Creative Space with Jennifer Logue

Visual Artist Krissy Whiski On Synesthesia and the Mosaic of a Creative Life

February 12, 2023 Jennifer Logue
Creative Space with Jennifer Logue
Visual Artist Krissy Whiski On Synesthesia and the Mosaic of a Creative Life
Show Notes Transcript

On today’s episode of Creative Space, we have the pleasure of speaking with the super talented visual artist Krissy Whiski. Her work is described as “painting the spaces between dreams,” and Krissy creates as a meditative and cathartic means of reflecting on life and what it means to be human. Her bright color palette and line work is informed by her experiences of synesthesia.

We cover so much ground in our conversation, including Krissy’s artistic beginnings growing up in Hamilton, NJ and frequenting Grounds for Sculpture as a kid. We also get a glimpse into what it’s like to see the world from the perspective of a visual artist like Krissy, and how she blends her inner world with the outer world through her painting.

For more on Krissy Whiski, visit: www.krissywhiski.com.

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SHOW NOTES:

0:00—Introduction

1:16—How we met

3:30—Playing at Grounds for Sculpture as a kid

6:02—The journey to getting to paint her bedroom walls

10:50—Being the weird kid and seeing the world as an artist

13:45—Synesthesia, the Fibonacci Spiral, and Tool’s “Lateralus”

16:06—How sunglasses help Krissy filter signal and noise

18:50—On wanting to become an artist professionally

20:36—Losing her stepdad and the move to Florida

23:00—Learning the art of selling art by working at a gallery

24:45—Moving to Savannah, figure drawing class, and photography

30:21—Krissy’s definition of creativity

33:30—Forget balance: the creative life is a mosaic

34:30—The creative advantage of a disorganized sketchbook

38:55—The genius of Krissy’s burn pile 

43:36—Her greatest challenge so far

44:24—Artists: do not measure yourself by clicks and likes

46:45—Breaking down her painting, ‘Gas Mask Kids’

49:51—Krissy’s 2016 short film, ‘Plague Doctors’

52:00—Breaking down her painting, ‘Rhiannon’

54:52—Krissy’s delivery experience for her art

57:54—Advice for aspiring visual artists

58:49—What’s next for Krissy?


Jennifer Logue:

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of creative space, a Podcast where we explore, learn and grow and creativity together. I'm your host Jennifer Logue. And today we have the pleasure of speaking with a super talented visual artist Krissy Whiski. Her work is described as pinning the spaces between dreams and Krissy creates as a meditative and cathartic means of reflecting on life, and what it means to be human. Her bright color palette and linework is informed by her experiences of synesthesia, which we'll talk about in the podcast. Krissy also has a unique approach and how she sells her paintings with collectors, which we'll discuss as well. When you see her work, you'll be even more blown away because Krissy is a self taught artist. I've been a big fan of hers for a while. Welcome to Creative Space. Krissy.

Krissy Whiski:

Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. That was an amazing intro.

Jennifer Logue:

Oh my gosh, wow. For an amazing artists. So thank you for being on the podcast. Thank you. Where are you calling from today?

Krissy Whiski:

I'm Amish country, Pennsylvania.

Jennifer Logue:

What an incredible place to create from

Krissy Whiski:

very free of distractions quiet and picturesque.

Jennifer Logue:

I love it. I love it. I love it. We see you in your beautiful, creative space of your own right now. Thank you. Um, so how we met? I'm trying to remember. I'm pretty sure I interviewed you when I was at Metro back in the day.

Krissy Whiski:

Yes, um, you interviewed and photographed me. I think we ran into each other in DC. It was either I think it was 2016 Oh, no, it was live painting. It was crowded. It was so packed in that building and crowded and we had a moment within the crowd. Like you were just saw me live painting and asked if you could photograph me and talk to me and read a moment in this loud, boisterous place. That was I think it was pretty special.

Jennifer Logue:

Oh my gosh, I love it. Yes, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I remember now sometimes that needs to be prodded, remembered certain things. And I'm like, Oh my God, yes.

Krissy Whiski:

And then I saw the article be published because I have a Google Analytics on my own name. Oh, artists job. So I saw the article show up. And I reached out to you and asked if I could reshare it through my social channels. on Facebook.

Jennifer Logue:

Oh my gosh, and I've been following you ever since. And just as a fan, I'm just it's so refreshing to see your work in my feed. And, you know, as a musician, as a writer, myself, I get inspired by visuals. Like that opens me up to layer in my own way.

Krissy Whiski:

That makes sense. Because my first inspirations for music. Oh, here we go. Great visuals for me.

Jennifer Logue:

Yes, yes. Yes, yes. So thank you for everything you do it seriously. Your work just adds a breath of fresh air to all of our days, you know, we see it. So let's start at the very beginning. Where did you grow up? And did you come from an artistic family?

Krissy Whiski:

Um, that's an interesting one I was surrounded to and exposed by a lot of art. I grew up in Hamilton, New Jersey, okay, stepfather when I was really young, worked for Parks and Recreation. So I have these memories that from very, very early of playing in the grounds for sculpture. Oh, I don't know if you've ever been there. I've never been there. It's like a giant to sculpture. There's there's human life size human people sitting on benches that are very lifelike and realistic. And I remember being a child and this being like my playground. Oh, it was very Alice in Wonderland feeling like when you look back. And I didn't realize that other people didn't have that. And then my mother worked for a printing company for a really long time. That still exists today. It's on Broad Street and Hamilton, New Jersey. And they printed Princeton's college Tiger magazines that contain out free and art drawings of the students. And I would sit and look through the pages of them that were printing like because things would get messed up in the bookbinding office and they just tossed that stack of papers to the side. So I do art alongside of these poems on the extra sheets of paper and I'd sit and draw when I was with her at work.

