How often do we ignore the beauty around us?
In this crazy world of cell phones, sky rises, and non-stop schedules, we often pass the beauty and miracles of nature surrounding us. I strive to create life in the work I make. A nature lover, I associate many things with images of flowers, landscapes, and other natural things, making my work documentation of past feelings, people, or memories and moments of my life. A flower is not just a flower; it could represent a person, an emotion, or memory. Using wood as fondation it allows me to make multiple layers of texture in many ways. The wood surface allows me to carve, build up with putty, and wood burning. The paint is applied with multiple layers like printmaking, with dynamic colors and compositions, giving the subjects life and a different point of view. Though beautiful, plants and flowers come from the ground that is full of history and a product of millions of years of life and death. From this history, we get a few, but vibrant, moments where the cosmos come together to make something so unique that it will never come back again. Like my subjects, I am too a product of nature, built from my past history, my life, is a flower in bloom, waiting for that passerby to take a look.

Kristin A. W. Aulwes graduated from Graceland University in 2003 with a B.A. honors degree in both: Art: Studio Painting and Art: Visual Communications. At Graceland she won many awards including the Shannon Scholarship in 2003. Since leaving Graceland, Kristin works commercially in the Des Moines Metro area, and has works displayed in Des Moines and Cedar Rapids. She has done solo and group shows with the painting groups of Fox Force 5 and Red Handed. Her current work can be found in Arte gallery in the East Village in Des Moines. She currently lives in Bondurant with her husband, Joe, and daughter, Audrey.