Kristina Zallinger

About Kristina

Born in New Haven, CT October 30th, 1945, Caucasian—Austrian and Polish, British and Scottish. My last name, Zallinger, is Austrian. My Grandfather (my Father’s Father) was an artist as well. I reside in Hamden, CT. I work as a free-lance Painter and Advocate for Mental Health issues. 

The fact that my Father painted the world renowned “Age of Reptiles” mural at the Peabody Museum at Yale and that my Mother was an illustrator of over 90 books, mostly about Nature (they met at Yale Art School) is relevant to mention. They have both passed away. All three siblings are artists. 

Plus, I want you to know that I don’t mind being Bipolar. Many artists are and were. I mentioned my illness in my CV in order to show that I didn’t produce as much as I could due to fighting all those years with my mental health taking the spotlight. 

My parents, both being artists, encouraged us to create. There were always paper and other supplies around the house. It is amusing that the only time we were allowed coloring books was when we were sick. Aside from obvious genetic facts, I feel that environment was important for us and the creative process. Also, most of my Parents’ friends were artists and there were always visual materials such as paintings, drawings and sculpture in the home. I think that the right environment was a part of the equation, although there had to be talent there as well. 

I was given opportunities to hone my skills as a child growing up in CT. As a teenager, I was taught figure drawing with Deane Keller, a Yale Professor, and still-life painting with another man noted in his field. One event that I remember well was the coloring contest I won by drawing a paint horse behind the picture on a Native American for Somers Pontiac here in New Haven. I won first prize, a six foot fiberglass reproduction of the Pontiac Star Chief car. I could drive it (it was battery run). It had a horn, tail lights and head lights. I was about twelve, but I don’t know for sure. The next week I won a Queen Ginny Doll in another coloring contest. 

One Summer I remember was spending time with my Grandfather Zallinger. I didn’t see him very often because he lived in Seattle. We went fishing together offshore from Whidbey Island where my Grandparents owned a home we fondly called the “Cabin”. I caught a nine pound salmon. We also did some outdoor landscape paining together at Mount Rainier. 

While attending the University of Hartford Art School in West Hartford, CT, I took a Design class from Hayden Scott. His curriculum included the color theory of Josef Albers. Our projects were fascinating to me. We used Color Aid paper. I found it very intriguing that a square of the same color when placed on two different colored backgrounds could look totally different. I believe my artwork reflects these teachings even to this day. I love color and wish that more people could see it. Often it is missed by the general populace. Most of the cars in CT are black, white, silver and gold with an occasional red one and a few daring souls who chose an adventurous hue. I do my research while waiting for the bus. 

My culture of origin has not seemed to influence my work unless the Austrians, Scotts, British and Polish finally jumped in the color wheel! I feel that, even today, I am the black sheep of my family. All that paint use color, but I push it to the max. My Brother’s work is super real still life and my Sister decided to follow the rest of us into the art world. She went to Philadelphia College of The Fine Arts and is now painting things that she knows and uses in painterly still life form. Such subjects include car keys, her cell phone and UGGS! as well as vegetables and fruits in a bowl or basket. Before Art School she had a career in Business with an MBA from Columbia. My Brother has an undergraduate degree from Yale. He took some art courses, but is basically self- taught, a product of the Zallinger genes and environment. His work is beautiful! You can find it if you google Lyme Academy of Fine Art, where he is on the Faculty. Incidentally, if some of the images in his paintings seem out of focus, they truly are in real life. When I lived in Montana, my artwork was influenced by the Native American culture which I love so much. I was doing hide paintings and totems on paper. Also, since I go most frequently into the manic stage of my Bipolar illness, I was doing extremely colored paintings and found object sculpture. (You could google me and find this part of my life). I don’t know where my influence came from. It was definitely out of my head, no particular artist in mind. When I became “level” I had a hard time separating this colorful work from the art I am doing now. Brilliant color exists in both worlds. So it’s ok. I know that I will never enter the manic space again. I am now well. Finally. (I don’t mind your mentioning my Bipolar disease----it is part of me). The hardest point in my artistic journey was the period that I wasn’t doing art at all. .Bipolar took over my life. My gratifying experience is now. I have never painted so much in my life, including Art School. I have a very large body of work. I am also creating found object boxes when I am at home. I paint at Fellowship Place (an organization for persons with mental health issues). I don’t have my own studio, but hope to have one some day in the future. I’d like to paint in a larger format, but have not the space or money for paint at this time. Helen Frankenthaler, deKooning, Kandinsky, Appel, Gorky and Cornell (a little Duchamp) are some of my influences. When I was in High School, I was a George Braque fan. My goal has been to show in New York City and I will be May of 2009 at the Agora Gallery in Chelsea. I believe that my work is strong enough to make a dent in the art world. Not many that I have seen view color the way I do. I even use fluorescent paint to create my blast of intensity. Although installation seems to be prevalent as an art form, I feel that my paintings will keep abstract expressionism on the forefront.;I now have a studio and spend a good deal of my day there. My paintings are constantly changing as am I. I feel very fortunate to be pursuing my dreams!

