Stacie Lynn Krupa (M.F.A.) is a contemporary, expressionistic Master level, Mid-Career Professional, working artist and business proprietor with a public working studio and her own galleries in Islamorada, a small island community about 90 miles south of Miami in the Florida Keys. Her work has been described by critics as, “bold, powerful, in-your- face”. She has trademark, intense gestures that create large images, monochromatic schemes and raw, edgy canvas creations that command attention and warrant repeated viewing. Krupa can push the observer to contemplate the struggles life often presents while maintaining a whimsical, fun-filled play quality to the works, continuously seeing her subject matter in new and interesting ways. Krupa was born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania on February 19, 1967. Her parents are John and Helen Krupa.
She grew up as an only child. She spent much of her childhood interacting with animals and sea life. She considered them her pseudo siblings. They were her first influences and have been a primary subject matter throughout her career. She began her bold approach to art early. When she was 10, she painted large images on pillowcases and sold them to family, friends and neighbors. She placed third in a nationwide art content based on the Spielberg movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” Krupa began formal study of art at twelve years of age when her father cajoled a painting professor in Orlando where they were living to let her try “hanging out and participating” in the adult drawing classes at the Orlando Museum of Art. Her work and her intense focus earned her the right to remain in the class.
Education
Krupa attended the University of Central Florida where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology in 1992. While attending college, she worked in clinical environments doing assignments that combined her field of study with her artistic skills and knowledge. While she found great satisfaction in being able to help clients deal with addiction and to develop coping and life skills, she decided to pursue her true passion as her career with the encouragement of the head of the University of Central Florida’s Art Department, Mr. Steve Lotz. She concentrated on Drawing, Painting and Fibers and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.) with Honors in 1994.
After graduation, Krupa was one of two student selected for a post-baccalaureate study program at the oldest art school in the United States, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art in Philadelphia. This enabled her to learn and develop at the same place notable artists such as Mary Casset, Sam Francis, Thomas Eakins, and Sean Scully had studied and worked. Krupa decided to pursue her masters in fine arts and received scholarship offers from a number of well known art programs. She was awarded a scholarship to the prestigious Mount Royal School of Art Graduate program at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland. This is one of the oldest Masters of Fine Arts programs in the United States where artists like Jeff Koons, Grace Hartigan, Francis Barth, Power Booth, Babe Shapiro, Hermine Ford and David Brody had studied and taught. As part of these programs, Krupa was able to meet and study with both established and upcoming artists from the Northeast. During this period, Krupa spent many weekends in New York City cultivating and developing the long-term direction of her art and career.
Early Career
Leveraging these educational experiences, Krupa returned to the Orlando area and expanded her creative approaches to art through a mix of eclectic creative fine art experiences. These professional experiences included working as a Craftsperson, Art director or Fine Artist for Wizard Productions, Metal Crusades Magazine, Art Emporium and Walt Disney World/MGM Studios. In 1996, she opened her first gallery, the Stacie Krupa Gallery in Winter Park, Florida. This 1400 foot SoHo style was focused on providing investment level original art and education to residents and visitors in the metropolitan Orlando area. It was here that Stacie learned the business side of the art world and developed the display style that would become one of her trademarks.
In 1998, Krupa moved to Islamorada in the Florida Keys where she evolved her art and business concepts when she opened the Stacie Krupa Studio Gallery of Art. This built on the SoHo-style concept of her gallery in Orlando. Islamorada is stretched across four small islands surrounded by shallow turquoise-colored water. It is known as the fishing capital of the world and has been a favorite spot for Ted Williams, George W. Bush, Coach Jimmy Johnson, NFL Hall of Famers Jim Kelly, Jim “Mad Dog” Mandich and Gary Dunn and many, many others. This new environment had a public working studio and a gallery which showcased her investment quality originals. Krupa also opened a gallery in Montreal, Canada based on the same concepts.
Graduate Study
In the summer of 1999, Krupa continued her graduate studies and was admitted to the Master of Fine Arts program in Painting at the University of Miami. The Master of Fine Arts is the terminal degree for students interested in the creation of art who plan to pursue careers as practicing Fine Artists or Professors. Krupa, again on scholarship, was able to find new influences from her studies at the University of Miami from working with Contemporary Modern Painter Darby Bannard and Printmaker Lisa Drost. Krupa focused on the works from Dekooning, Diebenkorn, Hoffman and Olitski during this period. She was granted her M.F.A. in Painting in July 2001.
While she was at Miami, she went back to what she considered the basics and decided to just "draw" again. While she explored many subjects, wildlife was a primary focus. Her fragmented animals were metaphors for the splintered family unit and values that were contorted, twisted or blurred. Like the redefined nuclear family, the animals in Krupa’s work disassembled and reconstructed themselves to fit their new environments. The dysfunctional “popular culture” nature of contemporary family life, as she often experienced herself, surfaced in manic mammals on her canvas.
During this period, her technique also developed and matured. As she painted, she would lose the primary animal image and let the marks create their own version of nature. She would pile up contorted animal imagery and then paint some out. She would then unite the images by placing color throughout the canvas. She would use glue to change proportions. Sometimes she stretched the canvas and sometimes she left it to hand on grommets based on the feeling of containment required.
Island Inspired
After graduation, Krupa focused full time on her art and associated businesses. The sea-life of Islamorada has had significant impact on the direction of Krupa’s work over the last 11 years. She has done large-scale public murals like the “Sailfish Impulse Active” at Sandy Cove Marina at mile marker 74.5 and the “Restorative Rhapsody” which was painted directly on the walls of the hyperbaric chamber at Mariners Hospital in Tavernier, Florida. This unique mural features an array of colorful sea creatures, including a large turtle, an octopus, a sea horse, coral and tropical fish. Krupa continues to pursue her passion for the quirky and unique approach to her work while pushing her own personal limits on a daily basis. Krupa like to live on the edge and finds it fun to just “dance there.” She continues her travels and explores as many new creative ideas and adventures that her hectic schedule will allow. She paints every day and believes that masterpieces come from endless years of painting, contemplating, creating, pushing your own personal limits and a touch of happy accidents. In the end, she wants to just be there with her work and her family, friends and the animals and family and know that this was why she did it all.