Krys Von Tornado Makes The Best Tea

“Krys Von Tornado makes the best tea!” Definitely. And not only because she throws tea parties almost every week but because she prepares the tea like she paints: with love.

Krys Von Tornado needs nature and peace to thrive. She has lived in different countries until she finally found the perfect place to create: in the house on a hill in a heavily wooded area. Now, the artist is surrounded by peaceful nature and protected by three well-trained German Shepherds. Her friends like her tea parties and respect her uniqueness; some years ago, they surprised her with a big sign KRYSWOOD for her forest that lights up the area around her house, in the night.

She begins the day before sunrise, walking her dogs through her own forest where she finds inspiration to paint. It’s not uncommon to find her at dawn sitting on a fallen tree drinking her first cup of tea.

She paints themes that make her feel love. Very often, there are people who crossed her path with loving attitude. It can be a father guarding lives of his kids like a guardian angel, shielding troubles away. Or parents of a baby who in moments of need turn into dangerous wild cats, like in her painting “We’ve Got Your Back”.

The idea of this painting was born with April Fool’s shenanigans. “On April the 1st,” she tells, “I was in a joyful mood and tried to prank harmlessly the parents of the baby by sending them a message: She/He told me, somehow she/he can’t reach you. Are you out of range? Perhaps you should try to call her/him… No harm possible, so I thought.”

But then the situation went out of control when both parents immediately became worried: “Is something wrong with the baby?!”

“Oops! I felt miserable to have caused that fear.”

All ended in laughter though, but the artists stayed fascinated by the parents’ reaction. Their energy level went from zero to 100 in a second, making them ready to fight for the wellbeing of their baby. “I thought about myself when I had little kids, and about my friends, and all other parents… Yes, when we (average, decent humans) think our little one is in harm’s way, we spring into action with the fiercest of protective instincts.” In her painting, those majestic and dangerous animals have loving and attentive eyes of the baby’s parents. The artwork, “We’ve Got Your Back” honors the love and safeguarding of all active parents and also reminds us that we are here because and only because of our parents’ care.

Krys’ art is telling stories. Like the “Viennese Waltz”. The painting refers to one of the charming traditions that Vienna has to offer in order to please its inhabitants and all visitors. During summer, if you’re lucky, you may come upon a little Viennese orchestra performing in the city park (Stadtpark) just for the enjoyment of the people passing by. If they play a waltz, there is usually a couple dancing to the music and everyone can join them. Don’t think that the performance surrounded by nature permits a casual dress code; the instrumentalists are dressed as formal and elegant as though performing in the concert house. When Krys visited her home town, (She is from Vienna), she noticed that the orchestra director was wearing additional to his smoking a… baseball cap. “He must be from America”, she thought and looked closer. His face was full of pure joy and love to the music. “That face HAD to be painted”, she tells. “Which I did. After a while, I got a visitor in my forest studio. It was him and his family. He heard about the painting, made some research and came to buy it. But the picture was sold already.” He was trying to convince her to paint it one more time, just for him. “Money is not an obstacle”, he said. “But also no help”, she answered truthfully. Krys Von Tornado is known for not accepting any commission work. When we asked why, she explained: “I don’t like to paint another people’s ideas. Only my own ones.”

“My paint brush is not a magic stick that effortlessly brings paintings into being. For me, it’s a tool of hard work that takes hours and hours. I can do it because my idea is generated by love to something I saw, and that love keeps me going. I could never develop such love for someone else’s idea.”

The musician respected her refusal and stayed for tea. However, the painting hangs on his wall today, because he tracked down the original buyer and bought the “Viennese Waltz” from him.

More luck had a lady whom the artist saw in the gallery Belvedere in Vienna, standing in front of the most famous painting of Gustav Klimt “The Kiss”. “She looked fragile and fine”, remembers Krys. “She was talking to her husband (probably) holding her hand in the air in such a very female manner that I thought, she perfectly fitted into Klimt’s painting. Might be, that she even imagined to be that kissed woman…” We’ll never know what she imagined but after she learned about Krys’ “In the Eye of the Beholder”, she contacted her and bought the painting immediately.

Krys was not always an artist. Sie studied psychology and gelotology (science of laughter) and made her living by counseling, lecturing and writing — neither of which made her as happy as painting.

You can recognize her love to painting on the detailed work. It is amusing when she tells the story of painting a sunrise seen through her tulips in spring.

”I’ve had finished the picture with tulips, posted a photo of it on Facebook, and put away the canvas on my second-most-important easel. Next day, I “heard” the biggest bloom complaining about its not-so-fine look. Well, no big deal, I put the painting back on the work easel and refined the unhappy tulip. Pleased with my work, I stepped back and looked at it. The bloom must have been satisfied, because it was quiet. I took a photo and replaced on Facebook the previous version with the new one. In the next moment, I believed I felt the unhappiness of the bloom next to the refined one. While I was repainting that one, the others started to reveal their aggravation: “My petals are wrongly shaded! I don’t agree with the size — make me bigger! Closed tulip blooms are never that bright — knock the color down, Krys!” At the beginning, they all had been quiet, as if they would have put the requirements of the whole picture before their individual needs. And only then, when the whole painting was done, they began to report their complaints. One by one.”

The galleries where she showcases her work, say that the typical features of her paintings are the perfectly painted edges. Her work doesn’t end on the edge of the front surface; it continues around the corner with the same precision. “Out of respect to my painted characters”, she explains with a smile.

