About the Artist/Author

December 11, 2007 by Christina Wentzel

I'm a 22 year old college student at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I am a Computer Information Systems major with a minor in Art.

I am a multimedia artist, with a painting obsession.

----------

I'd say I'm primarily a traditional artist, though I also do a lot of work in photography and enjoy digital art. On the traditional side of things, I mainly work with oils, acrylics, charcoals and graphite, though I am getting more into ink and watercolors. I'm also a huge fan of mixed media pieces. Digital art is a fairly new field for me. I only began experimenting a couple years ago and although do enjoy it, I'm rather inexperienced. My digital pieces are limited to a few paintings and some graphic work. As for photography, I'd probably call myself a nature photographer, but I also like shooting pictures of city scenes and people.

As for subject matter, I don't really like to limit myself. I believe that it is far too early in my art career for me to have figured out exactly what or how I want to paint anyway. That said: My paintings tend to be more impressionistic and I've grown fond of painting urban scenes and still life. I really dislike painting landscapes, though it doesn't stop me from trying occasionally. When it comes to drawing, especially in ink, I believe I have an obsession with drawing dead trees and flowy things. I also love designing tattoos

In short, although I have my comfort areas, I'm willing to try anything and everything artwise.

As a writer, I am even more inexperienced. I think that I got my start in writing poetry in the eighth grade for my reading class, although I didn't write anything else until my sophomore year. I became serious about it almost instanty that year. I could tell right from the beginning that it was just a passing interest. My biggest turning point was when I joined deviantArt. I can honestly say that some of the people I met on there were the reason that I kept at it and improved. They were my biggest supporters and were always there to give me advice. Joining DeviantArt was probably the smartest thing I've ever done to improve both my poetry and my art. Learning from my peers has helped more than any class ever has. The spring of my senior year of high school, I published a book of my poetry entitled, Words Never Spoken. Although it almost embarasses me now, it was a step into the publishing world.

I got my start in fiction writing with fanfiction, actually. I started reading fanfiction in 2003-2004 and seeing all of these ordinary people, some as young as me, posting their stories gave me the courage to start one myself. Now, I can't say that my initial drafts were extraorinary, but it was a start. After a ton of plannning and about six written chapters, I laid my fanfiction to the side for good and began work on more serious projects. In early 2005, I began planning for a story all my own. My first original fiction was entitled A Risk Worth Taking, and it is still today my favorite story. After that came Moon's Anger and ideas for a prequel and sequel for Risk. Recently I have started plotting out new stories. Currently I am in the process of rewriting my earliest work because frankly, you can tell they were written by a fifteen year old.