We were lucky to catch up with Kristy Gordon recently and have shared our conversation below.
Kristy, appreciate you joining us today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?
I always knew I wanted to be an artist, but I didn’t always know that was possible, so I went into animation initially because it was a creative career that also provided a paycheck. I find that the universe will always put us back on the right path, even if we take a detour for awhile. So I eventually found myself working at an animation studio that was owner but a very successful local oil painter. Through him I started painting again and got into my first art gallery! Eventually I left my animation job and started painting full time for galleries. Over the last 20 years since taking that leap that changed my life, I have developed multiple streams of income, including teaching art classes, selling paintings in galleries and doing commissions and in that way I’ve created a stable income for myself as an artist. This allows me to have complete artistic freedom in my work as well!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I help artists of all levels get to the next step on their artistic path. So I teach painting workshops that teach technical skills for people who want to learn how to mix colors and create portrait paintings. For there many people start to want to find their own unique artistic style, or voice, so they sign up for my Visionary Artist Master Program (VAMP) which helps artists find their artistic voice and launch a successful art career. I also just published my first book “Become A Great Artist” that guides artists to gain confidence in their work, find their artistic voice and launch a successful art career!
The paintings I create and sell in galleries are imbued with a magical mystical quality, with the aim of re-enchanting our contemporary life. I hope they will bring a spark of magic to the viewers everyday lives.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
There was a point in my artistic journey just after I completed all my formal art education, where I felt very down and depressed about my work. I was artistically blocked and sad because I didn’t feel I had found my artistic voice. I had seen others who seemed to trust themselves more, find their voice, get picked up by top galleries and just take off, but I couldn’t seem to create work that felt authentic to me. At a moment where I felt particularly down, I truly think that some higher force, or God (call it what you will) took pity on me that day.
On September 12, 2015, I took out my pen and paper and devised a plan to find my voice. I called it my “Miracle Actions List” inspired by Stuart Wilde’s book, “Miracles.” I devised a systematic list of daily actions that I would take that I somehow knew would bring the result I so desperately longed for: to find my artistic voice.
My Miracle Action Plan:
– Paint for 25 minutes a day
– Do one “thumbnail,” a day, (a “thumbnail is a loosely sketched out idea for a painting)
– Do one intuitive painting a day
– Read one artist interview or article a day
– Read about color theory or composition daily
I looked at my list. I could have kissed it. I actually probably did. Somehow I knew that these simple steps would change my life. I committed myself to taking each of these actions every day and did it as a 21-day challenge. I choose an accountability partner, the amazing artist Gaetanne Lavoie who I committed to texting every day to confirm I had done my daily miracle actions.
I started to paint every day for 25 minutes minimum and what I found was that the more I painted the more inspiration flowed.
Since it was focussed work I got more done than I usually did in hours. I didn’t spend time pushing paint around with no idea what I was doing. Often I would feel like I was ruining it for the entire session, but frequently at the end I’d sit back and realize that in fact I’d made it slightly better. Occasionally, I truly had made it worse, but at least I knew that particular direction didn’t work, so it was still useful.
I began to develop a faith in the process. I no longer felt like I had to have it all figured out in order to get started. I saw that ideas came to me as I painted. More ideas started to flow to me the more consistent I was with my daily painting time.
The process was life-altering. Even though I didn’t feel like I was painting that much (25 minutes a day is a very reasonable pace) I was getting more done than I had in years!
Before the challenge I had so many paintings started but nothing was getting finished. During and after the challenge I gradually finished all of them! It was so satisfying to realize that if I just paint on something—anything—for 25 minutes every day, slowly but surely everything will become finished!
With this new series of completed paintings I had a solo show fall into my lap. It felt very vulnerable to show this new body of paintings to the world but it was also extremely exciting for me because it was my first solo show in New York City!
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
Instagram and Tiktok have become such important tools for artists, that I started to take it really seriously during the pandemic. Luckily I had a lot of time on my hands then too, so I started making reels or my demo paintings of the eyes, nose, mouth and ears (classes that i teach on painting the features). I learned how to edit them very tightly, so that each stoke was visually exciting. They were short videos, and the timing was right on the algorithms so my accounts took off! Since I had struggled for years having my Instagram stuck at 8k for about ten years, I didn’t take it lightly to have this sudden growth (I’m now at 180k)! So I committed to a weekly plan of posting three times a week, treating it like a job in many ways. It is worth it. I’ve had so many commissions, art students, collectors and galleries find me via Instagram, so it’s definitely worth the time I’ve invested in created short reels!
Contact Info:
- Website: kristygordon.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kristygordonart/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kristygordonIII
- Twitter: https://www.tiktok.com/@kristygordonart
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/KristyGordon
Image Credits
all photos were taken by me