Painter, drawer, photographer, and jewelry-maker Kristen Llewellyn is a freelance artist born and raised near Youngstown, Ohio, USA. Born into a family with a multitude of talents & skills, she gained a deep appreciation for all things artistic & handmade from an early age. A father who always had a film camera in hand, as well as drawing and woodcarving skills; a mother who owns a bakery with classically trained decorating skills & old family recipes with a taste to match; an older brother based in Los Angeles living as a successful painter, who has served as a daily inspiration since early childhood; and a grandmother who had her own beauty salon and made exquisite clothing by hand, as well as elaborate embroidery work. Being raised in such a creative-inducing environment has allowed her to take pride in pursuing a career in fine art while exploring her artistic voice in a range of mediums.
Kristen's art studio is based in the quaint downtown of Salem, Ohio inside of a brick building built in 1895. What used to be a dentist office some 50 years ago, is now her working studio, making it a fitting atmosphere to hand-carve teeth for jewelry. The odd, yet inspiring space has plenty of charming character, including a tiny, old dark room where x-rays used to be developed. Throughout her studio you can find old family photographs from the 1800's tucked away in various corners and old frames from the same era lining the walls. This space not only serves as a place to create work, but also an escape from the stressors of everyday life and outside influences.
She graduated in 2012 with a Bachelor's Degree in 2-Dimensional Studies, with a focus in painting and photography. Throughout her schooling, her main focus was photography, specifically working with 35mm film and learning the process of using a darkroom. She took an experimental camera building workshop where she built her own pinhole cameras alongside her teacher and mentor, artist extraordinaire, Lou Krueger. She also learned older photography techniques from the 1800's such as tintypes and ambrotypes during a wet plate photography workshop. Besides studying photography and oil painting, she also studied figure drawing and metalsmith work. In 2013, Kristen started making and selling jewelry. Kristen has exhibited work in several local galleries, as well as the honorable Toledo Museum of Art and the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio where she currently works full-time running the museum's social media platforms and website, as well as photographing their events and reproductions of famous artworks.