Jennifer Logue:

Oh cool. So much Art, that's a very different upbringing.

Krissy Whiski:

Yeah, it was. I had a lot of I say that I was a product of the late 80s, early 90s. We were the latchkey children. And we had a lot of freedom.

Jennifer Logue:

Yes, yes. Before the days of the internet, like, we'd still go out and play, we, you know,

Krissy Whiski:

showed up. And it was, was that was an impactful time to like, oh, the world just grew a whole lot wider. But having that in person, just freedom. Nobody knew where we were at for hours, or what we were doing. So we got to kind of explore the world, I think very differently than kids do today.

Jennifer Logue:

Yes, because now they're always connected. Yes. And there's a lack of being fully present unless you train yourself to didn't know how to disconnect. Yeah, that is so true. The physical world is such a beautiful place to be. When did you first start painting?

Krissy Whiski:

Haha, it first started through drawing and crowns. I was trying to express this internal mind's eye thing to others. And then art became it like evolved into this coping mechanism and supportive outlet for like, expressing myself and dealing with my emotions. But I do remember getting my first like paint kit. And it was one of those cheap stale like box kits that have all the art supplies, and I got it for Christmas one year. And I want to say I was like seven or eight. And I was, I was so stoked to get these. And I was, I should say I still am a messy painter. And I remember getting paint on the kitchen chair and then on the rug, and the paint. Painting was an area of contention, my supplies were taken away. In my parent's defense, I was compelled to draw on walls. I literally took to painting the street, I found leftover yellow curb paint since my dad works for Parks and Rec. And I painted a son in the center of the road.

Jennifer Logue:

I'm sure your parents didn't love it. But that's awesome.

Krissy Whiski:

I was being outdoors playing and no adults are really keeping a close eye out. So it seemed like a great idea at the time. My parents realized I could get in trouble for this. And I was compelled and obsessed to do it. I mean, at one point, I was sneaking around doing graffiti like my middle school years with the graffiti kids. Yeah. And my stepdad since he worked for Parks and Rec recognized my art. Like, oh, no, I think this is my kid. Because you know, they gotta show up clean the vandalism. And he confronted me on it at home. I was surprised that he recognized that it was my art. And he was worried like I could get him in trouble. I could just I could get my parents in some trouble and myself. So they essentially we compromised. And the walls of my bedroom. were allowed to become my if you're compelled to paint on walls or outside for summer, and we need to we can't vandalize other people's properties. So they painted my room, this sky blue, like a medium, they let me pick the color. And then I was allowed to just take pain through my middle school years and just create on those walls

Jennifer Logue:

incredible. Your walls are your canvas.

Krissy Whiski:

That was a huge like free like, I thought I was the coolest. I would invite my friends over and be like, do you want to add to the wall and it was like, some of them were so daunted by it and others were like, wait, what your parents are letting you but so it was a place my room became a Hangout. So cool.

Jennifer Logue:

I love that. Who were your early inspirations back then?

Krissy Whiski:

Oh, um, since I was exposed to all this are at the ground for sculpture there. I remember looking into this artist, his name was Johnson, Seward, Seward Johnson, I want to say his name was his sculptures are fascinating. But I have to say my earliest inspirations, absolutely earliest feel like music. It was one of the hardest things. It was tool. It was Jimi Hendrix. I was seeing the shapes and lines and colors on a guitar sings it's like a vibration. And I was like, I'm compelled to like, I thought everybody experienced it. And when I realized they didn't, they weren't having this like beautiful. I was like, Well, I gotta show you what this is. And interestingly enough family members like my dad worried that like float because people had it too, like I connected this in many ways, like there was something connecting and going on, where I'm abstracting things into lines and shapes and colors. And my parents worried that I was. Is there something wrong with your eyes? Oh, my gosh, floaters. Let's get you to an eye. Doctor. Are you sure you're not hallucinating? And they check my eyes. They brought me to some mental health professionals. Yeah, she's fine. Um, we don't know what this is. It's so I have heard the adult overheard the adult saying I was just making up stories. And then telling other kids, I became the weird girl who sees ghosts, she sees dead people in middle school. So in elementary school, it was like, I was just the weird kid. Um, because I confide in a friend. And like one of the friends. These were a group of twins and told the other brother, who was like, No, that's not. Oh my gosh, I remember the weird kid. And I stopped telling people about it for a while. My aunt joke that I saw auras, like this is before the internet was Yeah. Auras like

Jennifer Logue:

people. Oh my gosh, you're just an artist. I would be looking

Krissy Whiski:

everywhere, like in library books for Yeah. And it led me to like EVP and paranormal, like, led me to your rabbit holes of like trying to find the answer for what is this thing. And I just kept coming back to art. Like, it's just in me. It's my thing. And I kept drawing it and expressing it and putting it out there. But I wanted to blend the inner and the outer realities, like my inner reality, with the outer reality that everybody else will see. Yes. So I kept trying to think how can I do that so that people can connect to it still? Because it was too abstract? Yes. And I remember the first time seeing Hilda clips work and Kandinsky in an art museum, I was a dean, and we were on like some school field trip. And I was like, Oh, they know. They have the thing. But like, I'm not alone. They know. And then I, I saw Vincent van Gogh. And I was like, he knows and he's learned, I think he knows. And he's learned how to blend it. Like he's seen in

Jennifer Logue:

places. Yes, he's putting into his landscapes. He's seeing it in

Krissy Whiski:

people, I would say I will bill, I see paintings that he's done with people and I cry, because I'm like, Oh, she sees it too. Or he's, I say it's this. It's visual for me. But it's not all the time. It's like your mind's eye your perception of something beyond what you're seeing visually. So if you stare at something, and you look at it from different angles, and you kind of let your eyes do almost this, like this focus, you see what you see internally, like it breaks it down in your brain to simple shapes and lines. And the only thing I could find close to that made sense of it was, um, well, I found it numerous places like I kept coming back to Science was it's like a metaphysical, like consciousness thing. Have you keep finding the same patterns and shapes? And like all of nature, the building blocks of life? And unless all matters,

Jennifer Logue:

it's all connected, I'm convinced.

