Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristen Consuegra.
Kristen, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I moved to Atlanta in 2012 to finish my degree in social work at Georgia State. To support me through college, I began building furniture from found materials. I would find scraps around my neighborhood and create something functional. I was infatuated with what others choose to throw away and how each piece connected back to an entire story.
Eventually, this leads to the creation of a small furniture business and working with my community to teach some DIY classes. This was such an important time in my life as I was discovering my sexuality in the process and putting all my confusion and frustrations into creating. After a few years of this, I eventually gain the courage to come out to my friends and family and realize how important it was for me to have a creative outlet/feel a part of a community.
I found myself wanting to dive deeper into the communities that make up Atlanta and how art connects people and I find Living Walls ATL. An art-based nonprofit that uses public art as a social and economic engine, providing an artistic workforce for the local community and creating healthy, sustainable spaces for the city. I volunteer for them for almost eight months, learning how it works, how it changes neighborhoods and gives people a sense of place. I am finally hired and use my creative background to help curate and produce large scale murals around Atlanta and beyond.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
What I have learned in a nutshell:
Careers don’t have genders.
Be kind.
Don’t let others define my success.
Try not to be afraid of change.
Learn how to say no.
Trust myself and my choices.
Find people to be vulnerable and open with.
I am fabulous.
We’d love to hear more about your work.
Today I am the head of all productions for Living Walls, The City Speaks. I operate all the big machinery and equipment. I have assisted in painting almost 50 large scale public art murals around Atlanta. I get to curate people’s surroundings and what they see every day.
I get to be a part of so many communities by the work I do. I get to support artists in sustainable ways. We strictly aim to support women, POC and LGBTQAI artists, assistants and contractors. As for myself, I am openly gay and I am a young woman out here telling grown men what to do and how to do it on a regular basis. I still make furniture on the side as a hobby as well as design and give tattoos.
Do you think there are structural or other barriers impeding the emergence of more female leaders?
The biggest barriers are institutionalized mindsets and the people who make assumptions about women as leaders based on their stereotypical roles in society. This has happened to me when aspiring to be a carpenter, this happens almost every project I do with Living Walls because the fact that I am a woman automatically means that I don’t know how to operate heavy machinery or coordinate contractors, etc.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.LivingWallsatl.com
- Phone: 6784688491
- Email: Kristen@livingwallsatl.com
- Instagram: Livingwallsatl
Image Credit:
Brock Scott (On The Grid Creative)
Enna Garkusha
Emily Wang
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