ARTIST STATEMENT
As an artist, I’m inspired by nature’s patterns and colors. I live in nature in Lake County, IL, halfway between Chicago and Milwaukee. My artistic approach is intuitive; I experiment with mixed media and salvaged materials, and my work keeps evolving. As a kid, I loved the scene in Disney’s Cinderella where the mice magically create a dress for the ball from random items sitting around the house. Actually, I still love that scene now. Art provides me that same feeling of creating something sincere and bold out of seemingly nothing.
I grew up singing, playing piano and clarinet and I’m a self-taught visual artist (although currently I’m taking an oil painting class). My musical background reflects the rhythmic ebb and flow in my work and I find myself continually inspired and centered by nature and music.
You may also wonder why I paint ducks. I often see ducks where I live and ducks seem to me to have optimism totally figured out. I observe them happily paddling in one place and then flying whenever they want to. To me, ducks are steadfast and true, yet they also provide honest humor. Plus they quack all the time! Which I also find very funny.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Growing up in both Indiana and Iowa, Kristen grew up with a musical background. Her parents were music majors and she played piano and clarinet and sang in numerous choirs. She painted and drew in her spare time, but never pursued an education in art.
Kristen graduated from The University of Iowa with a degree in Communication Studies with an emphasis in Cultural Anthropology. After college Kristen worked for Getty Images as a Photo Researcher and began painting and creating collages in her spare time. With her first show at Woman Made Gallery in Chicago, she began to sell her work online and participated in Chicago art fairs such as Around the Coyote and the Bucktown Arts Festival.
Kristen is a member of Woman Made Gallery, Evanston Made, and Grayslake Arts Alliance. Selected exhibitions include Adventureland Gallery (Chicago), The Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Evanston Art Center, James May Gallery (Algoma/Milwaukee), Barnsdall Art Center (Los Angeles) and Woman Made Gallery. She also enjoys exhibiting at local businesses, pop-up alternative spaces and supporting theatre productions.
© Kristen Neveu