Krissy Whiski:

Yes, it definitely is.

Jennifer Logue:

So once you realize, we touched on your synesthesia, yes, in your intro, but you want to talk about that you eventually discover like, this is part of that too.

Krissy Whiski:

I have to think about how to convey this because we've touched on my son's a seizure a bit, but this has always been a hard one for me to like, share, because it's one of those there aren't a lot of words.

Jennifer Logue:

I think it's just that simple. idea of like, when you hear music, you see color.

Krissy Whiski:

Yes. Oh, here's a good explanation. So I sent tool was inspiring. Morales by tool, it was one of my favorite songs. And it was because I was connected to this the fiber non tree spiral. And then we so if you listen to the song, and you listen to the way the drums are playing, and the guitar sings, I don't know if you've ever heard the song, but there is the Natalia shape, that spiral that you see in ram's horns. It's the fiber Nachi spiral. It happens in the song over and over and over again. I put that song on whenever I need to do those spirals. So some of my paintings you'll see that and until your shape and then you'll see the waves. Alex gray is another artist who I stumbled upon through tool who raised this so beautifully. He's blended that inner and outer reality.

Jennifer Logue:

So cool. Everything is energy.

Krissy Whiski:

Yes, everything is energy and all of matter vibrates. So I see it in people, I hear it in music. It's like this brain connection. It like tickles on the brain and it creates these visual projections.

Jennifer Logue:

Absolutely fascinating because I see it in your work.

Krissy Whiski:

Thank you. Even sometimes objects in places can have it. And when it when it's there, and it really presents itself. It's like a fun thing. It's like, why

Jennifer Logue:

it's a heightened sense of reality to because you're able to see the world in a different way. So then even you know, when you're in Amish country, there's so much to be inspired by.

Krissy Whiski:

That is so true. Amish country is also a very easy there's no crowds. Oh crowds of people like I can get overstimulated by this time crowds of people with music playing. Especially if the sounds are all like they're not pretty shapes and patterns. And it's just all over the place sounds and chaotic, like the people are because I watch people's body language and that abstracts and the things because it's energy and vibrations. And when there's airports are really stressful for me. I put on sunglasses as a means to not let my eyes do this thing.

Jennifer Logue:

You know what's funny, I also get overstimulated in crowds. And a song that I wrote when I was living in New York City is called incognito. And it's about that it's about being overwhelmed by the world. Like sometimes I want to be alone. Sometimes I don't want the world to know, I put up my shades in a way I go incognito. Like oh my god, I gotta hear this song. Yeah, it's just and I thought I was just weird. But I think a lot of our artistic people, because you're so easily inspired. You're such a raw nerve that too much like an ambivert. I can handle both. But I need the sunglasses.

Krissy Whiski:

Same here. The sunglasses are mechanism. It's almost a visual way to I call it signal and noise. There's a lot of noise. I just want to find signal. What what is interesting in this yes, I'm always looking for

Jennifer Logue:

Oh my gosh. So interesting.

Krissy Whiski:

Noise and not any interesting signal. It's tiring, like it's just the sensory overload and overwhelming trying to process that I'm like, I need a day. So I used to do art shows every weekend. Oh, well. I'm at one point in my career. And I needed like two days to decompress, like the more people I had to deal with and the more crowds I needed a way to just so it led to me not being able to like put out as much heart so

Jennifer Logue:

and now you have a balance. Yes,

Krissy Whiski:

I found a way to make it manageable for me to like out approach for me that works.

Jennifer Logue:

Yes, because we're all different. All of us. Some of us really thrive. Being out with people all the time. Yes, some of us are more introverted, some of us are in the middle. But wherever we are, we got to like, accept who we are. So we can be the best we can be and create what we're meant to create on this planet. You know, exactly.

Krissy Whiski:

I go were periods of the introvert and the extrovert. It's like a shift change in different transitions.

Jennifer Logue:

That's so interesting. I need to that's so interesting. Um, so when did you know you wanted to paint professionally?

Krissy Whiski:

Oh, the paint professionally is an interesting concept. Because for a while, I didn't consider myself an artist during this thing, because I just loved it. I loved the idea of painters, I remember stumbling upon it, we can do this for a living. I remember, like I went back and forth on it on the realistic Is this realistic? Um, maybe because the stories that are told about Van Gogh and how he didn't have success in his life, and the way in society, we measure success these days. All but at six years old, as young as six years old when they asked me what do you want to be when you grow up? I wrote down artists and I would never change that. Even know it seems like maybe this is an unapproachable reality. I kind of just joked that I was going for a really hard thing. And for some reason, I just kept coming back to it. I went and tried other things, but I kept coming back to the

Jennifer Logue:

This okay, what are their paths as you go down?

