About Kristi Schueler
One might ask, when did Kristi become an artist? The answer is easy. The artist began to form while sitting on her mother's lap learning colors from a simple bag of Skittles. Despite the loss of most of Patti's vision when Kristi was only an infant, her mom continued to be instrumental in the sculpting of the artist she was to become by sharing her own love of art. One of the fondest memories Kristi and Patti share is the afternoon spent trading in lollipop trees for those of a more realistic variety. And not a gift-giving occasion passed without the excited tearing open of a new set of art supplies of some variety or another. One such gift was a brand new fad - rubber stamps. It was this gift as well as an origami kit that planted Kristi's love of paper arts at the early age of 10. With Patti's nurturing of her natural abilities, Kristi continues the chain and shares her love of art with others.
Despite forgetting the idea of being a teacher when she grew up, Kristi kept finding herself teaching throughout her life. In fact, she has been teaching since her younger sister was old enough to hold a crayon while strapped in a highchair. Much to her sister's chagrin, the instruction continued and school vacations were filled with days of teaching math, science, reading, and art and of course assigning "homework." In high school she taught Spanish to elementary students as part of an after-school enrichment program, as well as Sunday school and vacation Bible school at her church. Instinctually knowing that fun leads to more effective learning, Kristi often wove her love of art into the curriculum.
In college Kristi's after school hours were filled with tutoring jobs for GED programs, and math courses from basic algebra to business calculus. Recognizing her natural talents for teaching, Professor Osborne honored her with a position as a teacher's assistant (TA) when merely a college junior at the University of North Dakota (UND). Also while in college, Kristi discovered the joys of the Internet and soon was learning all about HTML coding, Perl scripts and Cascading Style Sheets. Putting the knowledge of the Internet to work with her TA position, she helped pioneer techniques for teaching meteorology on-line while she assisted with a joint venture between UND and Montana State University, Bozeman. Some of the techniques she developed were even adopted into the local classes at UND and included in a publication of the American Meteorological Society. After college she stayed on in Grand Forks for a year and developed on-line learning modules for school age children to explore the world of weather and forecasting.
Though much of Kristi's young adulthood was focused on science, meteorology and the use of the latest technology, she eventually realized that working her creative muscles gave her the most satisfaction. It took a while for her to bring these two seemingly opposite life-long interests together, but now that she has there is no stopping her. She uses her knowledge and enjoyment of technology, her skill of sharing her knowledge with others and her love of creativity and art to teach art courses at Eclectic Academy. She also travels nationwide to teach workshops to private groups. When asked why she likes to do this, she replied with a large grin and a twinkle in her eye, "I love meeting new people and sharing my knowledge and experience with others. Plus, it is invigorating to help others tap into their creative potential and take the knowledge and skills I have shared with them and turn it into a wonderfully unique piece of art that is truly their own."
When Kristi is not working away in her studio she can often be found spending time with her husband and their dog. She enjoys playing music, singing, reading, watching movies, taking walks around her neighborhood and going to the local community theater productions with her family and friends.
