Hi, I'm Kryssa...
No matter what season in my life I am in, art has always been a constant for me. As a kid I loved to get messy and fully immerse myself in whatever I was creating. As a teen, it was a lifeline and art continued to be my lifeline throughout college and university. I started University at age 17, and after a modality and minor switch from chiropractic to teaching, and Biology to Spanish I earned my Bachelor of Education with a major in Art and a minor in Spanish from the University of Alberta by age 24. This was achieved shortly after giving birth to my first child as well. After one year of maternity leave, I was working in retail and then teaching full time as a substitute as well 6 month later. I had a full time temp teaching contract not long after and getting married before I turned 27. We welcomed out second kiddo to the world and I was back to work subbing full time five months later, accepted a full time teaching contract at a private school for twice exceptional students the following school year and received my permanent teaching certification before I turned 30. But life is rarely as simple as a short and organized timeline. It's not surprising to me now that it wasn't until I had my second child, and was teaching in special education and gifted classrooms during a pandemic that I burned out. I was deeply struggling with depression and crippling perfectionism for most of my life, that going on long term disability and working with therapists, occupational therapists, and sessions of EMDR that I learned my experiences with undiagnosed ADHD, Autism, OCD and CPTSD had profoundly shaped my path.
Once again, creativity and art became a way back to myself. I took the opportunity to work on my own abandoned art supplies and my big, sensitive feelings and create artwork again while I supported myself and advocated for my own neurodiverse kids and their own assessments. I eventually needed to go back to work, but teaching was not going to be it. I decided to start selling my artwork actively again while working part time. Through that process I found myself and community through friends that become family and the neurodiverse community in Alberta and online spaces.
While exploring the art on my website and social media sites, you will see past, present and future art pieces and concepts I've either had stowed away, hanging up on my walls or are new creations and mediums. My artwork has evolved many times over the years with blends of contemporary and abstract elements while I draw inspiration from nature, mythology, and the human form. Through layered colour, texture, and line, I play with multiple forms of media with a focus on painting. Each piece of art I create comes from my intuition, feelings, expression and connection to myself and the world around me . I do not use or support AI.
Follow up notes... My website is a journey through my mind and I created it myself through bouts of energy and hyperfixation time. It is always undergoing updates and sometimes lapses in updates, so stay tuned and feel free to explore at your leisure! I am the most active on IG, however I do want to put more of a focus on my website since I pay for it.....
If you notice any functional issues with the site, please let me know. You can sign up for my mailing list (I hope it works) and l promise I won't spam you with emails everyday, I need to figure out how to send the emails first.
Workshop info coming soon!