When multimedia artist, poet and writer Krista Franklin was growing up, she didn’t see herself featured in media. Taking up the scissors, she built a career constructing a world that reflected her own. Divinely inspired, kindled by her intuition and arranged into the forms of written word, murals and her specialty, collages, Franklin has solidified herself as a beacon of power and grace with her work.

On Friday, Franklin’s creative world will be cracked open for Colorado Springs through her first solo exhibit, “Solo(s): Krista Franklin” at the Fine Arts Center. The installation is organized by DePaul Art Museum in Chicago and curated by Associate Curator Ionit Behar.

“For me, a large part of my work in collage now, even since my introduction to collage, has been to deconstruct those images and reform the world in a way that makes sense to me,” Franklin said.

“I never saw myself in those magazines before. They didn’t include me.”

Installation photos of “Solo(s): Krista Franklin” at DePaul Art Museum, 2022. Photo: Dabin Ahn

Franklin destructs and creates through her work, often focusing on printed media and reshaping what she sees to be an oppressive place.

“When we talk about the photographic image as women and as marginalized people in particular, the printed matter can be a very oppressive place,” Franklin said. “Especially when we talk about magazine and pop culture, women are under attack. They’re being shown images that are largely not real. But we’re being marketed to believe that they are real.”

Having grown up in the Pentecostal church, Franklin learned early on that much of creation stems from solitude since many of her spiritual practices involved listening to the voice of God. Since then, her ideas of faith and a higher power have expanded to include more than traditional Western ideology.

“One has to learn how to listen to themselves,” Franklin said. “One has to learn how to listen to stillness in order to refine their intuition and intuitive impulse. It’s a muscle just like anything else is a muscle. If you don’t practice it, you won’t have it. I think we live in a society that has informed us that everything that’s outside of us is more important than what’s in our own mind.”

But although she feels divinely influenced, Franklin attributes her work to much more than just sporadic bouts of inspiration.

“I think that people also have this idea of creative practice — this idea of inspiration,” Franklin said. “Like something just comes out of nowhere and strikes you down and suddenly you’re filled with this lust to create something. But that’s not usually how it works. It works through diligence, through trial and error, through work and thinking through things.”

“Solo(s): Krista Franklin” at DePaul Art Museum, 2022.

courtesy of Dabin Ahn

Another key ingredient to her work is love. When choosing which materials to work with and how, Franklin approaches her media with reverence .

“You know, reverence to me is about love,” Franklin said.

“When we revere something and really hold it dear, we love it. For me it looks like something bringing me a feeling of euphoria or an emotional response. And through that emotional response, I’m able to connect with the original image and then transform it into something else. Some of those images are not necessarily images that people would consider beautiful.”

Much of what “Solo(s)” seeks to reveal is Franklin’s ability to connect seemingly random and juxtaposing elements. Franklin creates compelling visuals, which illuminate political strife, pop culture details and spiritual practices like tarot.

“I have a different relationship with my work,” Franklin said. “My work is a byproduct; it is not always connected to me. So in that way, I don’t feel like I have the right to say, ‘I want people to walk away from this work feeling this.’ What I hope is that the work is powerful and is able to be dynamic enough to inspire a number of different ideas when people encounter it.”

What: Solo(s): Krista Franklin art exhibit

When: Through Dec. 16

Where: Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center

Price: $10, see Fine Arts Center website for more information: fac.coloradocollege.edu/tickets/

Installation photos of “Solo(s): Krista Franklin” at DePaul Art Museum, 2022. Photo: Dabin Ahn

Installation photos of “Solo(s): Krista Franklin” at DePaul Art Museum, 2022. Photo: Dabin Ahn

Installation photos of “Solo(s): Krista Franklin” at DePaul Art Museum, 2022. Photo: Dabin Ahn