On the Job: Kris Kristiansen

Kris Kristiansen sells his prints of oil paintings at Fort Williams Park in Cape Elizabeth, and I've passed his stand quite a bit over the time (two months shy of a year at this point!) I've been in Maine. We do a weekly feature called On the Job at the Press Herald, which is basically what it sounds like, photographing someone doing their job. I enjoy the chance to find and photograph people like Kris, who do what they love. It's an infections kind of energy. And don't let Kris'  tattoos and facial hair fool ya like the rest - he didn't spend his life at sea, trawling the Gulf of Maine for groundfish. Kris is a wonderful human being, and the sort of person that's seemingly held every kind of job. There was that stint in a coal mine, the time in the tannery, a brief go at a paper mill, and the longest one of all, 25 years owning a store with his wife, Marilyn, in the Scottish highlands where he's from. The couple moved to Maine in 2007 to take care of Marilyn's family home in Cape Elizabeth, and when they moved Kris had a time adjusting to the harsh winters. "We don't ski, we don't snow shoe, and we're not getting any younger. I guess I'm a creative person, and creative people have to create, and when I came here I was doing nothing," Kris said. It was Marilyn who suggested Kris start painting to pass the snowy days, and now, Kris paints for up to 15 hours a day every winter. He now sells prints of that work in the park most every nice day in the summertime.