Today we’d like to introduce you to Natalie Kreidler.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Natalie. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I began to take myself seriously in art during my freshman year as a biology major. The lack of any type of exposure to art during that period of time-triggered a spark in me where I was constantly creating and coming up with ideas and trying to outdo myself. I realized through this process that I really did have the bottomless inspiration to pursue art, something I had not believed in myself to do for a very long time, and something I realized I shouldn’t ignore. From this point, I transferred into my school’s competitive graphic design program, which I had always been too nervous about doing, as a supplement for painting, and decided to begin to take myself seriously as a painter. I taught myself a range of new mediums via books and youtube and fell in love with the range that oil paint gave me, and the way it is almost like sculpting paint right onto a canvas.
Throughout the past three years, I have made painting my second job working as many hours as I can a day to learn techniques, make work, and take commissions, all while balancing my degree and other service jobs. The biggest part of painting for me is figuring out how to take the craft seriously while still keeping my playful, experimental mindset, as well as constantly making more more more. I am always experimenting and learning new mediums and hope to continue to find ways to bridge painting into other tangible forms of art like sculpture and public works, as well as how to take it digital. To do this, I’m also working on beefing up my software literacy to be able to experiment in the digital realm. I truly strive to be a jack of all trades, so that I can use art to serve my community and the people interacting with it in a multitude of forms according to the occasion.
I’m very passionate about public service and social justice and have been able to use my graphic design skills to create zines in order to help those protesting for the Black Lives Matter movement on the ground, as well as calls to action and information on furthering the fight for racial justice at home. I hope to be able to do more, even large scale work, to help fuel and protect those fighting for justice.
Due to the pandemic, I left my service industry job and made the leap to nearly full-time freelance, and have an amazing community around me that supports and participates in my endeavors. When I first started taking commissions a few years ago, I was mostly doing album covers, which is one of my favorite forms to bring life to: I love making art for art. But the most exciting part of freelancing is able to see all the different places in life where art is needed and come up with new solutions from a range of prompts. It has been incredibly fulfilling and inspiring to my personal work, to be able to make art for people’s partners, and homes, and businesses, and so on. I’m still striving to constantly outdo myself and taking a lot of time this year for learning even more and reflecting over what I’ve made so far, and where it can go on a personal level, and as an aid to my community. I’ve grown a lot since the beginning of my journey through constantly trying (and making a lot of bad work between the good), and I’m excited to see the way that growth continues with each passing year and the opportunities for art that come into my life.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Time has always been, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it continues to always be my greatest enemy. I have a lot of creative energy and want to always be coming up with something new, but there is never enough time in the day for me to pursue all of the endeavors that I want to. My program in the school is very demanding and takes a huge chunk of my time during the school year, between which I have to figure out how to also grow as a painter. There have been many times where I’ve wondered if I’m doing the right thing by trying to balance two things that require so much dedication and care and often have to remind myself to look at them, not as things that detract from each other, but that brings benefit and new insight to each other.
I want to be exceptional in every task I take on and have had to learn the hard way more times than one that I can’t always take every single job I want to, or do every single project I want, because not sleeping for days on end just isn’t sustainable for a healthy life. There have also been many times, as I know is very common with artists, where I’ve wondered if I truly will be able to support myself off of what I do. Being new to freelance is very nerve-racking because you never know if there will be another commission after the one you finish, and I’m always nervous about what the next round of commissions will look like because you truly can’t predict what your month to month income will look like. I have always continued to trust in myself through all of these things, though, and they have been more than worth it and have just pushed me even further into my life’s path, and caused me to grow immensely as an artist and as a person.
Tell us about your business. What do you do, what do you specialize in, what are you known for, etc. What are you most proud of as a company? What sets you apart from others?
I specialize in painting and take commissions for paintings, as well as for album covers, book covers, clothing customizations, and tattoo designs: basically anything anyone may want a creative twist on. I love making art for musicians because the collaboration between the two art forms is so exciting. I also do graphic design and work on logos and branding, as well as posters and advertisements. The thing I specialize in is bringing an experimental twist to every project, as I always want to create something I would be excited by if I saw it in the street. I’m most proud of this ability to constantly do work that is outside of the typical box, as well as my ability to personalize a new style for every project and every different style of person.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
I usually rush into new things, so I am taking a rare change of pace to spend a lot of time recently to think about what exactly I want the future of my work to look like. For now, I’m excited for the opportunity to continue to work freelance and connect with people through making things for them, as well as hopefully being able to pull off some public installments of art. This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time so that art can not only help deliver social change but can be removed from the typical institutions it is viewed in and brought to the masses who don’t have the wealth or social capital to be interacting in exclusionary spaces. This has taken a lot of planning and hopefully some collaborators, but hopefully, within the next six months, I can have pulled off a public project!
Contact Info:
- Phone: 5303184261
- Email: nataliekreidler25@gmail.com
- Instagram: @ugh_natalie
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