Krissy Whiski:

Oh, I did all sorts of odd jobs. I worked in the corporate realm I worked Hugo Boss distribution. I worked in distribution centers, setting up shipping and receiving. Let's see, I did odd gig jobs. But I even from high school, I guess cuz in high school, I took a job painting walls, painting walls white. That was the, I wasn't allowed to have paint, like women's in my house on those bedroom walls. We left like my mom and my stepdad separated when I was in high school. And we moved to upstate New York, and it was a very big change for me. And I delved back into art, in sketchbooks and drawing, but I didn't have that ability to paint wall freedom. So I took a job I didn't live with my mom, my senior year, this like fractured our relationship because it was a time where I was exploring my identity until kind of shift everything in my life. I pushed really hard against that, to uproot my life at a point where I felt like things were going just right for me, and now we gotta move. But I adapted and I explored other things. I was in drama in high school, but I found myself in the art room a lot. And then I had a part time side job of painting walls white. And then a week before I graduated high school, my stepdad who I was still in contact with, I wasn't living with my mother, he passed away. Like right before I graduated, oh, my, kind of being confronted with like the death of a parent. It kind of made me drop everything else I was thinking about doing. And nothing really mattered anymore. And I moved to Florida, from upstate New York, I was like, I don't want to be where it's cold, I need to go next to the ocean. And I lived in the Fort Myers, Cape Coral area of Florida. And worked at Home Depot, mixing paint for a while and took all kinds of odd gig jobs. And that's where the good jobs happen. But I was always doing art on the side. Yes. And I ended back up at a paint contractor doing faux finishing and murals. I was back to painting on walls. And I was like, Oh, yes, this the God I

Jennifer Logue:

love this. Yes, yes.

Krissy Whiski:

And then an interesting thing happened. When the mural contractor jobs kind of slowed down, I took a tile distribution, I wasn't really happy there. And I knew I needed to get back to art somehow. And this kind of maybe became the catalyst for thinking about painting professionally. Welcome to this art gallery in Mandalay Bay, Florida. It's this. It's this wonderful town and that art gallery and there had sister galleries that I worked at, I walked in there and I knew, like something told me I had to be here. I kept coming back to it. And I was working a terrible job I hated. So I just asked the staff, it was all women around. There were all women running this gallery. And I approached one of them and had a conversation and said, What are you guys looking for any help and like, anyway, like, I need to be here. I want to be here. I, I want to be an artist. I was like, I need to learn how to sell art. If I can learn like if I can work here and like watch that. Yeah, part of that somehow. Maybe that'll unlock this being an artist thing for me. So I actually got hired there. And I was like 19 Amazing. The girl I approached and talked to told me how to get hired there and I best job ever. That's i That place was fundamental to me learning the business art. And I worked there until I was pregnant. When I worked there. My first son was born 2006 2007 my first son was born. And I left there right after I had him. And that was when it was it was oddly a good time to leave. The housing market was collapsing. And it started in Florida and the art gallery. Art sales were not happening as much anymore because people didn't have money for the extra luxury of art and people in that area. Were leaving Florida all these new homes weren't being built. And I ended up moving to Savannah, Georgia area. And then Savannah became the next fundament until, like shift in me for an artist the next level of growth, I say. So I didn't go to college for art school. And I say I'm self taught. But first, I watched these groups of professional artists and these women at the gallery selling and then I threw Savannah, there's classes you can take and sit out sit in on even if you're not getting a degree. Yeah, you know, how colleges offer classes to local community? Well, I wanted to do how to paint people better, because having synesthesia and people have shapes and colors, but I can't really, like accurately draw a person. How do I convey the shapes and colors and things happening in the peripheral? If I can't get the person, right? I'm like that it's pleasing when somebody gets the person, right. It's so I want to be able to do that. So I took a lot of classes on figure drawing and drawing people in the moment and getting that right. And that helped. And then I started a photography business. Oh, cool. Because composition, I was like, the what's in that frame matters. And I need to be able to, like, determine that, how do I do that? I picked up a camera. And I was like, learning how to know when you see it. That's the That's where it is. For me, I had to know when I saw it and capture it like quickly and a camera made that a way to learn how to do that. Especially when it's when things are happening, like in a moment to capture. It freezes a moment is a camera's ability.

Jennifer Logue:

Yes. I never thought about it that way. Yeah, that is my work. Now I did photography for a little while. Concert photography was years ago. But what you're saying now,

Krissy Whiski:

I'd won because of the energy. I worked with women who were pregnant, I was near military community and Spanish women who were pregnant women who wanted to send their boudoir pictures that was a thing for military women wanting to send pictures overseas that so they were there other half was I miss you type thing, family photos and babies. I absolutely love doing baby photography. And trying to make people in the boudoir it was trying to make them feel comfortable and beautiful. And not a lot of women were doing it. A lot of men were doing it. Some of them are predatory in it. Like I learned the difference between like perspective, then doing photography perspective and your like your view on it of what's interesting. That was an interesting thing. So that kind of influenced and shaped my art in its own little way. I think that everybody's art, or what they put out creatively is just a series of like, the influences that at the time, they were like if I can just get this right. Yes.

Jennifer Logue:

Like we just follow our intuition one step at a time. And someone out from the outside might be like, Oh, well, you're a painter. Why are you taking? Why are you doing photography? You should be painting. And it's like these little side steps we take it teaches us something else.

Krissy Whiski:

Yes. During all of this I was still painting on the side. I tried to do Commission's I did on and off I was painting portraits of people at sea had this when Etsy first booted up, I was on it and it was called alchemy. You could you could ask if you were a buyer for a thing you wanted and then look at what an artist general work was. And then the artists would say how much money that was going to cost an artists would like bid to do projects that they found interesting. I was so sad when that collapsed because the whole China market was just coming in and like I don't know if it was the whole China market, but people were ordering things in the mass producing, like paying an artist for one off and then mass producing. And there was no copy, right? Like it created. Like we're going to mass produce this for Home Goods it created and we're like, no, no, no, no, this was that was not the intent of this. And there became a learning for me in that on like, what what are protect, like, what do you do when that happens?

