We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kristen Wheeler. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kristen below.
Kristen, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
The most meaningful project I’ve worked on is doing iconography – paintings of the saints and holy figures – and turning it into a ministry,
By February 2020 I had been studying traditional iconography for a while; its history, techniques, and prayer practice. I visited a small town that winter where I went to a Greek Orthodox church that had an icon shop next to it and spent several hours in awe of the colorful art and the little wooden icons. I even went to a used bookshop nearby and purchased several hardcover books on the saints. I took all of this inspiration home with me just in time for COVID-19 to turn things upside down. So I quickly gathered some art supplies at my local art store – wood plaques, paint, more brushes and other things I was low on or didn’t have – in case we went into lockdown and I couldn’t get anything. March 15th the world changed. March 18th I painted my version of Jesus of the Sacred Heart live on Facebook and my life changed.
It is now Fall of 2022 and I am painting my 50th icon and have a commission list to last me another year. Since painting that first icon, it hasn’t stopped. People have come to me with saints and Holy figures they love and feel connected to and I haven’t had to advertise for original paintings at all. This is the most moving, meaningful, and important work I’ve ever done. These saints and holy figures have effected me in more ways than I can imagine, and oh the stories I could tell you about each icon and how they speak to so many people.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
You might find me sipping hot chocolate at Cafe Beignet on Royal Street while writing about the sights and sounds in the French Quarter. I might be sitting on a bench in Jackson Square with my sketchbook drawing St. Louis Cathedral, or standing on a streetcar heading to the Garden District exploring Lafayette Cemetery and the local neighborhood with my camera. I may be out with my husband perusing local flea markets and antique stores for some unique finds to add to our quaint bohemian cottage in the woods of southeastern Louisiana. I’m often hunched over my antique drafting desk working meticulously on the next saint icon while listening to audiobooks on theology and the saints. But most times I’m sitting on the old wicker swing of my lazy southern porch tending to my plants, a cup of hot lemon mint tea in hand, a cat on my lap, a basset hound at my feet. and reading a good book.
I’ve been all over the world in pursuit of my true joy in life, to exploit happiness, humbleness, and adventure in every culture, society, and way of life I possibly can. I’ve been to England, Greece, Turkey, Italy, Morocco, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Bahamas, Mexico, Jamaica, and Haiti and all over the United States. I love meeting and getting to know the people of these beautiful and diverse countries. I love photographing the boldly and richly colorful environments, writing, and sketching my adventures.
As a creative writer and visual artist, I have the opportunity to blend my inspired soul with my deep love of history, folklore, and the paranormal. I tell stories both imagined and genuine, fanciful and authentic; from the Axeman of New Orleans, to my own thrilling experiences throughout my travels, to historical fiction, to the tales of timeworn southern antebellum plantation homes, to the amazing and often dark stories of the saints and holy figures. I’m eager to hear the tales of the past; what will the peeled walls of those plantation homes reveal? What will the victims of the Axeman declare in their own stories? What are the hauntings I have encountered trying to confess? What are the saints trying to reveal to me with their own words, speaking through their tears of joy and pain? And most importantly, what will my own pen, brush, and camera expose behind the closed wooden doors, away from the light of the rotting windowsill, absent of a testimony other than my own?
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
With my current creative journey of iconography, or what I call modern iconography, the mission has always been to share the stories of the saints in a more relevant, honest, and colorful way that speaks to people of our time. So many times I see the dark parts of their stories hidden, glossed over, or simply not said out loud, but these are the things that resonate with me most and I find after sharing with others, resonates with them most too. This is the ministry, or as you call it “mission”, of this work – to let this art, these icons, speak to people in a more modern way. And they have. Every time I share the process of whatever saint I am working on, whether it’s in the studying and getting-to-know-them stage or the sketching and painting process, I get so many people asking questions out of interest or others identifying with their stories and want to know more. And since I have an online icon shop now where I sell handmade reprints and other items, anyone can take a saint home with them.
So you know a little more about traditional iconography:
Icons are generally painted using egg tempera on specially prepared wooden panels, or on cloth glued onto wooden panels. Gold leaf is frequently used for halos, background areas, and gilding of special items depicted with the saints. Because I do not follow these traditional techniques, I consider myself a modern iconographer. I use the materials available to me, but with respect and honor to the traditional art by studying the saints before I paint them, praying with them, then adding my own style and technique.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
So often I see creators on social media, especially YouTube, give advice on buying “cheap” art. Trying to decorate a room? Go to HomeGoods and buy gigantic canvases that are mass-produced and pay only $100 for it! It makes me cringe. Support local artists. Take that money you were going to spend at HomeGoods or Hobby Lobby or whatever and buy from an artist in your own neck of the woods. Buy from an independent artist on Etsy. If we’re not supporting local art and artists, then we go away, we can’t do what we do, we can’t put food on the table, we can’t pay the bills. So instead of putting your hard earned money into large companies that have plenty of food to harvest, support local, support independent. Nothing makes me cringe more than when someone belittles artists (it’s happened to me more times than I can count) by saying things like “why don’t you get a real job” or “no one will pay that much for what you do” or “you are a starving artist aren’t you?” yet buys mass-produced art from big box stores and doesn’t support artists. Without art, this world would be a pretty bland place.
Also, artists are not flea markets or thrift stores either. When you make a purchase from an artist, don’t say “I’ll give you this ____” or “throw in ___ and I’ll give you _____.” We’ve all seen it and experienced it and it’s insulting. We don’t come to your workplace and say “hey, I’ll pay you less than what you asked for or agreed to if you can throw in xyz and make it worth my time and wallet space?” We work hard for what we do – so do you – but our souls are in each brushstroke, each swipe of ink, each stroke of a mouse, each carefully chosen word or color or tool. You aren’t just getting a work of art, you are taking a piece of us with you. Please remember that.
Contact Info:
- Other: this has all my links in one place: https://linktr.ee/kristenwheelerartist
Image Credits
Kristen A. Wheeler