Life & Work with Kaylynn Etienne

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kaylynn Etienne.  

Hi Kaylynn, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
I am a Columbus-based artist and got my BFA from Columbus College of Art and Design in 2017. I have a focus on oil painting, mainly medium to large scale. In December of 2019, my husband and I found out we were expecting our first child! Extremely exciting time until March 2020 came around and made the new journey much more difficult and intense. September, we welcomed our son into the world and I was very ready to get back into painting and making art. However, the challenge of motherhood, high childcare costs, and working full time made that very difficult. After months of brainstorming, sketching, and deliberating I finally started making work again about my personal life, much like how my work was inspired in the past. This time I wanted to use my art to cope and heal with the isolation and sacrifice of motherhood. My new body of work focuses on that but also pulls in the faces and stories of other mothers and their journeys. 

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Being a new mom during a pandemic made the life change even more isolating. I had to find a way to channel my frustration and emotions into my work that could relate to other mothers feeling the same. 

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I specialize in portrait oil paintings with floral and gold leaf accents. I’m known for large-scale works, mainly with the subject or portrait upside down. I like to make people interact with my pieces but also changing the traditional perspective of a person can make viewers notice things they usually may miss. 

What do you think about luck?
I feel like the art community is full of luck for artists to meet the right people at the right time. I’ve had a lot of luck lately at shows meeting people who invite me to a new show after one close. 

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @kalebetta
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kale.veggiehunter