Jennifer Logue:

You have to know your rights as an artist. That's if you want to do it professionally. And now, you know you're selling to collectors. You're able to do this full time. How does that feel?

Krissy Whiski:

Oh, it's great to be able to have time as time is always the thing you need. You need time and you need space. And time is the thing I fight against so much because it feels so temporal. It feels like relative to the moment so I think being full time and having more of that time to explore. It's just um, it's, it helps me create routines and habits of just what muscle Do you want to build on now? Like, what are you mining for in this thing that you're creating?

Jennifer Logue:

Yes, you need that to keep moving forward. So this is creative space. And I asked this question of everyone on the podcast, but what is your definition of creativity?

Krissy Whiski:

That is such a good question and such a certain, almost difficult oneness sum up because it is so many things. But I like to say that creativity is a catalyst, it's finding the signal from the noise. And taking that input of your signal and saying, Well, what if I tried this, and then putting your take on it. So it's we're taking from like a, I say, it's the source. It's everything you're taking from everything all around you, but you're trying to find the signal in it, what's interesting, and why, and then build on and grow and evolve that it's almost like it's in our nature, all of us as humans, everybody has it. And you just have to kind of work at it, to know what your nature is, and how that'll take hold to create something new.

Jennifer Logue:

I love that. I love that. I love that. Because there's so much stimulus around us all the time. And it's taking that seed of an idea, that thing that's interesting, and then having your own opinions enough as a person, you're putting it through that filter.

Krissy Whiski:

Yes. And then of all your experiences.

Jennifer Logue:

Absolutely love that. What's your creative process as a painter,

Krissy Whiski:

as a painter, I get up every day, I have my breakfast and my coffee, and I head up to my art studio and unusually shut the door. And I'm in there for eight to 10 hours. And there have been points where I haven't painted for a while, like a long stretch during COVID had to get my kids through school. I'm a mom, I'm a mom of two boys and my youngest on lockdown happened. That's like a fundamental time of learning to read your letters. Yeah, so and the school required, we sit down in Google chats and needs. And so as a parent, you have to be in the video tracks with them. Because you can expect five and a six year old sit in front of incidentally, nine follow instructions, so you got to aid them. So that was an interesting learning time, but I had less time to create. And then getting back into it was like rebuilding a muscle. It was like one small step at a time. And you had I had to let go of what I had passed.

Jennifer Logue:

Yes, that's so important.

Krissy Whiski:

I couldn't even look at the past artwork. I was like, we need to take it down. It can't be anywhere because it was creating, I want my art to be back where it was

Jennifer Logue:

yes, I totally relate.

Krissy Whiski:

And it was not that it was something different. And I had to be, I had to be okay with that, but also learn where I wanted to be. And so my creative process is that eight to 10 hours a day in the studio, it's not all spent painting, there's a lot of time that is sharing content, I go through phases where that's the focus. And I have to learn how to balance it, or maybe mosaic it balance is hard. Because that's like an always fine tune thing. And I heard somebody say it's more of a mosaic.

Jennifer Logue:

That's really smart. I like that idea. Much more than balance,

Krissy Whiski:

go to wide because I've noticed its patterns and routines. And it's just, you can only focus on so many things in your time in your day. So how do you box it and make it a pattern and routine that just makes it easy to keep replicating on and like iterating on until you get it right and good? Yeah, it's like a recipe. Yes, exactly. And when you have the recipe and all the you have the materials and the space and all the things are in place, you can just keep doing it. But I don't think all those things need to be perfect, right? You can start with what you have wherever you are, and just slowly make more room for yourself.

Jennifer Logue:

Yes, as you grow Yes. As your career grows. That's beautiful. So what is the process like because I I've never painted anything before. I mean, everything sketching?

Krissy Whiski:

Yes, everything usually starts as a drawing. Sometimes it's a photograph or a moment and sometimes it starts is just words on a paper. So the words on a paper one is interesting because I will be out somewhere I carry a sketchbook everywhere and ideas will just whoa this is a neat concept or I found that interesting write it down and my sketchbooks are in no way organized. And I think I do that for a reason. There's been many reasons I think I do that. But one of the things that I find interesting and doing this sketchbook kind of disorganized, is you open it and have to find where was that idea? I want to work on that some more. So I need to find that page. And sometimes you'll land on a different page and say, no, no, no, no, it's this right here. Or I can blend these two things. It's almost like it's a weird synchronicity. And I always I joke that if you just listen like it, it'll tell you what it was just let it happen.

Jennifer Logue:

I love that it's just listen. Absolutely love that. How long did it take to create one of your paintings? Because there's, there's so much happening that you feel so much emotion, taking it in. So how long does

Krissy Whiski:

it take? That's a hard thing to measure. I joke that time for me is very temporal. And it is I, there have been days I have come up to my art studio. And I think I'm in here for 1520 minutes. And then my other half was wonderful, comes up and says, It's like past the time. Usually, we usually make dinner and like the kids are home and I'm like, Whoa, it's what time. Wow. And sometimes I've created a whole painting and other days, I've just like sat and journaled and like drew in my sketchbook and tried to flesh out an idea that was happening. So I do record the process of all of my paintings so that I have the content and the time lapses to share. So just the painting part can take about 40 hours. Wow, it could before that. It's it's hard to measure because sometimes an idea comes and you work on it for days and days and days, and it just doesn't go any further. And other times you can I make a whole painting. And just say, you know why? I got to start it over there. There was something really incorrect here. Like the way I approached this was not the right one. And I'll iterate on it again. So there's a lot of like, where time just goes missing?

