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Interview 18
Enjoy our Folk Art Summer Time Interview with Kristina Layton and her Mountain Art!
1. Hi Kristina can you please tell us a little bit about your self and you family.
I'm a painter and illustrator, and I live outside of Denver, Colorado. My husband, Gil, and I have a 16 year-old daughter, Catherine, and an 11 year-old son, Sam. Gil and I both grew up in the southeast (Georgia and North Carolina), but after we married, his job moved us further and further west. We settled in Colorado ten years ago~ it’s home to us and I don't think we could ever leave!
 2. Can you tell us if your family was inspirational in you doing art and if so how.
Always! My parents are both very creative and have always supported and encouraged me. My dad paints some and makes furniture, my mom used to quilt and still does all sorts of crafts. She also designs websites!
My own family inspires me all of the time. Gil plays guitar in a band ( www.myspace.com/prankstersband ) and my kids both play guitar and violin (Cat’s band~ www.myspace.com/fallingtoflyband ), so there’s almost always some kind of music in the house. I started teaching myself to play the mountain dulcimer about six months ago. I'm not very good yet, but it’s a lot of fun! Raising children, watching them grow and play, the places we go, things we see, and do and learn, and the sweet, quiet moments together~ they do inspire me and give me lots of ideas for paintings.
3. Kristina can you tell me how it is that you came to do Mountain and Folk Art?
I started to find a creative focus when my children were babies~ in storybooks, nursery rhymes and lullabies. I volunteered for a year at our library in San Diego as the children’s storyteller. In planning each week’s theme, I read and researched folk songs, folk tales, fairy tales, tall tales and legends. The land right under us all has its own history, stories and songs, and I hope to share them in my paintings.
4. Can you please tell us what artists or people inspired you to do art and what artists you have in your heart as being your favorites.
My first favorite artists were story book illustrators. When I was little, one of my favorite books was Gnomes, by Rein Poortvliet. The paintings are so gorgeous and realistic, and presented like a field guide, and you could believe that world really did exist. I love the realism, detail to nature, and the mythology of the Pre-Raphaelites and Waterhouse; the wild magic of Arthur Rackham, John Anster Fitzgerald and Brian Froud; and the sweetness and comfort in illustrations by Jessie Willcox Smith and especially Cecily Mary Barker~ I've painted lots of little elf girls with wildflowers inspired by her Flower Fairies.
Beatrix Potter’s books perfectly capture the place she loved most, England’s Lake District. She had a great interest in natural history, and even as a child, she collected specimens of plants to draw and made completely charming and accurate paintings of the little wild animals she observed and tamed as pets. With the success of her books, she bought farms and properties in the Lake District to conserve the countryside, and left over 4,000 acres to the National Trust. What a wonderful artistic legacy!
5.) Did you go to school for art and if so where?
I took art classes in high school and a few drawing and beginning design classes for a year at Appalachian State University, in North Carolina. For a few summers, I worked at a studio where we hand-sculpted ornaments and figurines. It was good, practical working experience, and forming animal shapes in clay helped me learn to draw them better.
6.) What kind of mediums do you prefer to work in?
I use acrylic paints, sometimes on wooden board, but usually on illustration board.
7.) Do you do any other type design or products with your talents and what type products do you offer for your fans?
I've done poster artwork for some local bands and, this summer, for a music festival. In my Etsy shop ( www.crowhill.etsy.com ), I offer original paintings and also decoupage prints on wooden magnets, ornaments, plaques and jewelry boxes. I'm making lots more of these right now! :)
8.) Can you tell us if you have had any special jobs or awards for your art?
I won a few awards back in school. In 2004, a painting of mine was used as a poster for my town’s summer festival. I had only been painting “professionally” for less than two years, so that was pretty encouraging! I've placed in a couple of art shows in my town, but I'm not that comfortable with art as a competition. I think every piece of expression is individual and as worthy and as wonderful as another.
9.) We always ask this question from each person we interview Kristina so could you answer it the best you can. How do you feel about the earth and the animals with the thought of our environment as a issue?
I feel very connected to the earth around me. In my blog, http://crowhillalmanac.blogspot.com/ , I keep a journal of the hill behind my house~ the animals we see, the plants in bloom, the weather and seasons, and paintings inspired by them. My family has had many wonderful moments in those woods, and has a real love and respect for them. We've watched the importance of conservation and proper management. There are lots of volunteer opportunities to support, or provide a service to, a local public open space, or state or national park.
10.) If you got to paint anywhere in the world where would it be?
Ooh, may I go back in time, too? I would want to see what the landscape of America looked like 200 or 300 years ago~ an entire continent of forests and plains, all native plants and animals in perfect balance with people. It would have been so exciting to be one of the artists that went on the first expeditions west, drawing maps and bringing back images of unbelievable land formations, new plants and strange animals.
11.) If you had just one wish what would it be?
WORLD PEACE, OF COURSE! WORLD LOVE~
12.) Now since we have never had a Folk Artist on our INTERVIEWS I would like to do something different with you Kristina and ask you to take some time and explain to our public what FOLK and Mountain Art is. THANKS SO MUCH for THIS SPECIAL REQUEST MRS. LAYTON.
I'm certainly not an expert on folk art, but one doesn't need to be! Folk Art is art and crafts made by common folk, reflecting their traditional culture. There are folk arts from every culture in the world! American folk art is sometimes called “primitive”, “naive”, or “outsider” art, and artists are mostly self-taught or the skills have been passed down through generations. You can find folk arts like wood carvings or quilts at local fairs, or most likely, already a much-loved craft in your own home. www.etsy.com is the most amazing place to find hand-crafted works of art~ just search “folk art” for unlimited interpretations! Some of my favorites are mixed-media paintings by Heather of Audrey Eclectic ( http://www.reverieart.blogspot.com/ ). To me, folk art is the collection of stories in your soul, and feels like home.
Please take some Magic Mountain Time and Visit Kristina's Links. She is just as beautiful as a person as her art and has a lot of things to offer a warmth way of life and love for the earth... Thanks so much for stopping... CINDY
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