NICK RINGELSTETTER-Artist

I have always been the doodling kid. As far back as I can remember I was drawing aliens, monsters, and foreign planets. I used to think that I would become an engineer or a scientist, but I knew that because of the way the schooling system was structured, I wouldn’t be able to learn properly in that setting. However, I didn’t immediately pursue art after high school because I believed the world was already flooded with artists and I thought that my work was too different to be coveted.

After almost two years without creating any art, I decided to buy a few canvases and paints in January of 2008 so that I could make my own home décor. When I finished my first five mixed-media paintings, using sprays, acrylics, water, oil paints, markers, and pens, I decided to apply for my hometown’s art fair just for the sake of it. I had no expectations of getting accepted, so when the letter arrived in the mail congratulating me because the jury had selected my work for the show I was blown away!

I found myself forced to focus on creating enough pieces to fill a booth. When the time came, I had sixteen originals completed for the show, but my only goal was to sell a single piece of art throughout the course of the whole weekend. I was shocked, and unprepared to have thirteen of the sixteen pieces fine new homes on the first day of the show. When the day was done I went home and painted until one in the morning so that I would have enough art to fill my booth for the final day of the art fair.

When the show was all finished I found myself standing in the middle of the street, gazing down at the fair like it was an entity of its own, and I realized that I had something special here. That was the spark the ignited my art career.