I know that some people are looking for gift ideas for the holidays and I wanted to highlight two of my recent projects and suggest some other ideas.
Read MoreThe McCarthy Mail Shack Mural
The finished mural and details. Photos by McKinney Makes Media
This summer I worked on a fun and different (for me) project. The McCarthy Area Council (MAC) is a local nonprofit that serves as a kind of town government for McCarthy. Last year they expanded the mail shack building, and decided they wanted a mural painted on one of the walls with the local kids. I volunteered to organize this project.
Read MoreIllustrating a Pop Up Book
The Adventures of Apun the Arctic Fox book cover
About two years ago, I started to work on an illustration project, which became the children’s pop-up book, The Adventures of Apun the Arctic Fox. The book is coming out next week, so I’m excited to share more about my adventures with Apun.
Read MoreDrawing as Meditation
Pen drawing of a robin's nest
I talk about the process of drawing things out multiple times and the meditation involved in doing so.
Read MoreSeptember Newsletter
Signs of fall on the McCarthy Homestead!
I don't usually share my newsletter on this blog, but I wanted to this once, just to let you know that it exists. Every month or so I'll send an update to your inbox, letting you know what's going on here. My newsletter is the first to hear about new work and upcoming events. September's newsletter is below, and from that link you may subscribe or read past issues:
September Newsletter from Kristin Illustration
Thanks for your support!
Read MoreSummer Sketchbook
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 MorePortraits of Nature - Show Preview
Last 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 MorePortraits of Nature
My 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
Summer Schedule
Desert Flowers and Plants from Joshua Tree National Park. Each page is 11 x 8.5" gouache, pen, and colored pencil (c) Kristin Link 2017.
It 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 MoreEncounters With the Spirit World
Since 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 MoreSpring Cleaning and Updates
"Spring Ski" Acrylic on canvas, 9 x 12", (c) Kristin Link, 2017
How 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 MoreWinter Blues – The Good Kind: A Peek Inside My Cyanotype Process
This is the type of weather that feeds me vitamin D and is making my work possible
Like 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 MoreLooking back over almost ten years of art making
Installation of my undergraduate thesis in Studio Art
I 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 MoreOld Year, New Year, Review and Reflections: 2016 and 2017
Last 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 MoreWinter Solstice – Limitations and Creativity
December sun above the Nizina River
I 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 MoreIndulge in the Process - Work from Joshua Tree
This 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 MoreArt About Gold
One 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 MoreAdventures and Open Horizons
Sketching on the bow of the boat. Photo by Vince Hempsall
Last 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 MoreHi from the Desert
I 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 MorePortraits of Nature: Nizina River Rocks
Last 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.
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