The Auric Gallery Interview + Sam Ken paints "The Art of Healing"
The Raven Express #15 - 2/16/24
In this issue of The Raven Express, I talk with Abigail Kreuser and Gundega Stevens, co-owners of the recently re-launched Auric Gallery and I chat with Sam Ken about his new March exhibit there, “The Art of Healing.”
The Auric Gallery interview
If you hadn’t stopped into Auric Gallery before its grand opening this past First Friday, you might not have known that it was previously a pair of galleries run by separate owners divided only by an open doorway.
Kreuser Gallery by Abigail Kreuser and G44 Gallery by Gundega Stevens were must-sees on First Friday crawls in Downtown Colorado Springs individually, but together, their gallery summoned wall-to-wall crowds. The art was a huge draw: Kreuser’s annual “Gratitude” exhibition featured works from 150 local artists alongside the standalone exhibits of heavyweights Jon Francis and Kevin Johnson. In their new configuration, they have some exhibits booked out as far as 2026.
I got to chat with Kreuser and Stevens not long after their grand opening.
How was First Friday? It was packed to the extent that some artists told me they had to step outside for a breather because so much of the arts community had showed up.
Gundega Stevens: We were going through pictures and we were like “we didn’t know they were here!” It was so packed! It was a bit like an over-the-top wedding where you don’t have time to say “hi” to everybody.
So let’s talk about merging and the name, Auric, which is a portmanteau of your kids’ names. What was that process?
Abigail Kreuser: We've been talking about merging for a long time and then it just really felt right. Our first step was trying to think of a name.
GS: That took us a really long time.
AK: We wanted something that spoke to us. We went through a whole list and we'd cross it off and then we went through another list. Finally, it was just putting names in Google, like, Abby Gundi, Abigail Gundega, all the different variations. The catalyst for this was our kids so then I was like, ‘Oh, let's put our kids names in here and see what comes up.’ And then we both just got goosebumps because it is so fitting for us — the spiritual aspect, the family aspect, the financial aspect, it just kinda describes us.
Our lives run parallel — so parallel — that we were thinking about naming it “Parallel Gallery” or “Pivot” because we pivot with the times. Both of our kids are seven years old, we met when we were pregnant. We both had art galleries and a love for the arts. We have so much in common and our kids are our worlds and this is like our second baby, so it just kind of makes sense.
So this is something you can leave to them if they were interested.
AK: Oh, they already think it’s theirs. [laughs]
GS: Now we can help each other out in a bigger capacity. If one of us needs to leave to do something or take a day off — because we don’t take time off ever — we can allow each other to take time off and be with our families.
As separate gallery owners, how often did you guys talk about merging?
GS: All the time.
AK: Constantly. We talked about our dreams as business owners and they were all very similar, but then we felt in the last year or two that we were just kind of treading water maintaining our businesses and not being able to grow them. We would sit in separate rooms and do the same tasks weekly and now we can split the tasks up and it all just makes sense. We love what we do and we don't ever want to get burned out on it. In this way, we can move forward.
GS: It's just good for us to kind of revitalize. We've been doing this for a really long time and this is our next chapter. We're really excited again because there have been times where it became kind of routine. We lost our creativity some days.
Did you feel like you were falling into creative ruts, like “I really need something new?”
AK: I think a big part, going back to our kids, is that time is really fleeting and running your own business takes a lot of time and it wears on family sometimes. We would work here, we'd go home and we'd have more work to do. Our kids would see that and we're like, ‘How can we balance this so that it's healthy?’ It's good for kids to see their moms working hard at something, but also, they want us to be present and we want to be present.
GS: It’s also really fun to work with somebody.
AK: Yes.
GS: And to have somebody to do it with that you love and respect and are excited to work with? It just so fun again.
One thing that you said kind of motivated this too, in talking with Jennifer Mulson at The Gazette, is that sales were down and you believe inflation was the cause. Obviously, it’s only been a week, but have you experienced a bump in business after coming together?
AK: Not at the moment! [laughs] It cost a lot of money to do renovations and hire Fixer [Creative, who did their logo and brand identity]. When we started our businesses alone, we didn't use a branding company, but we really wanted to tell the story as us. We're very happy we picked Fixer, but all of these things cost money so right now we don’t feel that bump but we know that we will.
What Jen's article said wasn’t untrue — our sales were down — but it wasn't like we were going to close our doors. I think it's hard to discuss financial stuff. Even when we read it, it was like, ‘ugh, I feel like shouldn’t have shared that,’ but it's the truth.
I think if the conversation doesn't happen, it doesn't happen and then people don't know the health of the business.
GS: I think it’s good to make people aware, too. During COVID people were like, ‘We don't want to see anything happen to you guys,’ and a lot of people stepped up.
AK: We’re still a small business. We need constant support from people, as does every small business.
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Sam Ken’s “Art of Healing”
Sam Ken was nearly a year and a half out from his March 2024 exhibit at Kreuser Gallery when he was hit by a car while riding his motorcycle. A self-taught oil painter and former Marine, he was laid up for three months not creating art. Ken had several ideas floating through his head about what his exhibit at Kreuser should be about, but the accident galvanized it.
“During that period, I just felt like crap, physically and mentally. When I was able to pick up my brush again, I wanted to paint a positive, energy-full color — and it just happened to be oranges,” Ken says as we chat amidst the roaring crowd of Auric Gallery’s opening night. “I just got stuck on that. It made me feel good and got the creative juices going again. And then I was like, ‘Well, I'm just gonna stick with this theme and follow where it takes me.’ That's how I mentally healed and got back into things.”
While the bright orange motif — shown in bags of oranges or, as you see above, under the half-peeled lid of a can — served as a kind of inspirational lighthouse, his paintings work to metaphorically paint a picture of healing as well.
”I tried to build a narrative from the beginning to the end of it, so the initial shock of things and then trying to find hope,” Ken says. “Some of them use a little bit more red, like it’s focused on some of the pain, but it takes you throughout my journey and it — I hope — encapsulates what I was feeling and takes the viewer on something that they can relate to.”
His new exhibit also features a reworked painting from previous exhibitions, “Algos”, in which he appears smashed into a glass surface, effectively sliding alongside his narrative of pain and recovery.
Of course, this was all before Kreuser and G44 became Auric, which allows him to join a broad spectrum of exhibits at the rejuvenated venue come First Friday. (He was unaware of the rebranding in advance, but had featured individual pieces in both G44 and Kreuser beforehand, including Auric’s “Gratitude” show.)
Even as he’s moved across the country with his wife — who serves in the Air Force — the local art community has embraced him as they prepare to move yet again.
“Making art is all about connecting to people and I hope I can have that connection to people,” Ken says.
Go there:
“The Art of Healing” by Sam Ken
Auric Gallery
125 E. Boulder St.
Opening reception: March 1
Available through March
The Raven’s Recommendation
This is something I’ve munched on in the past week that I want to share with you.
YouTuber Veritasium brings a lengthy, detailed explanation about the invention of the blue LED and its creator, which single-handedly changed the shape of display technologies forever. You may wonder why electronics of a particular vintage only shined bright in red and green, something he helpfully shows off if your memory has lapsed like mine, but in combination with those colors, blue allows a display to create nearly every other color imaginable when plugged together.
Using interviews, animated sequences and technical diagrams that may have you scrubbing back a few times, it’s an interesting story of such a small development that’s literally changed the face of our world.