Profile | Printmaking with Heart: Kelly Ristau’s Artistic Journey

FILLMORE COUNTY – Growing up on a farm equidistant from Preston, Lanesboro and Fountain put Kelly Ristau pert near the center of Fillmore County. More importantly, growing up in this rural setting offered time spent with animals, the ability to think freely and be with herself. And it helped her develop a sense of individuality.

That’s how her unique journey to an artistic life began.

“I feel like art is just always something I’ve done,” she says, leading to this distinct memory: “In high school my art teacher, Ms. Mathison, really pushed me and I found a deeper understanding of what it meant to be an artist.”

And when Ristau learned there was an annual student art show at Lanesboro Arts, she pushed herself harder to get into that show – an experience that helped her understand more about juried gallery shows. It also helped her truly get into art and try out different mediums.

From there, her artistic pursuits just kept growing. “I didn’t always know that art was what I wanted to do. I knew it was fun for me, but didn’t know that it was something I could pursue until college and my profs said, ‘This is something that can actually pay and you can do stuff with this.’”

Finding her ‘voice’ through printmaking

Ristau says she went with the flow while attending Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, but didn’t take it too seriously until two years ago. 

As a student, artist Kelly Ristau learned to appreciate printmaking and this printing press in the studio at Luther College. (Photo submitted by Kelly Ristau)

“Decorah really helped grow my artistic vision and find a path to being an artist.” 

The medium she really fell in love with is printmaking. Kelly also does some painting, but she feels like she’s been more successful in expressing her artistry through printmaking. 

“I can connect with more people that way. The black and white of my prints is really easy to find imagery for.”

In college, she would take photos of her friends, choose what photos she liked best and from there put it on the block. Kelly prefers linoleum blocks, saying that wood blocks can chip very easily and are more expensive.

“I put my lines down using a mixture of projection and free hand drawing. Then carve out the lines. To build up my contrast in the piece I start with the thinnest lines and work up to thicker lines to build up the white spaces. Then you just print it on paper.” 

It’s been fun for her to experiment with different types of paper because she says different textures and colors really change how the piece looks.

She has taken a lot of inspiration from Halie Torris, an oil painter who does a lot of queer portraiture. As a queer artist herself, Ristau has found a lot of community among other queer artists. 

One of Karen Ristau’s linoleum blocks in process. (Photo submitted by Kelly Ristau)

There aren’t many printmakers who do work quite like hers, at least that she’s not yet found. Her unmistakable style, her use of contrast in black and white, give so much dimension to her work and really help to convey the story behind it all.

Research builds her body of work

Ristau took on a project in college where she had to dive deep and research something long term. “I’ve been doing that for two years,” she said “That’s been intimacy for me. I also have a background in psychology in college. So, it’s been fun trying to combine those two interests into something. 

“I’ve been digging deep into how to portray intimate relationships without just being the basic sexual stuff. And trying to figure out that balance has been fun.” 

What does it really mean to be intimate? Because there isn’t one answer, she’s discovered it’s different for everybody. “Having that research behind my art has definitely changed me and what I do.”

The goal of this project was to build a body of work and use it to apply to gallery shows, with the hopes of it ultimately being on display.

Her work made its way back to Lanesboro Arts and was featured in the group art exhibition Our Bright Unfolding, displayed during the summer of 2025. 

The exhibit was described as a show that “embodies interconnectedness in motion, a much-needed light uplifting the power of artistic expression as a tool of practice for societal change. The artwork in Our Bright Unfolding reflects personal and collective growth, resilience, radical acts of joy and the power of unapologetic existence. 

“In a time of profound upheaval when marginalized communities are increasingly under threat,” the description continues, “this exhibition serves as a necessary reminder to lean on community, roots of resistance, and visions for change.”

Largely representative and figurative, Ristau studies human form in juxtaposition. This body of work includes commentary on social media’s role in today’s era of intimacy.

Kelly Ristau introduces her show at Lanesboro Arts. (Photo by Leah Steding)

“In my experience, today’s world is changing how we build intimacy because of all the online forms of connections we can have,” she said. Tapping into that idea has been interesting for her and brings an added layer to the viewers’ experience.

Ristau went into detail about the work on display, “For the show here I’m using a cream Stonehenge paper, which is one of the premium printmaking papers. Her professor at Luther gave the advice, “If you’re going to be a printmaker, know your paper. You’ll sound more professional.”

Before this body of work was on display in Lanesboro it was featured in Decorah at ArtHaus for its annual emerging artist exhibition in April of 2025. Ristau won the people’s choice award for her work in the show! “It was really surreal,” she said. 

The humanity that comes through in her work is undeniable, so it makes sense that people resonated with it.

Ristau and one of her works at ArtHaus in Decorah, Iowa. (Photo submitted by Kelly Ristau)

Getting into community at art fairs

Her experience at Lanesboro’s 2025 Art in the Park, she said, “was a lot of fun – it was my second year. 

“I had some background in showing art. We are fortunate enough to do that at Luther. At the end of every semester, we do a big art show at the Center for the Arts in Decorah. All the art students show what they’ve been working on over the semester. Some of my friends decided to put on a big sale during that. We’ve been doing it for the past two years.”

