Green Valley artist Kristin Harvey can’t help it. When she paints, her spirit is revealed on her canvas, so much so, in fact, that she refers to her work as “spirit expressions.”
“I think with every artist that goes deep inside you’re faced with demons as well as blessings,” she said. “Sometimes that dark will come up but it never comes out on my canvas. I think those thoughts but it’s more that I use my work to transfer it into something joyful because when I paint it’s pure joy. My experience of it and the physicality of it is joy.”
Among her works are impressionistic interpretations of Southwest landscapes. It’s the hues, the culture and the desert she loves.
“My folks retired out here and we would come and visit,” she said. “I was just taken with the landscape and especially, especially the colors and the influence of the Mexican culture around here. I just adore the bright, saturated color… Bold, bright colors have always been my thing.”
That love is evident in her work, which is part of the reason she has been invited to exhibit 12 new original pieces and nine giclee prints in a show called, “Outside the Lines.”
It opens on Friday, Sept. 6 at the art gallery of Desert Hills Lutheran Church, 2150 S. Camino del Sol, Green Valley. She is the first artist outside the church community to be invited to show. A reception to view the works and speak to Harvey will take place from 4 to 5:30 p.m. on opening day.
The name, “Outside the Lines,” really does speak to who Harvey is and how she has progressed as an artist. At one time, she said, she used to map out every detail of her paintings with pencil and chalk. The lines became a guide for her brushstrokes. Those days are over.
“I have grown on my creative journey, and I approach my painting quite differently now,” she said. “No longer are the details pre-planned. Rather, I paint intuitively, surrendering to my spirit and allowing it to flow through the paint and onto the canvas in a way that feels natural at that moment.”
Harvey has been expressing herself through art since she was a little girl, “starting with a giant chalkboard and I drew on it constantly, constantly, constantly making things,” she said.
Her parents encouraged her artistic endeavors until eventually she earned her bachelor of fine arts degree in illustration from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. She pursued a career in digital design and worked creating backgrounds, characters and animations for Sega of America, Activision and Maxis. She designed Sega’s first-ever website. A move to Arizona changed Harvey’s trajectory and now she is a full-time painter.
Ask Harvey and she will tell you that, for her, painting is life.
“It’s tied to my mental health,” she said. “It’s very serious because I know if I don’t paint I will become a very unhappy and anxious person. If I get into my studio … it keeps me in balance overall, healthwise, mental, physical, everything.”
What Harvey really wants people to see when they view her work is how alive the landscape truly is.
“My goal is to, with the landscapes, definitely bring the outdoors in and to inspire those who view my work to see that the desert is just not a flat, brown place with cactus,” she said. “It’s beautiful and in the springs and the different seasons when we have our blossoms and our leaves, you can’t help but be inspired by color and I love finding color when I go out.”
The show will be available to see during regular church hours until Thursday, Oct. 31.
“Outside the Lines” Opening: A show of original art by Kristin Harvey
WHEN: 5 to 6:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 6
WHERE: Desert Hills Lutheran Church, 2150 S. Camino del Sol, Green Valley
INFO: kristinharveyart.com
