Kristen Stein on Roots and Inspiration

What medi­ums have you worked in and which is your favorite?

I am a con­tem­po­rary artist work­ing pri­mar­ily with acrylics on can­vas.  I occa­sion­ally dab­ble in pas­tels and oils. I love work­ing in mixed media and often add gritty, grainy tex­tures to my paint. I’ve also cre­ated paint­ings using lay­ers of news­pa­per, paper tow­els, tis­sues, string, dried flow­ers, leaves and more to add extra tex­ture and dimen­sion to the paint­ing. I some­times work on wood, but gen­er­ally use stretched can­vas.  I’m in the process of learn­ing silk-screening and hope to ‘pull’ my own prints.  I have also worked in dig­i­tal paint­ing and cre­at­ing images as scal­able vec­tor graphics.

How did you get started?

I have been cre­at­ing art for friends and as gifts for sev­eral decades, but I started sell­ing my art­work as a busi­ness about 10 years. It began as a part-time pas­sion while I was work­ing on my dis­ser­ta­tion in Eco­nom­ics at the Uni­ver­sity of Vir­ginia. I still use a lot of my eco­nom­ics back­ground on the busi­ness side of my art career, but my cre­ative side won out and I start­ing sell­ing my art­work full-time in early 2000. I am not for­mally trained in art. I took one class in high-school and one elec­tive class in col­lege. I recall sev­eral of the projects that I made in these two classes and I know that they have fueled my pas­sion to con­tinue to learn and grow as an artist.

Who has influenced/inspired your art work?

Friends, fam­ily and other artists have all played an inte­gral role in influ­enc­ing my artis­tic visions and enthu­si­asm for ‘all things art’. My par­ents are both incred­i­bly tal­ented and I know that they have directly influ­enced my love for the arts.  More recently, I’ve met sev­eral new artists online through var­i­ous social net­works and I’m enjoy­ing learn­ing how to use the new venues to expand the reach of my art to new audi­ences. I’ve also recently approached other artists and pho­tog­ra­phers to work on col­lab­o­ra­tive projects. It’s a fun way for artists to share their tal­ents and cre­ate an image that embod­ies their var­i­ous inter­ests or styles. That’s how the “Spirit of Autumn Fire” image (with Lyse Mar­ion) came about.  As for mas­ter artists, I love the works of Picasso, Gris, Matisse, Frank Lloyd Wright, Rothko, Dali among many others.