Jennifer Logue:

Yeah, because you're you're on the road to getting the idea to its fullest potential and just like listening to your intuition.

Krissy Whiski:

Yes. And there's an interesting thing there where you don't want to be a perfectionist about it. No, you're trying to do the best. Yes, you make this idea come across the way you're kind of seeing it or experiencing it. You're like, I gotta conveyed that. And if it's not, right, like I say you have to be a fan of your own work first. Before before you share it. Because if you share something that you don't like, that's a weird, I learned that while doing commissions for people. Oh, you're never going to like it or be happy with it. And it just like weighs it's like a weird weight on your wasn't my best.

Jennifer Logue:

And the energy that gets sent out is different. Yes, you probably. I never thought of that before. That's really interesting. What do you draw inspiration from today?

Krissy Whiski:

Oh, I my rabbit holes all over the place. It's like that signal from noise thing. And the universe just kind of shows up and tells you what it wants you to create. You sit down and you're like, What do I want to draw today? It's odd things. I'll be having my cup of coffee and the birds coming to the window now because I'm a crazy bird lady I feel. And a bird will come to the window and tap on the windows. Like they're insisting were like, Oh, maybe I should add that bird to the painting. Maybe that's a concept like we had when I came home from. I don't know if you saw the three month long road journey trip where I went back into photography. Fully. I have a whole different page with all the photography of the places we went to it was national parks. We were on the road for three months.

Jennifer Logue:

I did see the Burning Man stuff, but I didn't realize it was a three month journey.

Krissy Whiski:

Remarkable. 16 states I think I can't even remember. That's cool. Yeah, so many national parks. It was just the time to do that. And I photographed and experienced a lot of animals. But when we came home from that, our two Cardinals say this is the crazy bird lady thing. The two Cardinals that were in our yard had babies, and there was more. And the two youngest babies were just learning how to fly and my youngest son he absolutely loves birds. So him watching this and just the joy he was experiencing of oh, these new baby birds. And so I decided to do a painting about time and like aging. And the Cardinals like in my head. I was like symbolically the four cardinal directions and like how time and space are just a very temporal thing. It's like a physical thing, but metaphysically it doesn't. I don't think it exists. It doesn't feel real to me.

Jennifer Logue:

Time is subjective.

Krissy Whiski:

Yes, it is. It's very subjective to the moment until you start analyzing it and trying to measure it. And you're like, wait a minute. Didn't feel like yours. I think we all got to experience that. I'm like, finally everybody's Where

Jennifer Logue:

are you been? I've been talking about this so long. I want to see that pitting. I don't think I've seen that one. The forger, the carnal direction?

Krissy Whiski:

down because I did not do the idea. I think I I shared it. And then it went to the burn pile.

Jennifer Logue:

Okay, we've talked about the burn pile because I know about the burn pile. I think it's so cool. But you want to tell listeners about your burn pile?

Krissy Whiski:

Yes. So I'm burned my art. The pieces that over time as an artist, you shift and change and evolve, your work grows and moves in different directions. And I think you get a better eye for what pieces are actually the good ones and which aren't. Because every piece is not a masterpiece. And it allows you it gives you more permission to try something and just know if it if it's not working. It's it's not so because I sell my art, I have to think it's not sellable. Like if I wouldn't want this to be out there long term because it's just, it's just missing that one little thing. Then I set it aside and it's not for sale, and it gets burned. Because it wasn't, it wasn't the best it could be. And then that gives me the space to recreate it new without that debt of the old one. This was the old one looked like and I'm like, no, no, no, think about just what you can change with that and do it a new and let it be it's

Jennifer Logue:

letting it go. Letting go is so important and creation of any kind.

Krissy Whiski:

Yes, I also I also think that I didn't go to college. But I think a lot of art in the beginning is just trying to master the medium. And like translate your thing into the medium. And when I sat down to paint full time for like that, eight hour a day stretch a lot of those paintings. Not good. I just had to be okay with that. I realized this is like going to the gym, it's building. Yes, I just have to learn how to do this thing here and find a groove with it or where it's working. So you got to be okay with failing a whole bunch of times, or maybe not getting it 100% Right. Because that's part

Jennifer Logue:

of the process too. You know, it's not going to be amazing out the gate even. Even when you're an amazing artist. When you're working on an idea for it to be the best it can be. My friend Calvin on the podcast talked about creativity being like a hose. And like sometimes when you first turn the hose on, you get like the dirty water. It's like

Krissy Whiski:

Oh yeah, that is such a good metaphor for it.

Jennifer Logue:

Yeah, but then eventually that Clean Beautiful water comes out like full blast.

Krissy Whiski:

But each time you stop and restart or even change mediums

Jennifer Logue:

yeah, great metaphor is so interesting. What is the greatest challenge you've faced in your career so far?

Krissy Whiski:

For the greatest challenge always feels like the current one that you're in. We're in it and you're facing it at the time. So it's whatever you're confronting at the moment um but the restarting every time I've had to stop because being a mom requires stopping sometimes the focusing on the other thing the reality real world the inner world and that's finding the space to create and the restarting and being okay like letting go of the past debt. And I think the burning art helped with that. And the sometimes not sharing sometimes I'll go quiet on social media.

