KRISTI RYBA: Visual Artist

For several years I have used my family’s vintage photographs to make paintings based on the iconography and ideals of Medieval and Renaissance altarpieces and manuscripts. I use 22k gold leaf and egg tempera on wooden panels and sometimes-animal skin (vellum). Since the November 2016 election I began to substitute photographs of Trump and his administration, family, cohorts and tweets and quotes into existing manuscripts and altarpieces that depict, illuminate or illustrate what I believe is the shallow and corrupt nature of this government. It has been illuminating to me how so many of these imperial and grand images from Medieval and Renaissance European royalty relate to our present situation. Some things never change.