Curriculum Vitae

     KRISTINA ZALLINGER

Highwood Square   953 Dixwell Avenue   #36   Hamden, CT 06514   (203) 214-6998   kristinazallinger@gmail.com

1964  University of Hartford Art School   West Hartford, Connecticut Yearly Book Awards for Academic Excellence  

1965 New Haven Paint and Clay Club Show, First Martyn Award                     

1969  Gedney Bunce Medal, Regent’s Honor Award, “Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges”, Fourth and Fifth Year Thesis Shows (with written Thesis), First in class, Magna Cum Laude

1969  Famous Artists School, Westport, CT,   Instructor, Young Peoples Art Class (YPAC)

1970    Moon Street Gallery, Westport, CT, One Woman Show

1970   Gallery-on-the Green, Canton, CT, First Prize for painting

1970 “Connecticut Magazine” Cover painting

1971  University of Montana, Missoula

1971   Work-Study Program, Biology Department

1973  Master of Fine Arts in Painting, American Indian ArtThesis Show (and written Thesis)

1974   University of Montana, Layout and Lettering, Design Professor

1975-1983  City- County Planning Office, Missoula, Graphics-Illustrator

1983-1985   Free Lance Painter

1985  Teacher’s Assistant, Creative Arts Workshop, K-6

1990  City Wide Open Studios, New Haven, CT, Found Object Sculpture

1995  Portrait Show, John Slade Ely House, New Haven, CT

2002 20th Annual Juried Show, Pleiades Gallery, NYC, Juror: Lawrence Rinder, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Whitney Museum

2002 Found Object Show, Guilford Handcrafts, Guilford, CT

2002 One Woman Show, Artspace Annex, New Haven, CT

2006 Artship Collective, Fellowship Place, Member Shows in different venues throughout New Haven and environs

2007 “Elm City Sound Relief”, an installation at the “Lot” in New Haven

2007 City-Wide Open Studios, Hamden, CT

2007 A Singular Art and Photography Online Juried Show, November 

2008 Projekt30 July Online Juried Show

2008 Alumni Show, “Size is Relative”, Hartford Art School, West

Hartford, CT, “On a Roll”, Found Objects

2008 10th Annual Summer All Media Online Juried Art Exhibition,

Upstream People Gallery - Special Recognition for all five entries

2008 Small Space Gallery, New Haven Arts Council, CT

2008 The Twenty-Eighth Annual Faber Birren National Color Award

Show, Stamford Art Association, Stamford, CT, Juried by Nora

Lawrence, Curator at MOMA, one of 450 submissions accepted (59

In all), “Polar Ice”, Painting

2008  City-Wide Open Studios, New Haven, CT, Paintings

2008 Estense Castle, Ferrara, Italy, “Traces of Memory”, Paintings

2008  American Juried Art Salon, Online, “Crow Pink”, Painting

2008 VisualVia Art Market & Gallery, online “Crow Pink”, Painting

2008 “Artview”, Washington, DC, a Group Show featuring artists with

Disabilities

2008 Artists with Disabilities, Group Show, held at St. Joseph College, Hartford, CT

2008 Group Show, Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, Hartford, CT                                  

2009 Projekt30 January Online Juried Show

2009 6th Annual Color Bold/Subtle International Online Juried Art Exhibition, chosen from 300 submissions, The Upstream People Gallery, Special Recognition

