ALAS Curation Series | January | MEET Christina Schmidt!

Hey, you! Check it out! For the first ever episode of the brand-spankin' new ALAS curation series, I am excited to introduce you to a longtime friend and talented painter, Christina Schmidt.

Christina is 26, was raised in the country a few miles outside of Rose Creek, Minnesota with her parents and two older siblings. After graduating high school, she moved to Austin, MN where she settled down with her fiancee Alan Trotman and their three rambunctious and affectionate cats.

When I arrived at her house, a modest yellow abode on a quiet street in Austin, Christina opened the door almost as soon as my foot hit the top step of their stoop. She invited me into the living room, a cozy room with paintings lining the walls, bookshelves on one side of the room and a fireplace on the other.

In between the occasional crash from one of the cats knocking something off of a table, we were able to sit and talk about her art, her inspirations, and, (of course) STEEM!

Used with permission from the artist

A.L.A.S. - How old were you when you got into painting?

C.S. - I was probably about 16. When I was growing up, I liked to write and draw a lot, but it was my grandmother who got me into painting. My grandmother loved to paint. She had 5 kids, and each one has over 20 plus paintings of hers in each of their homes.

A.L.A.S. - So she must have painted a lot!

C.S. - Yeah she did. My grandmother, my mom's mom, liked to give paintings as gifts. We had this huge nature painting in my living room growing up that I would just stare at and get lost in. It was this magical place that I always wanted to go to. So one Christmas, my mom bought me these paints and some canvases. I'm thinking maybe it was because her mom was a painter so she was just like 'Oh, well I know that you like to draw and do arts and crafts, maybe you'll like this.'

A.L.A.S. - (laughs) So in a way she was trying to see if you had gotten some of your grandma's creative genes.

C.S. - Right! And so I had this scenic picture of Duluth [Minnesota], and I just started painting it. That's when I realized how much fun it was. I didn't start painting until after [my grandmother's] death and it kind of felt like a connection to her. I really admired how she gave joy to us through her paintings.

Used with permission from the artist

A.L.A.S. - So what would you consider your style of painting to be?

C.S. - Just whatever I find beautiful. I don't know. (laughs)
So for me, when I'm actually painting, it's very meditative for me. Any negative feelings go away and I'm just happy. And then when I give a painting to someone and they find joy in looking at it, that gives me joy also, so it's like I'm benefitting on both ends.

A.L.A.S. - Well I guess what I mean is that in a lot of your paintings, you feature a lot of very prominent or striking skylines, a lot of contrast between the bright colors and the dark shadows, or often there are silhouettes that contrast very vividly against the colors in the sky. What is it that inspires you to paint the way that you do?

C.S. - For me, it's just nature. Well, I guess the fantasy idea of nature. I kind of paint to relax and so I try to think of a magical, beautiful place to go. And I've always loved the outdoors. I love adventures, every weekend we are going on little road trips to different places to go hiking, biking, canoeing, tubing, or swimming.

Used with permission from the artist

A.L.A.S. - So would you say that you think of it as creating a place to escape, like a kind of vacation?

C.S. - Yeah, that's a good way to put it. And I love mountains, so that's why I paint them so often. Colorado is one of my favorite places. There is something about going to the mountains where you can just feel this energy coming off of them.

A.L.A.S. - I've also noticed that in many of your paintings, the most striking feature is often the sky. The stars and the clouds and the planets you depict are a very big theme for you. Why is that?

C.S. - I think space is just magical. I love laying under the stars in the summer and thinking about how vast the universe is and all the unknowns. A lot is left up to the imagination.

Used with permission from the artist

A.L.A.S. - Do you usually start out painting in a negative head space then, and then use the painting as a way to work through that?

C.S. - Actually, yeah, but I never thought of it that way. That probably sounds really bad.

A.L.A.S. - Not necessarily. I think that some of the best artists out there use their talents as a way of processing the things in their lives that they have a hard time dealing with on their own.

C.S. - That's true. And I've never understood when people say that they are putting their emotions into their work, but I guess that maybe I am doing the same thing, because I do start from this place of feeling down, and the act of painting lifts me back up, so maybe that is what I am experiencing.

Used with permission from the artist

A.L.A.S. - And don't get me wrong, I am not saying that your art is in any way dark. Your art doesn't give me the impression that it's coming from a place of angst, or anger, or frustration. I get more of the sense of longing or desire in your work if that makes sense.

C.S. - Yeah, I don't think of it as downloading my issues onto my work, so much. I tend to think of it more as an escape from whatever is bothering me, rather than a place to project or manifest the feelings.

A.L.A.S. - There are a lot of "tortured" artists out there that do produce a lot of very dark and disturbing art, and some of it is very good, but in many cases, they are clearly trying to express those feelings into the painting. To me, you seem to be finding a beautiful place to go to instead.

C.S. - I think that a lot of artists find it comfortable to work in that headspace. I don't. For me, I'm just going to a happy place. I think it's kind of the same when I sleep. Like, a lot of people will have nightmares or bad dreams, and I think that maybe they're subconsciously processing these negative emotions. But when I go to sleep, I go to this magical world. It's like I go to a kind of Heaven, and I wake up in a state of pure bliss.

Used with permission from the artist

A.L.A.S. - Wait, so you're saying that you never have bad dreams?

C.S. - Well, not never, I used to get a rare bad dream here or there, years ago when I was a kid, but now I've just weeded that all out.

A.L.A.S. - That is amazing. I wish we could all say that! How were you able to do it?

C.S. - Well, it's all about control. You can control the way your dreams go just with the power of your mind.

A.L.A.S. - Do you mean something like lucid dreaming?

C.S. - Well, maybe on a different level. I'm not necessarily lucid during the dream, but If I don't like where a dream is going, I'll just stop the dream, start over, and change it so that it isn't negative.

A.L.A.S. - So how many paintings do you think you have done over the course of your career? I know that you said that you started with drawing and writing and didn't discover your love for painting until later.

C.S. - Yeah, I didn't get into painting until about 10 years ago, and I think I've done around 30 or so paintings, so that's about 3 paintings a year. (Laughing) Honestly, that's not very many.

A.L.A.S. - Well, it's not as if you were trying to make a living solely on painting, at least right now.

C.S. - Yeah, most of the time I just do a couple for myself or to give as gifts to family members. I really like to do that, because that's what my grandma used to do. I do remember that one year I didn't give out any paintings as gifts, and I felt disappointed that I didn't create something for them, so that inspired me to paint a lot the next year.

Used with permission from the artist

A.L.A.S. - Do you see yourself continuing to do more and more painting? Is this something that you expect to start expanding in, like maybe using different mediums, things like that?

C.S. - Yeah I am. Because I'm so new to this still, it's exciting to keep getting better and better and to be able to see the progress in each painting. So far, I've only used acrylic paints and canvas or canvas board. I don't really have a well-ventilated area to try oil painting, so that will have to wait.

A.L.A.S. - Are you working on any new paintings now?

C.S. - With everything that's been happening with Alan and his medical issues, and the struggles with the custody battle for his daughter that he's been going through as well, I've just been so down these last couple of months that I just stopped painting for a while. I was just too upset to have the motivation to do anything creative. But then I started a painting about 2 days ago, and it made me feel better, which made me realize that this is what I should be doing when I feel this way.

Used by permission from the artist

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