For Kristin Herzog, art has never been a choice—it has been an intrinsic part of her identity for as long as she can remember. “I don’t recall a time when I wasn’t an artist,” she reflects. Her earliest memory of painting, at just two or three years old, was met with mixed reviews—her chosen canvas was the porch floor of a rented home, and her mother swiftly handed her a bucket and brush to undo her masterpiece.
That early instinct to create never faded. Over the years, Herzog’s artistic influences expanded, shaped by both historical and contemporary figures. She draws deep inspiration from the female abstract expressionists of the 1930s to 1960s—Joan Mitchell, Elaine de Kooning, Lee Krasner, Grace Hartigan, Helen Frankenthaler—women who carved their own paths despite being largely overlooked by the art world. She also admires a wide range of masters, from Picasso and Matisse to Van Gogh and Klimt, as well as contemporary artists like Brian Rutenberg and Louise Fletcher. Yet, she acknowledges that artistic influence is often subconscious, absorbed in ways we don’t always recognize.