Jennifer Logue:

Social media is an energy drain

Krissy Whiski:

yes it is this constant feed the content feed the beast but you don't the feedback you get is not always genuine or sincere or even thoughtful. This this appreciating art through thumbs up and clicks and likes and then measuring the feedback based on that is so it's not I know it's our current modality but artists do not. That is a good advice artists do not measure yourself by these clicks and likes, it's just like building the creativity muscle, you have to learn how to feed this almost beast, you don't have to. But if you want to grow on that, that's its own learning thing. And I learned about that both through the gallery with marketing my other artists work. And through looking into the startup world, and like how these platforms work, and what the intention drivers are. And I don't play in all of them. Because the current one, the attention drivers push to divide people. I'm very tribal, it's to start fights and arguments, because that's what people queue into. And as long as I can get, maintain your attention and your focus and sell more ads. That becomes the driving mechanism. And I won't play into that one. I tried to just look for the dopamine release of I'll just put out something that I think is really cool. And if people connect with that, so I don't often go viral. I used to before the driving mechanism was tribal. But

Jennifer Logue:

yeah, I look forward to your posts though. Like, you know what I'm having a long day. And just seeing that pop of color and something you created, like maybe think of something, maybe see something in a different way. Like ah, yes, I guess I enjoyed the dopamine release. And I think a lot of us do enjoy your dopamine releases your paintings.

Krissy Whiski:

Thank you. I figure if you communicate in the way that's most genuine, the right people will find you. And your

Jennifer Logue:

Yes, yes. So, so true. Now, obviously, I love all of your work. But my personal favorites are Rhiannon vanity program. And gas masks kids is also really interesting. I'll just quickly give a visual description for people. It's given a classroom, they're wearing gas masks, and on the chalkboard you've written no climbing, no playing No scissors, no daydreaming, no bullying, no joking. No laughing No talking, no singing, no humming, no winning, everyone is special. You're all winners? Do you want to talk about that? Because it resonated with me. I'm like, oh, man,

Krissy Whiski:

a hard piece. And it has I do some hard pieces that are political or dwell on Hard, hard themes. Not everything is happy. And this one was actually from 2016. And it hasn't made it in any fire. It was I sometimes have dreams. And I keep a notebook next to me even in bed, I will wake up and try to write down just the core. What was I feeling? What? What did I see in the stream, like what was shocking. And this stream felt like a Cold War era imagery of the kids in gas masks. And it felt very like, like I felt what the kids were feeling and that they were being very stifled. And the emphasis on keeping them safe wasn't on the right things. And I was worried and I have kids. So I was like, what does this mean? I'm always trying to like, search out dream meanings and try to figure out the archetypes like what does this mean? What am I seeing here? And I think it was with my kids in school, I was reading headlines of this conformity to like school started to feel like a conformity machine. And that served us well as a society for like, quite some time. But there were issues in it. Um, recess being cut, more and more kids not playing outside. Separating the kids who eat peanut butter and like a different area, not letting him like, not like not letting those kids sit near to the kids who hadn't have peanut butter. And I'm like, How does this impact the children like are we thinking about what it's like for them? And then interestingly, I went through a phase right before COVID Where I painted plague doctors. And somebody pointed out that gasmask kins painting from 2016 Doesn't that newspaper on the floor and the painting are like zoomed in, and it says epidemic. And I was like, Yeah, I've handled that in 2016. It was just like this worry and concern and they're like, it was a person who purchased one of my plague doctors. This was 2019 in the fall like October, my Halloween focus was plagued doctors and it wasn't just me. I feel like the Gates Foundation. Bill Gates Foundation was putting out there pandemic like the the reality of that could happen. neuter museum I went to spit spreads plague, huh. And they hadn't in Philadelphia, they had an exhibition and I went and I was like, wow, yeah, this is I'm going to do the plague doctors for Halloween. Yeah. And then I made like a short little film. It was like two minutes long and it was based on a fever dream. I had it in October. It's still there somewhere in my I use social media Facebook like quash the heck out of that fun. After COVID Happiness started getting shared around people were like, Yo, what is the news headline to her across the bottom of it? And it was just a woman and a plague doctor mask. I filmed myself as a woman and a plague doctor mask treating a patient in bed.

Jennifer Logue:

Oh my gosh, that's crazy. Yeah, it

Krissy Whiski:

was really weird. It was. I have not I tried to make it into a painting. And I was like the paintings not right, it has to be a short film, and I don't even do film. I was like, half the camera and just try. And then that happened. And it and COVID happened locked down happened a few months later, in March of 2020. And it was like, oh, was this related to that? It just like made you Oh, was this like a message in my dream. So I pay a lot of attention to dreams. And like, I feel like our subconscious going, Hey, there's something happening here. If you just listen to

Jennifer Logue:

this is our subconscious. We could we could do a whole nother episode just talking about our subconscious in that role. Its role in creativity, because I've even written songs in my sleep, like I've dreamt up songs, but this is another level

Krissy Whiski:

in my sleep, and then I wake up and I have to try to recreate. I've had sleep issues and I have come upstairs and created an entire painting and thought I slept the night and the next day come up into my art studio and a painting is halfway started. And I'm like, Oh, I didn't believe that when you guys try not to do it because I grew really bad insomnia and I went through a period where I didn't sleep at all and had to be hospitalized. Not sleeping very incredibly bad for your entire body. I recommend sleeping is

Jennifer Logue:

amazing. Sleeping is a magical gifts. And yeah, I had a similar experience. We'll talk about it. But I also love Rihanna in that painting. There's been so much joy, like, do you want to talk about it? I know how I feel but this is about I want to interview you I want to hear.