She said it was fun to set up her booth and make it even more professional this year. Ristau also explained how exciting it was to have people recognize her work from Decorah and the show at Lanesboro Arts.

She says she would like to enter other art shows and fairs in the future, but it’s hard to justify some of the pretty steep booth prices. She really appreciates Lanesboro Arts for having a more affordable fee. Ristau hopes to one day take her work to a show in Chicago.

Taking on a big, public project

The owner of The Landing in Decorah reached out to Ristau a month before graduation to ask if she’d like to make her mark at The Landing by painting a mural. Specifically, a Norwegian Fairy Tale inspired mural. 

The Norwegian inspired mural at The Landing, 211 College Drive – when you’re in Decorah, check it out! (Photo submitted by Kelly Ristau)

“When I think of Norway I love the northern lights, that’s what I immediately wanted to add in… and mountains.” During the mural painting process Ristau was reminded of following along with Bob Ross tutorials, something she enjoyed from her youth. 

“I’ve done similar things; this is the first one properly on a wall.” 

Ristau designed a backdrop for Queer Popera, an emerging opera company in Decorah. “My voice teacher in college asked me to do it for her. So, I painted a smaller painting and had that sent to a company where they blew it up and printed the painting on a big cloth backdrop for a performance.”

As for something more local, the summer after her freshman year, Farm Charm in Harmony asked Ristau to paint a small mural on a wooden plank to celebrate the store’s five-year anniversary. Acknowledging how far her work as an artist has progressed since then, she said, “I don’t like looking back on that, but it was a good learning experience.”

She shares that she feels fortunate to have people who appreciate her work and want her to make something for their business or home. On the flip side she mentions, “It can be frustrating at times when you’re an artist, people sometimes think you can just whip out anything for them.”

What’s next?

Ristau’s plan right now is to take a gap year before she gets her Masters Degree in either art therapy or studies to become a professor in the arts, likely printmaking. But she explained that those programs are hard to get into, so she’ll apply to both and see what happens. 

“It might be more than one [gap] year depending on if my interests change and I don’t want to be a therapist anymore. The ideal vision is being a half-time art therapist, half-time artist.”

Kelly Ristau’s booth setup at Lanesboro Arts’ annual Art in the Park. (Photo submitted by Kelly Ristau)

She said it was hard to balance being a psychology major and an art major, because art takes up so much of your time in school. A lot of people didn’t know she was doing both, they just thought she was an artist because she spent a lot of time in the studio. 

“But I do love people and helping them through hard times. Art is a good way to pursue my art passion and help people through hard stuff.

“There’s an art therapist in Decorah who I was able to intern with during my sophomore year of college. We did group sessions once a week for three months where we would make collages.”

Everyone would come together as a group to work on the collages, she said, and after they all finished, talk about how it felt to make the pieces of art and be together in the moment. “It was really special to be a part of that and really made me realize that I do want to do that in the future. But I feel so torn right now, because I have too many passions in my body.”

Ristau says that art therapy is very useful in treating trauma which can be hard to talk about for many people. It’s a good outlet to express one’s emotions without having to talk about them right away. It’s also great for nonverbal people or people on the autism spectrum. She says, “It’s fun to see how people express themselves when there are no words being used.”

Ristau has plans to move to the Twin Cities and admits it’s been hard trying to establish herself as an independent artist after graduating from Luther. “I haven’t really done anything since finishing the pieces for the show at Lanesboro Arts.” 

Her art professor at Luther was selling a printing press and offered it to her first. “That’s one big tool that I need to continue doing this. I just have to buy inks, carving tools and paper. Lots of little things.”

Kelly Ristau’s body of work. (Photo submitted by Kelly Ristau)

You need a lot of space in order to print properly. Ristau is thinking of ways to consolidate her setup in her apartment so she can bring everything out when she needs to and then be able to put it all away when she doesn’t.

Finding ways to continue making art is the first step, then finding connections and places to show her art will follow.

“I just have to figure out how to be an artist in the Twin Cities. I did a lot of networking at Twin Cities Pride, lots of artists gave me their contact info and different ways to find communities. There are places that artists go to mingle. I’m excited to go out and do that, and meet people.”

While working, Ristau likes to listen to podcasts or music. “Something to keep my mind occupied. Sometimes when I’m really into it I can visit the silence and just enjoy the sound of a block being carved, it’s a really satisfying noise.”

When not making art, she loves singing and was in choir in college. She also likes hiking, swimming, being outside, spending time with her pets, reading, watching television and she recently started knitting which she says has been a challenge.

She’s a strong-willed person and while she has lots of support from her family and friends, she says “I wouldn’t have cared if my parents or family didn’t support me in this endeavor. Not everybody has that characteristic in them, but once I have my eyes set on something that I want to do, I’m going to do it.”

You can follow Ristau on Instagram here or visit her website. 

 

Root River Current’s coverage of the arts is made possible, in part, by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts & cultural heritage fund.