Kristie Betlejewski
This past year I have been going through a lot of emotional challenges and I felt the urge to draw, which I haven’t done since I was young and in school. When deciding what I wanted to draw it was really only one thing that consistently holds my attention. Animals have always been my favorite thing in life, even from my earliest memories.
And that is how this collection came about. The watercolor is something I’ve never done before and have been struggling to figure out. Since I no longer have space to make messy art, watercolor is something I can do at the kitchen table and clean up with water. But unlike with acrylic and oil painting, I never took a watercolor class in my youth art classes and it has been a very different medium to figure out. I ended up throwing out some of my favorite drawings because I painted over them too dark and it ruined them.
For whatever reason, my urge is to draw not to paint. While I enjoy both, the drawing I feel sure of while painting is simply a trial and error. It actually makes me nervous if I really like my drawing to try painting it. There’s a drawing of one of my dogs that captures her so perfectly I’ve decided not to risk painting over it. But this whole thing was just therapy for me so it’s ok to make mistakes and try again..
My favorite thing about showing this collection to people is that everyone has a different favorite, because it’s not about the art, it’s about the animal. I think we all have different animals that we have an affinity for, and it’s as unique as our personalities. I hope everyone finds one they connect to.