Krissy Whiski:

Okay, I hope I don't take your view. You know, it's an interesting thing. How other people experience art is completely related to their experiences. But Rhiannon is a mystical goddess I, I've actually looked into her. She showed up in dreams. She's a celestial meaning from the other world and West mythology and Welsh mythology. The Celts called her opponent. They her name means Queen of the Night, okay, Fleetwood Mac wrote a song about her. And that is the painting I had to her performances, and watching some of her live performances. I was like, I have to paint this. And oddly, the first time I attempted to paint her was after I had my second son in 2013. And you always remember historically, like what's going on when you're working on a visual painting. And I remember Russia was invading Ukraine in 2013. And it just like sort of happened. And then it kind of like, all went away. Like I since I got the Crimea peninsula, and then it all just like News didn't focus on that anymore, for whatever reason. And then I sat down and wanted to that painting didn't work. But for whatever reason, I was like, It's not good enough yet. It's just not working. I attempted again. And I was listening like morning coffee, looking at a couple of news headlines and taking things in and I'm like Russia's invading Ukraine again. Why is it every time I'm compelled. There's some strange like she shows up when he's being invaded. I don't know if it's signal or noise.

Jennifer Logue:

But the inspiration behind it?

Krissy Whiski:

Yes, definitely. Stevie Nicks the lyrics in that song and the like, dreams on unwind loves the state of mind.

Jennifer Logue:

I love Stevie Nicks. Why? I interviewed her on the red carpet years ago, and I just felt such a connection. I mean, everyone does obviously Stevie Nicks, but she she's out of this world magical.

Krissy Whiski:

Well, yes, she is. She's very in touch with that other realm. Yes.

Jennifer Logue:

Oh, she's so is. So that's probably why I love the painting so much. I love it. You answered the question I was wondering about. Um, so you have a unique approach in how you sell your art to collectors. Do you want to talk about that?

Krissy Whiski:

Yeah, sure. Um, I consider it. Let me let me think about how to phrase this. Yes, I call it the delivery experience. It's how I deliver art. So I personally hand deliver my pieces of art. This just started happening when people bought art locally. And it evolved. From there, I started realizing that this art is like a shared, it resonates with people. And it becomes like a shared experience. And it's almost a container for how these two people relate to this thing. And I think it's really important as an artist to like, own your audience a bit. Like to kind of know who they are and understand why. Because I've always just been trying to connect and blend my inner reality with the outer reality. And when other people see it resonates. It's like why I need to know why. So this allows us to like curate a day, I've had really cool days where I've gone out to Colorado area to meet a collector who bought a couple of pieces of my work. We spent a day at Garden of the Gods and meow Wolf. He introduced me to Korean food, which was, yes, thank you for this. I love Korean food. I've had days where I've just come to a person's home, I brought Amish doughnuts out to a collector phone. I've had other people from New York City come to me and say, Can I bring my kids because this is a gift for my kids. And I just want them to beat you.

Jennifer Logue:

Oh, so cool

Krissy Whiski:

gum and the kid with us in the kids, it just sporadically happened, we ended up doing art together in my studio. So I was doing art. And then now I'm experiencing Amish country, which was a nice break from New York City.

Jennifer Logue:

Oh my gosh, what a memory to have.

Krissy Whiski:

So the painting ends up being the container for this memory. And I also offer these art manuscripts. It's a book with what, like what music, I was listening to what inspired the art and the words poetry, I try to pull those artifacts together. And first, I make sure the art is delivered. And we have our experience, I believe blank pages in there for them to write an ad anything. And then this book becomes a way when the art is inherited more longer term to understand, like, why did why did dad buy this thing? Like? Because I like the history of art. And the stories are interesting. Like why did this resonate for him? And like, why did the artists create this? So

Jennifer Logue:

that is so unique, I love it. Because life is experiences and you know, when you're able to connect your art to that it makes it so memorable and just more of a multi dimensional experience.

Krissy Whiski:

Yes. Yes. And I think that's important.

Jennifer Logue:

So important. What advice do you have for aspiring visual artists?

Krissy Whiski:

I say just create and make a little bit progress every day, and give yourself permission to try things. And no, or try to understand your voice within what you want to or have to say like what is it I'm interested in. I'm gonna expect to love your work right from the start. It's a journey. It's an evolution. And what you create today, or what medium you work in today might not be the one you're working in tomorrow, meditate, take care of yourself, learn to balance are not balanced, that's a terrible, learn to mosaic the day and get good at quieting all the outside noise and distractions. So you can focus on signal versus noise. And I for me, meditation has been a huge form of doing that.

Jennifer Logue:

What's next for you?

Krissy Whiski:

I keep saying it's it's just continuing to make the work. It's continuing to put out my art and to the universe. I'm taking opportunities that show up as I see fit. And just seeing where the journey takes me. Hopefully I get discovered by more people and my with whom my artwork resonates. And I just got to find ways to amplify myself.

Jennifer Logue:

Yes. I mean, your art makes such an impact on me on so many people already. Like I think it's only just going to keep growing

Krissy Whiski:

from here. Awesome. And thank you for helping amplify me.

Jennifer Logue:

Oh my gosh, my pleasure. Oh my goodness. At my absolute pleasure, Chrissy. For more on Chrissy whiskey, visit pricy whiskey.com And thank you so much for tuning in and growing in creativity with us. I'd love to know what you thought of today's episode. You can reach out to me on social media ads Jennifer Logue or leave a review for creative space on Apple podcasts so more people can discover it. I appreciate you so much for being here in the beginning stages of this My name is Jennifer Logue and thanks for listening to this episode of creative space until next time