoming editorial in W Magazine as photographed by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin. The team of Inez and Vinoodh will also highlight Christina in the next issue of Purple in their nude "Pin Up" series that has featured models such as Angela Lindvall and Lara Stone in the past.
Spur met with Christina one bright Saturday morning in New York and what was most striking about Christina, apart from her timeless beauty, was the air of calm and completion that emanated off her in waves. Christina was in the middle of preparing for a massive exhibition of her artwork at a very prestigious New York gallery, but hers was very serene beauty that morning , unhurried and unworried. She spoke with a slight English accent in a very soft voice but her ideas of life, modeling, motherhood and fashion were very certain. Here is what Christina had to say.
Wayne Sterling: Good morning Christina. We're very excited to hear about your upcoming photo exhibit.
Christina Kruse:Well actually it's a show that's going to bring together all the work I'm been doing for the past 12 0r 13 years. So its not jut the photographs. There's going to be drawings and collages and prints and watercolors and photograms as wells as the portraits.
WS:Photograms like Man Ray used to make?
CK:Excatly. There'll also be portraits of others but with a special meaning that makes it fit into the entire exhibition. Its going to be here in New York at the Steven Kasher gallery on 23rd Street.
WS: Brilliant. How did this all come together? I mean, Steven Kasher is one of the biggest photo-gallaries in NY
CK: I got a show in Germany last year and they chose to show some of the portraits which took them a little bit out of the context in which they were meant to be seen. But that show travelled to Paris which is how I think it caught the attention of Steven Kasher. But before that I had been represented by Katy Barker, maybe 10 years ago as a photographer, so I kind of had some contacts in the photography world that encouraged me to do this.
WS: Its almost as if you have two parallel lives then...Christina the visual artist and Christina the fashion model.
CK: I have to say that I feel very fortunate to have my agency Women, managing my career the way they do. They really limit what I do to a tiny, tiny, tiny group of jobs.
WS: Super-super selective in other words.
CK: Very much so. Sometimes I'll be like... I don't mind doing that certain job but Women will say no...not that...only this and this and this. It is wonderful for me that way. I wake up in the mornings, I take the subway to my studio in Brooklyn. I do my work every day and then I come back into the city by 4 to pick up my son and make him his dinner. And then sometimes there are modeling jobs in between but it is with people who really inspire me and make me feel very comfortable to be in their company.
WS: Did you go art school as a teenager?
CK: No, it's funny. everybody always asks me that but I went to a regular school. I mean we had art classes and went to museums on field trips and all that. But no...I wasn't really the art student type. I left school in Germany when I was 15, by myself, to go to school in America. I went to school in Arizona. The program we were studying was closer to like...zoology...dissecting insects and stitting in fields studying different birds and insects. So there I was with my umbrella because being so pale I would get sun-burned easily and I was like "What was I thinking"
WS: You must have felt like David Bowie in "The Man Who Fell To Earth"
CK: Oh, but I made friends. There were these twins who were kind of like "earth sisters". They wore Birkenstocks and I wore Birkenstocks . They didn't shave their legs and i didn't shave my legs so we kind of identified with each other.
WS: How did you fall into modeling then?
CK: I was in a mall and this scout came up to me and asked me if I wanted to model. I was too young then. But one summer on my vacation all of a sudden I found myself in Italy, because that's where you started then. Things were different then. back then you wouldn't work until you had lots of tests in your book so you would have to go to Milan and shoot tons of tests. For instance I remember meeting Georgina Grenville in Italy back then and she became one of my best friends. But I remember being really impressed that her mother had allowed her to come to live in Milan on her own at such a young age. but even the shows were different then. They were really choreographed and you had to remember all these steps and turns . then we got to New York and all of that went away.
WS: And when did you start making art as your daily practice?
CK That would have been in...96? Though it didn't become really serious until 97. So it has been 12 years working now. I remember I used to go back and forth between Paris and New York so much, the stewardesses on Air France would recognize me because I would always be working on these little cards that I would water-color. A 7 hour flight was so long and boring, it was how I'd occupy my time. So after a while they'd know when my water was starting to become a little too muddy and dirty and they would have fresh water ready for me without my having to ask. That was really nice.
WS: I get the feeling that creating art is a very intuitive and organic thing for you. It is within you.
CK: Oh yes. It is about this dialogue that you have within yourself that has to be private. I' m one of those people who does not really mind being alone.
WS: Is it a struggle balancing the art work with raising your son?
CK: Not at all. In fact I feel really lucky to have nice life where I have the freedom to create and spend lots of time with my son. Being around a child also makes you more open and aware in many ways. They remind you of all the things you've forced yourself to forget. Take for instance the way children can learn languages so fast. That is because they can hear the phonetics of language that our ears no longer pick up. A child can hear the subtleties in the pronunciation of Mandarin. So having my child actually helps me to be more open and aware and perceptive.
WS: I get this feeling from you that you're very much at peace with yourself and the world around you and that you're quite happy
CK: Yes. I feel very lucky. I mean there are things I want to do and things I still want to create but that's going to require getting this really big job or getting some backing. But I'm afraid of that thing of having to answer to other people about what I create. I like that freedom of living my life quietly and carefully. Today for instance is my birthday and I'm going to go into the studio today and then see a play and then have dinner and there's not much more than that that I need. So its a good life you know.
WS: Well Happy Birthday Christina and thank you so much for taking a Saturday morning out to talk to Spur.
CK: Thank You Wayne It was very nice talking with you. I really enjoyed this!
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