Meet Christine Tonolini | Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Christine Tonolini and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Christine, other than deciding to work for yourself, what was the single most important decision you made that contributed to your success?
Not having all my eggs in one basket. Starting out I sold artwork exclusively from socials. The power of social media is undeniable but it’s also fleeting. Algorithms change and attention spans are short. I was contacted by a store to sell my work and just by chance I said yea sure. Now I’m in 6 stores and counting. This has been super helpful to me when social media engagement is down but more importantly, connecting with people on a local level and learning from the small businesses and shops that carry my work has been such a help with understanding what sells and why.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Years ago I made my sisters wedding cake. It was weeks worth of work designing and planning and it was gobbled up in about 45 minutes. I wanted to create on a canvas something that kept the look and feel of cake. I started experimenting with paints and mediums, and to be honest I’m still experimenting and learning. I value originality and work really hard to be original, most of my artwork is inspired by personal experiences or memories. I find that the process of creation comes naturally to me, many of the challenges I encounter revolve around the business aspects of being an artist. If i could, I would shut myself in my studio and just create, but emails, website stuff, taxes, and all sorts of behind the scenes stuff needs to be done on the daily and it take a lot of time.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
The Dallas Arboretum holds a special place among my favorite destinations in the city. We go often and I speed home full of inspration for my next few paintings. Sweet Tooth Hotel, The Perot, Nasher and DMA are also favorites.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Definitely my family. In fact my younger sister, Maddy is the one who really encouraged me to start sharing my artwork with the world. My amazing husband is so incredibly supportive. He is truly my partner and often helps by building shipping crates or picking up supplies or even delivering artwork around Dallas.

Website: YummyFloralPaintings.com