Kerry Rose Graning is an artist and writer creating figures, portraiture, and landscapes out of dried florals, an unusual and unruly medium. Each of her pieces holds a certain tension between preservation and decay that explores the questions surrounding why and how we hold onto memories, people, and things.

Graning's current practice is a nomadic one. She's drifted around the U.S. from Mississippi to New Orleans to Los Angeles to New Mexico and New York and back, bringing with her, her studio, which consists of suitcases of dried and pressed flowers, glue, and a set of old dental tools and scalpels. 

She's inspired by the past and how we depict and present ourselves and our personalities to the world. In this vein, much of her work is either based on old photographs or on portraits she takes herself. She is also inspired by nature, of course, and how it is translated in the human form and transformed by her work in color and mood in ways unpredictable even to her. Her "living art" is a practice in discovery, in being curious, in letting go.

Currently showing at:

Farrington Smith Gallery - New Orleans

Arts District Studio - Natchez