We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kristin Heldt a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Kristin, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

It was July of 2020, the pandemic was really starting to set in and I was working from home. At the time, I was a web developer and times were very stressful. My body was showing me signs that I wasn’t happy, depression, anxiety, I felt so out of touch with my soul. At the time, my boyfriend opened up a beach volleyball facility a couple months before the pandemic hit and we needed financial support. I was going through what I thought I had to survive, to be able to support us during this season because my boyfriend wasn’t able to work. Until one day my body couldn’t take the stress anymore. I had a full on panic attack and I didn’t know where I was. It was the most out of body experience I felt. And that’s when I knew I couldn’t do this anymore

With not much of a plan, I quit my job and picked my ipad and started to draw to try and help me process all the trauma that I hadn’t been addressing. Not just from stressful corporate jobs, but from my teen years and childhood. Little did I know it would take me so much further than I’d ever thought I would go and still climbing

Kristin, 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?

As a little girl I always wanted to be an artist, in fact I remember always being creative even at a young age. I took lessons at the local park district, always gravitating towards art classes in high school, and eventually graduating college with a major in graphic design and a minor in business. I also remember making up businesses as a kid, so I’ve always had that entrepreneur spirit inside me.

After college I went the typical 9 to 5 route. I can’t tell you how many people defeated my dream of becoming an artist – always sharing concerns about how I was going to support myself. Which is why I went the graphic design route because I knew if I understood marketing and the business side of things, once I had my niche I could sell it.

But I didn’t have enough experience right out of college to be able to go fully into my dreams.

After designing in several industries like general marketing, skincare, sports apparel, and then website design. I always left a 9 to 5 worn down, overworked, and underappreciated. (This catches the readers up to before I quit my website design job to pursue illustration) And mind you I didn’t have a plan and my bf wasn’t able to work – so we basically lived off of a single income to help each other chase their dreams for about 9 years

So for about 2 years I drew a piece everyday and started to share it on instagram. I was maniacally researching how to make money as an artist and looking up to those currently doing it. All while applying for jobs because I still didn’t believe I could actually support myself – so many other people’s voices in my head. And during those two years, it was slow painful growth, but it was growth.

I started to find myself slowly. I was finding my voice as an artist and a human being. I began connecting with people all over the world, bringing them a peace that the outside wasn’t bringing them. People were messaging me saying how much my work helped them through a difficult time and I knew then I had something.

During 2021, it was around october, I had been reaching out to companies that aligned with my mission and my ethics. One in particular stood out to me and it was during that month, I reached out to them saying I was an illustrator whose work was focused on bring nature closer to others. I voiced that I wanted to use my gifts to help others and loved that they were using theirs to help build schools in third world countries; living the motto, art can change the world. And I believed that my art could do that. I think it was a couple days later, I got an email from the company and call from the CEO.

It was my big break, I licensed two designs with Denik a notebook and stationery company back in October of 2021 and today I can say that I am their all time best selling artist. Some of my designs with them can be found in Target, Barnes and Noble, and World Market. I have people I’ve never met, snap of picture when they see my work in stores and send it my way. It’s truly a dream come true.

But even after all that, I still feel that I have more. More to create, more to give. I want to take my art further than just paper goods. I want to use it to help people heal. People that are hurting and need some comfort. I want to work with hospitals to create a more healing focused rooms and bring nature back to the places where people are sick. Addiction, wellness, and cancer centers. I want my art to be the thing that people turn to when they are broken, much like I did when my body had had enough stress.

I think what I am most proud of is my art. The way people connect to it and the emotional draw that it brings them – to see people get my work makes all the ending hours of pouring my soul into what I do so incredibly worth it. And I can’t wait to keep going and touch as many lives with my work as I possibly can.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I think I touched on this in the previous question, but the most rewarding thing I get to experience is the connection my work brings to others. I’m amazed that I can work on a piece for hours, studying color theory and being really intentional with what I want my work to do, and some people see it in seconds and are brought to tears, or moved in some way. For me to be with my work far longer than shoppers or viewers at a makers market and for them to have an emotion towards my work is truly an amazing feeling.

I hope I touch many more lives with my work – it is why I do what I do

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I touched on this a bit, but would like to take it further.

As someone who has struggled with their mental health I felt as if the resources available to me were not accessible. Medication and therapy were out of my reach either financially or being honest, I didn’t feel safe. I didn’t feel like I understood enough of myself to go that route, and turning to my art helped me so much.

I want to provide that gap for others with my art. Places like hospitals, wellness centers, and cancer centers – I wish to have my art on the walls so that it can aid in others healing journeys. A lot of these places carry blank walls and most patients are subject to their beds. Because I believe that art and nature can heal, I hope to be able to provide that to people who are hurting and need to reconnect with themselves and their natural surroundings

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kristinheldtart.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kristinheldart
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kristinheldart
• Other: https://www.pinterest.com/kristinheldtart