In the last year or so I’ve been changing up how I work. I’ve been taking more photographs when I travel, and spending more time working in my studio, working from photographs and specimens. Nevertheless field sketching has always been an important part of my practice, and remains so now.
I travelled a lot this summer so I mostly used my sketchbook to slow down and have a moment of reflection in a new place as well as to document the landscapes, plants, and other things I found. I thought it would be fun just to peek into the disorganized pages of my sketchbooks.
Read moreLast week my solo show, Portraits of Nature, opened at the Bear Gallery in Fairbanks. I promised to share some of the work here so that people who can’t make it to Fairbanks can get a glimpse of the show. It’s always best to see work in person. Also Colleen Firmin Thomas, who has a show next to me in the same gallery, has beautiful mixed media paintings that are well worth seeing!
Read moreMy solo show at the Bear Gallery in Fairbanks opens this week. I will be adding a blog post about show soon, so that if you can't make it to Fairbanks to see the work in person, you can get an idea of what I've put together. In the meantime, if you are in Fairbanks I'd be honored for you to join me for the following events:
- Artist's Lecture: Thursday, August 3rd at 7 pm in the Blue Room
- Opening Reception: Friday, August 4th, 5-7 pm at the Bear Gallery
Read moreIt is the start of the busy summer season in Alaska. Lupines are blooming, swallows are sitting on eggs, and goslings are teetering about eating grass in Potter Marsh. Before it all gets too crazy I wanted to share some of the things I'll be doing this summer.
Read moreSince last fall I’ve been making cyanotypes from my drawings, which I’ve written about here a few times over the past year. It’s a work in progress, which I am continuing to develop, but I wanted to share some of what I have finished so far, and some of my thoughts behind it. This collection of images, Encounters with the Spirit World, is a series of cyanotype prints of animals and plants that are spiritually significant to me. In creating the drawings that I print from, and the handling of the printing process, I try to connect with the soul and essence of my subjects.
Read moreHow it is that I haven’t posted on this blog since mid-February? Sometimes time just slips away, or flies away. So I decided to write a quick update to fill you in on the happenings at Kristin Illustration since then.
Read moreLike the engineers of the pre-digital age, I was also looking for a low-cost and relatively simple way to reproduce my drawings. I like the idea of blueprints because they still feel handmade and I can use the outside environment (sun and water) to make them. I’ve written several posts about how I started experimenting with cyanotypes during an artist residency with Joshua Tree National Park. In this post I wanted to focus more on the process I’ve been using.
Read moreI completed a double major in studio art and environmental studies with a focus in conservation biology in 2008, and decided to do my thesis in art. We could choose if we wanted to do a thesis or not and I was really looking forward to having my own studio and basically getting to do whatever I wanted with artwork for an entire year. That seemed like a lot of fun, and sure it was, but I think it was also one of my hardest classes ever.
Read moreLast year I wrote an end of year post summarizing many of the projects that I worked on, I want to do something similar again because I haven’t been diligent about documenting my work online. In 2016 I got to try some new things (like illustrating a coloring book and teaching in Savoonga) and I’m excited to share that with you. I also have some ideas for this year that I’m excited to talk about.
Read moreI want to wish you a happy winter solstice. This is an important day when you live at northern (or southern) latitudes. Some people tell me that I’m weird, but I absolutely love December in Alaska. I especially love Decembers on the Nizina River, where I live in a little off-the-grid cabin, in the middle of the Wrangell-St. Elias. There are limitations that come with this lifestyle and this time of year, but as a creative person, I think limitations can be healthy.
Read moreThis fall I was selected to be one of six artists to spend three weeks as a resident at the Lost Horse Ranger Cabin in Joshua Tree National Park. Let me say here that it would be easier to write an artists blog about successes, and finished pieces. However what I really enjoy reading about is the process and the struggle to get to that point of creating finished work. A part of me wanted to save this post for later, when I had more time to finish what I started during my artist residency. Then you could see the end result and probably part of the story of how I got there. But today I am sharing the story of unfinished work.
Read moreOne of my first tasks was to get back in the studio and finish off two pieces for an exhibit about gold for the Well Street Art Company in Fairbanks. The only requirement for the show, which is organized by Elizabeth Eero Irving, was that the images use shiny gold color. I used a Lascaux Artist Metallic acrylic paint with watercolor, gouache, and drawing materials.
Read moreLast Monday I sat down at my desk and thought, today is the first day of my new job. I’ve had an exciting fall. After completing my artist residency at Joshua Tree National Park, (which I promise to tell you more about soon!), I came back to Alaska to scramble like crazy before leaving for another month to raft down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon.
Read moreI am writing to you today from Joshua Tree National Park, two-thirds of the way through a three-week artist residency. I know it has been several months since I’ve updated the blog. Summer in Alaska is incredibly busy and I like to use my spare time (if there is any) drawing and exploring, but I promise an update about summer work soon. Right now I want to take you to the desert.
Read moreLast October I took an online class with Lisa Call, Working In Series. I painted a series on rocks found on the Nizina River, where I live. I am fascinated by the endless variety of colors and textures found in the rocks. The Nizina River drains out of the glaciers and mountains of an interesting section of the Wrangells (really every portion of the Wrangells is interesting) but you can find fossils, geodes, and stones of every color in the rainbow. I wish I had more of a background in geology so that I could understand them better, but I do appreciate their beauty, and I like to make up stories about why they look the way they do.
Read moreIt is the end of the year: The days are short and I find myself inside at 4 pm, listening to the news and wondering what to make for dinner as it is pitch black outside. By contrast, during the summer, I don’t get to listen to the radio or think about dinner until 8 pm. The dark days are a good time for introspection; I enjoy sitting by the woodstove with a cup of tea thinking about what has happened recently, and where I’d like to be going.
Read moreMy show at Alaska Pacific University is up through October 31st. If you can't make it there to see it in person, here is a bit of a virtual tour.
Read moreI spent the month of February working on an exciting project. My work was selected for a public art project for the new AVTEC (Alaska Vocational Technical Center) dormitory in Seward, AK. To be clear, the process started long before February, and began with an initial Request for Qualifications last summer, then a proposal, a series of sketches and drawings, as well as an installation plan. Last month was when I finally got to put paint to paper.
Read moreI still remember the first time I saw a Sparrow’s Egg Lady Slipper, Cypripedium passerinum. Allison, who was then the kitchen manager at the Wrangell Mountains Center, pointed one out, and I was delighted that such a cool flower grew in the surroundings forests.
Read moreMy solo show, Drawn from the Field, opens on Friday at the Valdez Museum and Historical Archive. I will be at the reception from 6-8 pm. I'm excited to exhibit this collection of over 30 field sketches and drawings, as well as a selection of my sketchbooks. Much of the work is from specimens close up that I found close to home in McCarthy or on the Nizina River. I've been exploring ways of capturing the landscape around me without actually drawing a traditional landscape. If you can't make it to the opening, the exhibit will be up until March 8th, so if you are in Valdez this winter, stop by the museum and let me know what you think.
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