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

Lynn, appreciate you joining us today. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

For most of my life, I had wished I started my creative career sooner. When my parents asked me what I wanted to study in college, my immediate answer was either art or counseling. With good intentions, but not validating my young adult wishes, my parents told me I was going to study business. Why? Because I would not make any money in either of the fields I mentioned, and a business degree would allow me to financially support myself. I could do my art and helping people on the side. I was crestfallen. I was a dreamer and my dreams had abruptly come to an end. The word “business” and all that it appeared to entail made me nauseous.

So off to the University of California at Berkeley I went to study Business Administration. I barely passed Accounting and Economics but did extremely well in Human Resources and Organizational Development. Go figure. For 25 years I worked in many business capacities including employee relations, training and development, marketing and management. My artwork took a back seat for most of this time but started kicking in as a hobby. Then at the age of 49, I decided to get my Masters in Professional Counseling. While also painting on the side, I moved from counselor to Director of Mental Health Services at a local governmental agency in a very short period of time. That’s where I saw the value of my past education as well as how my life’s journey was coming full circle. My work with the adolescents was very rewarding, and I implemented an art program for the youth. I recently retired and am able to focus more on my own artwork.

Now I am wondering if my business background was a first step in a bigger picture I could not see at the time. I am a self-taught artist and paint in primarily acrylic. My style continues to evolve, but I’d say it is a blend of impressionism and perhaps contemporary. Bold colors are a signature. My subject matter typically revolves around landscape, nature, and flora. And interestingly, my work can oscillate back and forth between a more realistic style and a more creative style, depending which side of my brain, or a combination of the two, is actually firing. I show my art locally in galleries and festivals and have created a lucrative small business for myself.

Most recently, I have become the Board President of our local art guild and have opened a new guild gallery. Once again, my business background and mental health experience has enabled me to manage the gallery operation, develop emerging and evolving artists, collaborate with community partners, and grow the community’s arts and culture involvement.

Lynn, 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 I mentioned, I am primarily an acrylic artist. Years ago, I started in watercolor and began showing in a local gallery and a local festival. I did well and considered my work a hobby due to being employed full time during this period. My marketing and business experience led me to explore how to expand my name and work without having to create a lot of new work (since I had little time). That’s when I got into the world of professional scanning, prints, and other gift ideas. Since I had a paying job, I had the means to obtain the scans and reproduce my art in many ways. So, at festivals I not only had my original artwork, but also prints, coasters, greeting cards, etc. That’s when my artwork took a leap, and I began to have numerous customers and followers, and gained local notoriety.

I would say that this success is not so much due to the incredible skill exhibited in my artwork; but rather, my relationships with my patrons and followers, my availability and response to their needs and requests, and my continued communication with them about events. My artwork also seems to speak to them in some way, whether it is a favorite place they also frequented, or my story behind the image resonates with them. When I share a piece of myself or my story, that vulnerability engages the viewer with me in an almost unworldly way. The human connection through an image and a story is powerful.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Great question. The biggest lesson to unlearn for me was that “my artwork”, “my plan”, “my experience”, and even “I” is/am “not good enough.” I grew up with a parent that was extremely critical of me, and I developed a self-concept that was not strong. My worldview at the time consisted of believing that everyone was very critical, that perfectionism was something to achieve, and that my performance characterized who I was as a person. Understandably, that belief system was extremely tiring, depleting me of the fun, creative side of my true self. Fast forward through the years of working in business, the training in the mental health field, and the years showing my artwork, I have arrived at a wonderful place of strength, self-compassion, creativity, and acceptance. From this place, I am able to create a strong connection to others through art and stories.

I remember standing in my booth at a local art faire, when a customer and her friends walked by looking at my art. She had been an admirer of my early watercolors, but I had moved on toward more bold acrylic work, which was being exhibited at the time. I overheard her say “I just don’t like her stuff anymore.” I realized I had come a long way when her comment didn’t bother me but, rather, gave me a perspective of how all art is very personal, both for the artist and the viewer. Nothing to be offended by, only an opportunity to learn.

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

Resilience is such an important skill to have because the world is hard, and life is full of trials. I might suggest that my entire story shared here is an example of resilience. I may have wished that I started my creative career earlier, but frankly, perhaps I wasn’t ready. Clearly the business education and experience had supported my roles of being a Clinical Director and an Art Guild Board President later in life. In order to have a huge dream come true, preparation, training, and character building are absolutely necessary for its success. The resilience involved in my journey included patience, making the most out of what I had in front of me, being open to learning and growing, and hope. The creative side of me always had hope and dreams. While I didn’t see the bigger picture at the time, each stage was a small and necessary piece of the journey to make the larger dream come true. I’ve come full circle indeed.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.lynnkesselart.com
• Other: Email is [email protected] or [email protected] Phone is 512-948-2056