No disturbing themes can be found in her atelier. “Fear, cruelty and sadness are already present out there, in our world, she says. I don’t feel the need to perpetuate them by putting onto canvas.” She paints love, for love, out of love… One of her pictures is controversial: some find it simple, too simple for Krys Von Tornado, the others claim it is moving to the bone. “Not Under My Watch!” is showing a woman blocking the Angel of Death who tries to come closer to a patient she is taking care of.

“I painted this picture thinking about millions of unsung heroes caring for their incapacitated loved ones. It is one of the noblest occupations, one of the toughest and least appreciated.

Referring to the famous quote of Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter about caregivers, I would like to recognize and honor “those who have been caregivers, those who are currently caregivers, those who will be caregivers…”

Even if we don’t like to think or talk about that moment… The woman, bravely sticking her finger in the face of a scythe man, personifying death, is a powerful view. She might be a wife, mother, daughter, a nurse or anyone else who has enough love and compassion to take care of someone in need.

She is not scared, just the opposite: her courage is visible by the multiplied and enlarge face, heroically approaching and blocking the Grim Reaper. The determination to save her loved one, makes her even bigger and more powerful than the skeletal figure with scythe. You almost can hear her saying: “Back off!!” When the time comes, everyone will wish to have next to their bed someone like that caregiver.

Usually Krys Von Tornado takes herself not so seriously. Like in the story she tells about the encounter with an “art critic”, after she exhibited her painting “The Shine of Venus”.

“I am glad we have so many art critics who watch over us artists, especially those self-taught ones and who set us back on the right path, if necessary.

Art Critic: How long have you been painting? Have you studied art?

Krys: No, I’m self-taught. I’ve given it my all for several years, perhaps eight or so.

Art Critic: That’s what I thought. It shows. You need to pay more attention to the body proportions. No one has such a long neck.

Krys: But I explained in the description that I tried to keep Botticelli’s proportions. I only changed the face.

Art Critic: I don’t know the term “Botticelli’s proportions.”

Krys: I mean I was trying to imitate Sandro Botticelli, who liked to paint elongated bodies; for example, the neck of Venus… How long have you painted?

Art Critic: I don’t paint. I studied art to become an art critic.

I am presenting to the “Art Critic” a picture of “The Birth of Venus”.

Art Critic: This painting looks exactly like yours!!!

Krys: Yes, that’s what I mean. It’s painted by Sandro Botticelli.

Art Critic: You could file a suit!

Krys: Hahaha! Sure!

Art Critic: Seriously! As an art critic, I know what I am talking about. It’s plagiarism and illegal!

Krys: Ahhhh… So… you are saying you did study art?

Art Critic: I told you that already! Who painted the picture first?

Krys: He is a renaissance painter.

Art Critic: Don’t be so overly modest. You amateurs are so complex. You are talented, you could be a renaissance painter too! You don’t have to stoop to painting nude women.

Krys: This is Venus! The Goddess of Love from mythology.

Art Critic: I don’t know her and I’m not into mythology.

Krys: But you studied art, right?

Art Critic: We covered that already! Why do you keep asking? So who painted the naked gal first?

Krys: He, Sandro Botticelli. He did it in 15th century. I was trying to imitate him… And before you ask, no, I didn’t get his permission.

Art Critic: Now, I understand why you are not feeling comfortable talking about it.

Krys Von Tornado speaks several foreign languages and has lived on different continents. “In all cultures I am familiar with”, she says, “the heroes do not wear uniforms of Captain America or Superman.” The life experience teaches all of us that everyone is carrying their own cross, some with loud complaints, some quietly but as long as they keep going, despite all setbacks, they are the real heroes. Like the ladies in the picture “Steel Magnolias Virginianas”, Krys’ recent painting that is still drying on the easel.

Magnolia Virginiana is the Neo-Latin name for Sweetbay Magnolia used by botanists. The term “Steel Magnolias” is probably familiar to every American. Female characters are as delicate as magnolias but as tough as steel. The film “Steel Magnolias” shows women who embody both traditional southern femininity and courage in pain and adversity. They meet regularly, share joy, gossip, and sorrows, anchoring each other through life’s ups and downs. Yes, the bond created through women’s friendships can end up being what gets us through hard times.

“At one of our weekly tea meetings, that we held in my forest, under a blooming magnolia tree”, tells Krys, “we shared our personal struggles and setbacks. I reflected on how remarkable it was, that despite these challenges, we continued to thrive, finding happiness and laughter in our lives. This realization led me to statement, “We’re like Steel Magnolias,” although I’m unsure if anyone recalls my revealing remark, because no one has commented it. Nonetheless, this moment inspired the concept for a painting.”

Those ladies stand for everyone, all groups of friends, all ladies providing support in order to make each other able to keep going.

Typical for Krys Von Tornado’s art is her way to portray age. She might show certain changes in a silhouette but she refuses to paint wrinkles.

“I really don’t see them when I talk to a person”, she explains. “Every word, even a syllable activates a different set of wrinkles — then which ones are the real ones? The ones caught by cameras are not real because they exist only for seconds. If you clicked in another moment, the face would look differently.” She says, that she sees and paints the real face, not the superficial wear signs of ageing face skin.

The artist sees many things in a different way which we may like or not, but one is sure, she is living and enjoying her art.