We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kristine Vander Velde a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Kristine, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I’ve always had the compulsion to draw and paint. In high school, I took all the art classes I could cram in my schedule and chose to continue my education in college. After three years, my college career was cut short by motherhood. I had always intended to return once my daughter was older and in school, but she was born with a neurological disorder and required full-time care for the next 16 years. I gave up creating art for nearly a decade, it was something that gnawed at my soul every day. When I returned to making art in my home studio, I found it was like riding a bike. The skill were still there, just a bit rusty. In the aftermath of my daughter’s death, I found myself floundering through life trying to figure out where to go next. My path eventually ended up back at Grand Valley State University to finish my BFA in Painting. I graduated in 2020 and since then have been working out of my home studio in Grand Rapids.

I would say my biggest obstacle has always been comparing my skills against other artists. I would look at others work and feel mine could not compare. I would often feel frustrated and depressed when something didn’t turn out how I envisioned or felt it wasn’t as good as another artist painting a similar subject or style. I was often hyper critical of myself which left me wondering why I even tried. But I tend to be a very stubborn person. I realized I had to give myself the space to make bad art. And lots of it. Also, treating the act of drawing and paining as a skill that needs to be developed helped alter my mind set. Some artists have loads of natural talent, can look at something and render it perfectly the first time they try. Then there are those of us who struggle through the learning process by doing over and over and over again until the result is closer to the vision.

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?

I am a painter adept in oil and acrylic and create works small and large. Most of my work is the traditional canvas style and I also have several murals in my portfolio. I work from my own ideas and references as well as commission work. The main focus in my landscapes is the meld of nature and human structures. I use color and rhythm to capture moments of light throughout the seasons. I like to portray something unique about that moment through the angle of the composition and a low or high point of view.

Jewelry making and designing developed as a side job. I fell in love with creating stone and metal jewelry while taking a metal smithing course. Metal is a surprisingly malleable medium and creates the perfect backdrop to feature the natural beauty of the stones. I use both heat setting and wire wrapping techniques to create one of a kind wearable art. Each piece is handmade, polished and waxed to preserve the finish.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

My first year of college was rough. I felt my skill level was far below the other freshman in my classes. I was struggling in my foundation classes with craftsmanship and non-representational imagery. My critiques never went well and I had the experience of having my work ripped off the wall and thrown in the trash. I was often told to start over, sometimes multiple times on the same project. For the first time in my life, I was getting C’s and D’s. In art class. At some point in the middle of the year, my foundation professor asked for a meeting where he encouraged me to look into other majors. It was obvious I was struggling and having difficulty grasping the concept of abstraction. Maybe the art field wasn’t for me and I should consider something else as a career. I was furious. But I did consider his advice and decided to use my anger to prove him wrong. I had to be willing to try harder and do more work and start over and over again when necessary. I dug in and didn’t give up. At the end of that first year, I was up for a foundational review to be passed on to the next level of art classes. I was expecting to repeat at least two classes, but that same professor told me he saw how hard I had been working, how I refused to give up and he was pretty impressed with my improvement. Then he passed me. After despising him for two semesters, I walked away with a genuine feeling of respect and the realization I had learned an important lesson that would prove very helpful in the future.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

The core of my artwork is derived from the physical world and the interaction of humans and nature. For me, the physical act of painting and drawing fosters and engagement with the here and now. With the development of the digital realm and AI, humans are becoming increasingly disengaged from their surroundings and each other. My hope is that my art and my observation of the living world sparks curiosity and engagement with nature and our human structures that exist without us giving much thought to them. My jewelry is another aspect of this. The stone and metal elements come from the earth, are shaped and molded by the human hand and from that I create something that has a tactile experience as well as visual. Being present to life encourages us to be more mindful, compassionate and understanding of our shared human existence.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://vanderveldeart.com
• Instagram: samestaleshoes
• Facebook: Kris’ Art
• Linkedin: Kristine Vander Velde

Image Credits

All photos were taken by me, Kristine Vander Velde.