2009 South Central Behavior Health Network Grant for five paintings

2009 American Contemporary Gallery, Annapolis, Maryland, “Escape”

2009 Art For Progress, New York City, “Clash Of The Artists” Online Show, Honorable Mention   

2009 American Juried Art Salon, Online, “Silver Streak”

2009 Agora Gallery, Chelsea, “Labyrinth of Abstraction”                            

2009 June Exhibition, Projekt30.com

2009 Sumner McKnight Crosby Jr. Gallery, Arts Council of Greater New Haven, 6th Annual Members Show, “Hang*Ups”

2009 Todd Roberts Gallery, Old Saybrook, CT, One-Woman Show

2009 “work it! measure it! 120”, Hartford Art School Alumni Show

2009 The 11th Annual Abstract International, online Show, Upstream People Gallery, chosen from 350 submissions, “Special Recognition” for three paintings

2009 Artslant, #1 Contemporary Art Network, Showcase Winner, Juried 4

2009 Curatorial Internship at the Parachute Factory Gallery of New Haven, targeting artists with Mental Health issues as well as many other artists and dance participants throughout the Community.

2009 November “Featured Artist”, Art  For Progress (online)

2009 projekt30 online exhibition for November

2009 PAINT! climate/gallery, Long Island City, New York

2009 A Singular Art, 3rd Annual Competition

2010 Fellowship Place, New Haven, CT “Color Is My Middle Name” One-Woman Show

2010 shopSPACE Gallery, Guilford Art Center, Guilford, CT

2010 Group Show with Artship; Silliman College, Yale University, New Haven, CT

2010 NEVER THINK small-Redux, climate/gallery, Long Island City, New York

2010 The 12th Annual International Show, online show, Upstream People Gallery, Found Object Sculpture

2010 “Art in the House”, The Bradley-Hubbell House, Easton, CT

2010 Showcase on Artid

2010 City-Wide Open Studios, Erector Square, New Haven, CT

2010 October Exhibition, Projekt30 (online)

2010 Emerging Artists Competition, Third Finalist, Esir Gallery (online)

2010 8th Annual Color; Bold/Subtle International Juried Art Exhibition (online) November exhibit; Upstream People Gallery, Award of Excellence and four Recognitions of Honor

2010 “For the Love of Lennon” Annual Celebration in Central Park, Painting created on the spot with the theme of PEACE, John Lennon’s lifelong quest (Art For Progress, NYC)

2011 Artid online Showcase, May

2011 Light, Space and Time Online Gallery, Special Recognition, May

                                                                     - No studio for a year-

2012 The Starving Artist, “Featured Artist” February

2012 Artslant, “First 2012 Showcase Winner” March

2012 The Artslist, “Artist of the Month for March”

2012 Artslant, “Second 2012 Showcase Winner” April

2012 Projekt30, “2012 Exhibition”  April

2012 Artavita Competition, “Honorable Mention”, July

 “Art Takes Time Square”, chosen for publication of a painting in the  Catalog, August

2012 14th Abstraction Show (online) elected to be displayed for one month and then in the archives for Upstream People Gallery, Omaha, NE, September, Special Recognition

2012 Chosen for “Women in Art”, a three volume set written by Reinhard Fuchs, 520 Masterpieces of Fine Art, FINE ART ENTERPRISE, September

2012 Light Space and Time Online Gallery, Special Recognition for

“Tangerine”, “Open” Art Competition, October

2012 Artslant online, 6th 2012 Showcase Winner (New York), October

2012 Accepted for November group exhibit, Projekt30

2012 “Off the Wall”, Prince Street Gallery, New York City

2013 Azoth Gallery, New Haven, CT.,  Solo Show June 2-July 18

2013 “Pop City”, Pop-Up Gallery, Norwalk, CT

2013 Artslant (Online)   Two paintings selected as Showcase Winners (New York)

2013 City-Wide Open Studios, Artspace/New Haven sponsors

2013 Light, Space and Time Online Gallery---Special Recognition          

2007-2013  Paintings and Found Object Sculpture

2014, 8th Annual Artavita Contest, Honorable Mention

Paintings in collections throughout the Country including Connecticut, California, Massachusetts, Washington DC, Montana, Delaware, New York, Maryland, New Hampshire and Washington.