Kirstin McPherson
Drawing and Painting
Drawing and painting is, for me, an act of appreciative attention to reality and an affirmation of it. I create delicate drawings and colorful watercolor sketches of ordinary things. In all my work, I seek to capture the fleeting and unique sense of light and life inherent in the scene at that particular moment in time.
-Kirstin McPherson
-Kirstin McPherson
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Artist Bio
Kirstin McPherson is an artist working in the classical realist tradition and also participating in the Urban Sketchers movement. In her youth, she was a serious student of music. In college and onward, she spent her summers working on various vegetable farms and cultivated her love of plants, the natural world, and cooking. She then went on to receive a PhD in philosophy. She discovered drawing in her late thirties and found it to be a culmination of all her loves: like philosophy, art is a contemplative endeavor, and it is one that attunes the artist to the beauty and spiritual significance of reality, something that she has always been seeking, even in her musical and farming pursuits. Her biggest artistic influences are the Impressionist and especially Post-Impressionist oil painters of the nineteenth century and the British watercolorists, such as John Ruskin, from the same time period. Like many of these painters, she is drawn to landscapes and people in their environments. Kirstin is largely self-taught, but she had the privilege of studying classical realism with Ali Ghassan at the REAL Academy of Art for six months while her family temporarily lived in Denver. She currently resides in Omaha. |
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Favorite/Patron Saint
Edith Stein. I read her early philosophical writings on empathy and persons in community when I was an undergraduate, and they were instrumental in paving the way to my conversion to Catholicism. I also love Mary Magdalene (I took her name at my confirmation) because I am very moved by her great act of love when she anointed Christ's feet with perfume. And I am also moved by Christ's deep affirmation of that gift, even though some deemed it a waste. Although I was not an artist when I took that name, I now think of this exchange between Mary and Jesus as an affirmation of the artist's vocation. We spend countless hours of practice in order to be able to be able to see and appreciate things deeply, to say, in essence, "you, small thing, are worth really seeing, and it is worth spending hours trying to communicate how good you are through drawing and painting you to the best of my ability." There are many more "useful" things that artists could spend their time doing, but Mary Magdalene gives me courage that an artistic act of love is received by God. |
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Favorite Quote
“Who among us has not suddenly looked into his child's face, in the midst of the toils and troubles of everyday life, and at that moment "seen" that everything which is good, is loved and lovable, loved by God! Such certainties all mean, at bottom, one and the same thing: that the world is plumb and sound; that everything comes to its appointed goal; that in spite of all appearances, underlying all things is - peace, salvation, gloria; that nothing and no one is lost; that "God holds in his hand the beginning, middle, and end of all that is." Such nonrational, intuitive certainties of the divine base of all that is can be vouchsafed to our gaze even when it is turned toward the most insignificant-looking things, if only it is a gaze inspired by love. That, in the precise sense, is contemplation...
Out of this kind of contemplation of the created world arise in never-ending wealth all true poetry and all real art, for it is the nature of poetry and art to be paean and praise heard above all the wails of lamentation. No one who is not capable of such contemplation can grasp poetry in a poetic fashion, that is to say, in the only meaningful fashion. The indispensability, the vital function of the arts in man's life, consists above all in this: that through them contemplation of the created world is kept alive and active.”
― Josef Pieper, Happiness and Contemplation
Fun Fact
I taught philosophy in Kyiv, Ukraine for a year. I am also married to a philosopher.
I play American and Irish fiddle.
I have four children.
Professional Groups/Affiliations
Fellowship of Catholic Artists
Where to Purchase Work
Contact Kirstin directly.
Upcoming Shows/Events
Life is Beautiful: Visual and Performing Art Show, Holy Family Shrine, October 2022
“Who among us has not suddenly looked into his child's face, in the midst of the toils and troubles of everyday life, and at that moment "seen" that everything which is good, is loved and lovable, loved by God! Such certainties all mean, at bottom, one and the same thing: that the world is plumb and sound; that everything comes to its appointed goal; that in spite of all appearances, underlying all things is - peace, salvation, gloria; that nothing and no one is lost; that "God holds in his hand the beginning, middle, and end of all that is." Such nonrational, intuitive certainties of the divine base of all that is can be vouchsafed to our gaze even when it is turned toward the most insignificant-looking things, if only it is a gaze inspired by love. That, in the precise sense, is contemplation...
Out of this kind of contemplation of the created world arise in never-ending wealth all true poetry and all real art, for it is the nature of poetry and art to be paean and praise heard above all the wails of lamentation. No one who is not capable of such contemplation can grasp poetry in a poetic fashion, that is to say, in the only meaningful fashion. The indispensability, the vital function of the arts in man's life, consists above all in this: that through them contemplation of the created world is kept alive and active.”
― Josef Pieper, Happiness and Contemplation
Fun Fact
I taught philosophy in Kyiv, Ukraine for a year. I am also married to a philosopher.
I play American and Irish fiddle.
I have four children.
Professional Groups/Affiliations
Fellowship of Catholic Artists
Where to Purchase Work
Contact Kirstin directly.
Upcoming Shows/Events
Life is Beautiful: Visual and Performing Art Show, Holy Family Shrine, October 2022
Contact Information
Preferred method of contact: Email
Kirstin meets with clients at public meeting spaces or via virtual platforms.
kirstinmcpherson.com
kmcphersonart@gmail.com
(815) 508-0569 (call or text)
Hours
By appointment only
Social
Preferred method of contact: Email
Kirstin meets with clients at public meeting spaces or via virtual platforms.
kirstinmcpherson.com
kmcphersonart@gmail.com
(815) 508-0569 (call or text)
Hours
By appointment only
Social
Virtual Gallery
Click photo to enlarge.
