100 Colorado Creatives: Alum, Painter Monique Crine

WESTWORD (DENVER) -- Born in Germany, schooled at San Francisco State University and Cornell, and now based in Denver, Monique Crine crosses through layers of media and techniques just to make a painting, first photographing her subjects before committing them in super-real, cinema-inspired detail to canvas. Interested in the study of American archetypes, Crine is engulfed in a series focusing on professional football; several of these works go on display next week in a solo showcase at MCA Denver. In advance of the show, we thought readers might like getting to know the artist — and her work — better. “ My grandfather, Leslie Crine, was a press photographer during the Kennedy administration and was a fabulous portrait artist,” she says. “I wish I had the opportunity to collaborate with him on some projects. His eye was incredible. I inherited his cameras and still use them to this day to photograph all my subjects.”