Artospective: Paintings by Kristi Rauckis.

An Interview with Kristi Rauckis.

Who and where are you from?

My name is Kristi Rauckis, I am 23 years old from Royal Oak, Michigan, US.

How you got into this?

I always felt I wasn’t just meant to do the norm. Go to college, have massive debt, get a job that is supposedly to make good money and stick to that for the rest of my life. I knew there was something more. I, like many, had dreams I wanted to live. I just didn’t know how to get there.

After battling with these thoughts all through my senior year of high school (while being pressured to select and apply to colleges), I just chose not to go and strictly focus on the things that brought me joy.

This was basically riding horses and painting for a year.

Naturally, as I kept creating and continued to grow in my art, I was approached by people to do a painting here and there.

I took up self-development and studied how I can expand in all areas of my life. This really helped me become more confident in where I wanted to go with this and take the leaps needed to get started. It took me about a year or two out of high school to get serious about starting the business and painting full time. It’s amazing the growth that has happened in the last 3 years.

I take each day, each seeming “failure”, and even each positive encounter and learn from them. Use them as tools for that next level of excellence I am striving for. Whether it’s in the arts, horses, being joyful, or just being a loving and supportive friend.

What is your driving force?

My whole life I have been involved with horses as well as anything outdoors. My parents would take my sister and I bird watching in Lemington, Ontario since I was in my mom’s belly. I remember my sister pulling me around in a red wagon down the trails. When I was finally old enough to hold a pair of binoculars, I would try to fit in with the rest of the birding crowd as well as I could.

Those years gave me an amazing amount of joy and built experiences I wouldn’t trade for the world. My love for nature stemmed from being out and observing the beautiful ways of this world and the life in it.

I feel called to travel the world and see as many cultures and various stunning landscapes as I can in this life and create art inspired by these experiences.

I told myself in high school I wouldn’t make art my “job”. I swore off of it because I thought it would kill my love for it by painting too much. This didn’t last long as I continued to grow and let go of those limiting beliefs. I decided I would find inspiration daily and make it a lifestyle to see the beauty and joy in everything. Something that most artists have a hard time doing is making a regular “work” schedule for themselves. So I, again, wanted to see if I could master being able to bring in that “inspired space” any time I need to. What drives me to be able to get into this desired space is my horse, Nala, spending as much time outside in nature as I can, and honestly just how beautiful life can be in general. Even as I’m writing this, I’m sitting out on the farm listening to the crickets and watching the sunset.

Coming from someone who was in the depths of depression, I can tell you it is possible to see the world in an incredible amount of joy. You can feel and give love to everyone and have compassion for those who are lost.

All I want to do is pour as much of that realization and feeling into my pieces as possible. I want people to feel the love, joy and lightness. And even if only one person is moved by it, that’s all I could really ever hope for.

What kind of work you do and why?

Most of my subjects speak for themselves; horses, dogs, and wildlife. I love creating that lifelong memoir of someone’s loved animal that they can keep forever. As an animal lover, pet owner and someone who was positively impacted by their presence in my life, I can connect and relate to the love my clients have for theirs as well.

The responses to the paintings are my favorite part. Seeing the light in their eyes and getting 5 hugs in a row just drives me to continue the custom portraits.

In regards to my personal inspired pieces. The natural world and the beauty that is ever present in our lives gives me the vision and drive to paint these scenes and my perception of them. I truly believe you bring into your life the things you focus on most of the time. So, in my own selfish way, painting these beautiful scenes and animals and focusing on the joy and love I have for them, will bring in more feelings like them. It helps me continue to create the life I know and believe is possible. My end goal is to bring those feelings into people’s homes with these pieces of art and spread it as far as I can.