We caught up with the brilliant and insightful KRISTEN MANN a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, KRISTEN thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?
In the past couple of years I have been reintroducing myself to what creativity means to me in this season in my life. My son is getting older and I have had some growth myself so creating is way different than what it was when I first started this career path.
KRISTEN, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My name is Kristen Nicole Mann and I started painting professionally at the age of 26 but perfecting the craft starting at the tender age of 4. Social Media was a hug part of me starting to sell my artwork and make it a business. I just started sharing my work and people liked it and asked how much? I then went on to create Art Shows for other Artists within my local community that may have also wanted to sell their work but didn’t have the platform to. Now I have went on to create books, consult other artists, and teach classes about art. I even started a podcast during my journey to be able to use my voice more than just using my paintbrush.
I would like to think that what I do as a creative is to create a solution for a complex problem. Artists can make something out of nothing and sometimes if you are not artistic that can be overwhelming when you are seeking answers for a problem. I stay authentic to who I am and my style of creativity no matter what. Lately that hasn’t been so easy because you come across mean spirited people who try to make you feel that anyone can do what your doing so what makes you so special? My faith in God has really helped me stay focused during these challenging times.
I am most proud of my perseverance I’ve had during this journey. This industry changes all the time and there will be highs and several lows but as long as I remain focused on the mission everything will not look as hard.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
In 2020 , during the time of George Floyd’s murder, I had the opportunity to spearhead the Black Lives Matter Mural in the community I reside in. I had no idea what I was doing and my community is over 70 percent caucasian. Although my community supports the Arts they never probably had supported the Arts in this way. The project brought me much joy, but the downside was experiencing the most hate I’ve ever had in my life. During this time I remained focused but I can’t pretend that there wasn’t people after my life. I received death threats, my family and friends were questioning my motives, and it cause a lot of trauma looking back. For a few years after that up until recently I didn’t realize I went into freeze mode with my career. This is honestly the first time I am sharing this and am able to articulate what was going on. I felt like I was trying to persevere as a wounded cub but couldn’t get out of this quicksand. It really affected my creativity and my love of Art in general. I lost my consistency with my business and lost a lot of business because of this. I was stuck and drew away from participation with anything community based tremendously afterwards. Recently I have been unthawing out of the traumatic space I was in and learning Artistry all over again. I started my podcast back up and I also got back to creating for fun. From 2020 to 2023 I was really going through a lot and chose not to share it as much which now I know is not the best coping tactic. If you need help with trauma definitely seek counseling so that you can express and talk it through.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
I started my social media platforms organically. I just remained true to myself and would share inspirational statuses along with my Art and people just gravitated towards it. I still stick to the same process but as I grow the topics I speak on does. Although I changed a lot I still choose to use my social media to uplift and inspire people who are stuck just like I was. I also create post to keep people on a path that benefits their life. Sometimes people need to just see someone cares and the post I create shows that the best way I know how. It’s like giving an internet hug to strangers everyday.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.kristennicolemann.com
- Instagram: @kristennicolemann
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/kristen.n.mann
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@kristennicolemann
- Other: TikTok: @kristennicolemann
Image Credits
Kristen Nicole Mann