About
Welcome!! I am Kirsten, pronounced Kier-sten, like beer or cheer—the face, owner, artist, and curator behind Kirsten Scannon Creative, formerly recollection reliKS! I have always loved creating spaces one feels comfortable in and loves the surroundings. I am a self-taught artist and have spent nearly my whole life crafting and have always dabbled in mixed media, paper crafts, furniture painting, faux finishes, and really any creative venture that piqued my interest!
I moved around my whole life, having been a military brat, joining the military and then marrying into the military. After high school, where my favorite classes were art- or creative-based, I enlisted in the United States Air Force. I met (in Greece!!) and married another Airman and then separated from the USAF after 3 years to stay home with our children. Moving from North Dakota to Texas to Virginia to Italy and back to Virginia a love for interior design developed. We live in a log home which I have put my own spin on rustic, log home living.
Once settled in Virginia I set out on a career path that left creating with my hands empty. I spent 10 years as a Registered Nurse during which time my health started to decline. I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, which has since been questioned by my rheumatologist and so that’s TBD.
It started with my late grandparents' dining room set. We've owned it for over 20 years. It's traveled overseas with us and across Virginia. I battled for the longest time with keeping it or replacing it with something new, but just couldn't.
A friend told me she was chalk painting furniture and I knew it was a sign. Since she introduced me in October 2019, I've worked toward repurposing quite a bit of our home including the dining set and hutch! It means a lot to repurpose furniture that holds sentimentality, especially well-made, sturdy furniture.
Now it’s my passion to create and keep discarded furniture and home décor items out of the landfills! In the summer of 2020 I decided to go into business following my passion and ended up leaving nursing due to pain, memory and cognitive problems. I do furniture refinishing, mixed media, concrete, and dabble in a few other crafts depending on what inspires me, all on my own time.
My creative style varies from shabby chic to grunge to glam and a mixture of all of them. I don’t create from one style as I have more of an eclectic vibe and believe more is more and lean toward maximalism. You’re sure to see lots of layers, color, quirkiness, rustic, vintage and boho. I love color, texture, mood, vibrancy, florals, greenery, Southwestern US and Mediterranean influences. Elaborate, eclectic, emotional. Decoupage is one of my love-to-dos, and I love to use items or techniques to create dimension. You'll rarely see me using a singular color.
I love comedy -- improv, stand up, movies and TV, and those around me who keep me laughing.
My all-time favorite movie is Grease. I can remember acting it out when I was a child and it’s one of the only movies I can watch over and over.
Birds, flowers, leaves, and pretty much all nature, except spiders. I can handle daddy-longlegs, but anything else, NO.
Lifelong learning. A lot of learning has been done from mistakes I've made, but what I really love is learning something new that challenges me!
I’d love to learn how to draw animals, flowers, well, nature, but not people, unless in an abstract way. And I want to dabble in pop art some!
About those mistakes; I’ve made many and have learned from most. As cliché as it sounds, they make up a lot of who I am today. The angel who sits on my shoulder has a tilted halo and every time I drop paint, stick my paintbrush into a coffee or water cup, dump pigment powder, design and make something that doesn’t turnout how it looked in my mind and get mad, trip over the floor, or order something I already have--but neglect to remember, she just shakes her head!
Because I learned which products I love and wanted to share the love, I also retail several products to DIY your own furniture, home décor and art/craft ventures, as well as creating mixed media artworks big and small, and every so often I get to transform furniture from someone's throwaway to someone's treasure. Keep it out of the landfills!
Above all I love my family.
My husband, sons and I have called Virginia home since 2005. We live in a tiny, rural town surrounded by crops and horses with our Goldendoodles—Maximus and Rip, Tabby Cat—Pippa, our youngest son, and his son stays with us on weekends. Our eldest lives in Colorado with his wife and 2 children. We love our grandchildren and think they’re our greatest blessings and inspiration!
