We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kris Collins. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kris below.

Alright, Kris thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Has your work ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized?

Growing up I was never good enough, and that just carried into adulthood. Being a creative has never been the easiest. I’ve always had family members and former lovers tell me I needed to “grow up” or “be logical” regarding my life and what I should do career-wise. I always tried to find creative careers, but that’s always been tough growing up and residing in Lynchburg, Virginia. Things have changed a lot in the area in the last several years, but I basically came to a realization that an Art career (job) doesn’t exist for me here. I had to create my own career in Art. I work full-time in a career that has nothing to do with Art or creativity. But I focus on my goals as an Artist in my life outside of my job. Do I go as hard as I can for my Art? No, there’s not enough time in the day. But I’ve found a way to use my time to produce my Art and so far it’s worked pretty well for me. People still try to tell me to “be real” and are convinced I’m not a success, but my story hasn’t ended yet, and my goal is to not only prove a lot of people wrong while I’m here, but to also leave behind a legacy that outlives my physical time on this planet. I don’t know if I’m necessarily misunderstood or mischaracterized. But I do think that most people don’t take the time it requires to understand why I am this way, why I create what I do, or what I create means. I just figured out that’s not my problem.

Kris, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I grew up drawing. I have always been imaginative. I’ve always known what I am; a creative archetype. Growing up in school I always enjoyed Art class and TV Productions. I went to Community College at age seventeen and focused on an education in Art and learned as much as I could. I took my Associates degree (which took me four years) and I quit painting and started working at a Screenprinting company in my city. For three and a half years I did the dirtiest job, cleaning and reclaiming screens, burning screens, setting up four color jobs on a janky light table. I unofficially apprenticed with the Graphic Artist at the small business I worked for. I was the guy who figured out Adobe Illustrator and would print my own t-shirt runs late at night after work. During this time I focused heavily on video production, and created a lot of different video and pushed it out to my friends and people in the community. I wanted to move up in the company I was working for, but always was overlooked. I wanted to be the Graphic Artist, but was never given the chance until I jumped ship and worked for another local business who did some of the same things but was so much different. I realized that even when I got the career job as a Graphic Artist, I was still building towards something much bigger. Life got stressful and I decided to leave and go back to college. I loved to write. I thought I could write and teach. Funny thing is I re-discovered my love for Art while I was at college studying creative writing. I had been a Graphic Artist (even on the side) for years, creating logos, flyers, websites, apparel, etc. for rappers and local businesses. I also created many music videos for hip-hop artists, and began to gain a reputation from doing so. But in 2016 I started painting watercolor paintings, and re-discovered my love for Fine Art. My marriage became rocky, and while staying at home with my son on the weekends I realized that I could paint at home while taking care of him. I posted pics of my paintings online and realized that people enjoyed what I did enough to buy my work.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

I think people can definitely change, but we shouldn’t always have to. Creativity is one of the most important concepts in human life. When a child’s imagination is embraced and encouraged, the future is limitless. One person’s imagination can participate in the type of change that will affect billions. People have to stop looking to the system as the answer for everything, and start doing the things that need to be done whether it’s considered important by the system or not. I’m going to say that it starts with the family. Our families have crumbled. Let’s start there and invest time, money, effort, and love into our children and our husbands and wives. Let’s see where it takes us.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I would say it’s the mystique for me. It’s the level of interest I get from the rest of the world. I am both no one and someone; one day I’m off the radar, and the next day I’m on everyone’s mind. I hate to say it’s the attention because that sounds pathetic, but it’s what I can do with the attention. I want to inspire minds with the attention I’ve earned. I want to meet other interesting people and try to make our own subtle changes in our neighborhoods. Taking the intrigue of others and telling them a story that sticks has always been something I enjoy, so having that happen after months or years of hard work is very rewarding. But passing those abilities down to my children and watching what they do with them has been the biggest payoff for me so far.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.otwoartistry.com/
• Instagram: instagram.com/otwoartistry
• Youtube: youtube.com/getstrucktuesdays
• Other: getstrucktuesdays.com |  http://www.kriscollins.art/