bio/history

Kristen "Kris Blaze" Carley is, technically, a California girl, although she sure did start to enjoy the boot dust and cactus trees and warm deserts nights of Arizona when she lived there briefly in '08. Though more deeply involved in music and theater, she had taken a  few art classes growing up, and, after leaving UC Santa Cruz in the mid 2K decade, she wound up back in Altadena, CA-- her hometown-- and found herself becoming more and more deeply involved in the art movement occuring around the corner at the Gallery At The End Of The World. After a year or two of admiring and reveling in the artistic atmosphere, she made her artistic debut at the GATEotw in February, 2007. After selling several paintings that first show and forming close bonds with other GATEotw artists, she's been paintin' up a storm ever since. Presently she works as a Color Consultant and DIC at Sephora in dowtown San Luis Obispo, and participates in several art shows and produces many commissioned portraits each year with her art-partner finacee.    

Matt Foote was born in New York City in 1974, but grew up in the desert near-bordertown of Tucson, AZ. After a very brief stint at the Santa Fe REPORTER in New Mexico, he moved to southern California at the start of the new century. He made a small name for himself as an editorial illustrator and, more importantly, star ad sales guy at Southland Publishing (Pasadena Weekly, Ventura County REPORTER, LA CityBEAT, et all) under the tutelage of mentor and publisher Charles Gerenscer, throughout the early and mid 2K decade, eventually leading to San Luis Obispo, CA, where Gerenscer invited Foote to join the New Times SLO alt-weekly newspaper in 2009. In the meantime,  Foote also served as Assistant Curator/Media Manager for the Gallery At The End Of The World in Altadena, CA from their inception in August 2006 till the final show in December 2010, as well as having orginiated the Gallery At The End Of The World in its orginal incarnation in east Hollywood, CA from June to September of 2004. As of January 2011, Foote attends Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo, CA, trying to finish a degree in Broadcast Communications.