Life & Work with Kerry Pastine

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kerry Pastine.

Hi Kerry, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Like any powerful story, my story includes struggles, lots of them, and then overcoming them in order to live a life of freedom, fulfillment, creativity and self-actualization. My childhood was filled with religion, ignorance, emotionally stunted parents and a house full of kids: 6 plus a daycare. At the age of seven, I was faced with a myriad of ailments, primarily caused from absorbing emotional and environmental toxins. My healing journey led me to dozens of doctors, none of which had any real answers. I believe this is where I realized that I had to find a way to heal myself and this story, alone, could be a book.

Thankfully, I craved information and knowledge and started seeking it out (internet free) around 1975. Here I am in 2021 a very fulfilled person and I can look back at those years and count them as blessings. This sick kid turned into a life coach for 20 years, a working musician, singer, songwriter and performer for 30 years, an author, a meditation app creator and now full-time artist who paints and sells her work. I live in the RINO Art District in Denver, Colorado with my husband, Paul, who has been performing and making music with me since 2004. We’re a duo to be reckoned with and continue to discover more of who we are, especially during the pandemic.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There is no such thing as a smooth road. I’ve always looked at life like a ship at sea. The ship gets tossed about some days, other days, it floats gently on the water and prepares for the next storm, all the while using the compass to course correct in order to get to where we are trying to go. I see our emotions as that compass that lets us know what is working and what is not. The struggles are the lessons that make us more informed about life and hopefully, we turn the struggles and lessons into wisdom, constantly keeping the ship on course.

I should also note that it has not just been me on a road or in the sea. For 40 years, it has been me in personal and professional relationships while being a single mom. I have a beautiful 37 years old daughter, whose name is Joy and is thankfully thriving. My life started out messy so that is all that I knew. As an adult, I could not allow myself to bring that mess into adulthood. I wanted to be a healthy and functioning adult, which meant trying on new talents, being brave, finding better jobs, leaving toxic relationships, starting businesses and continuing to be open to love. There is a lot to keep track of on the journey and not paying attention to it was not an option for me. So I journaled to keep track of what was happening in my life. What or who was running the show? My emotions would definitely tell me and I would see the consequences in my moods, my behaviors, my sleep, my relationship with money and time.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
That is a big question because I have done a lot of different things in my life. I have kept my roots in the Denver creative scene for many years. Even when I had 9-to-5 jobs back in the 80’s and 90’s, they were in creative fields, starting at Westword Newspaper, The Colorado Institute of Art and then jumping into the boutique restaurant scene, helping open Vesta Dipping Grill.

All of this experience helped me understand my talents, which included helping people connect with themselves and the world they wanted to be a part of. I had this ability to show people the best in themselves and then help them discover their own tools so that they could continue transforming and improving. I wanted to do more of that so I eventually became a life coach for the restaurant industry which was one of the coolest experiences of my life.

I think that regardless of what I do, who I truly am always comes through. From life coaching to singing to painting or writing a book, I always seem to end up communicating a message of love, growth, beauty and sense of possibility. It’s hard for me to describe but I’ve had a lot of people tell me that no matter what I do, they can hear it, feel it and see it and it helps them feel bigger and inspired.

What are you most proud of?
I am the most proud of the mental and emotional work that I have done every step of my life. I have always said that I would rather go into the garden daily and pull weeds than have a dry empty dirt field. Life is the garden. The fears and traumas are the weeds. The dreams are the flowers and plants that feed the soil. Stepping into the garden is where the work begins and, for me, the work must be done daily. You start to see what’s choking out the growth and what kind of watering and feeding makes the garden thrive and then you become a really great gardener! I never suspected I would be an author or a painter until I spent time in my garden and, hey, look what grew. That is so cool!

What sets you apart from others?
Maybe my positive outlook and my (trained) ability to look for the good in life. I say trained because it takes practice to see what you want to see and I want to see the beauty, the good, the coolness and the mind-blowing creativity that is all around us.

If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I was sweet and loving, talkative and bratty. My mom worked me pretty hard so my mantra was “I’ll do it because I want to, not because I have to”. I was a high-energy kid who worked stuff out physically and with my imagination. When I was five, I was glued to Saturday morning TV; not cartoons but those glamorous Hollywood black and white musicals where Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers would waltz across the floor with a big band behind them. The best-of-the-best silver screen actors, singers and dancers were my heroes and that is what I wanted to be. I told my mom and she said, “Oh honey, they don’t do that anymore.” I was devastated and pissed with that answer. As a result, I somehow managed to manifest that career “that didn’t exist anymore” into years of performing and making albums. My musical style is very cinematic like those classic movies, but also has a strong Tarantino influence which reveals the bratty rebel in me.

Pricing:

• Original Art – 18′ x 24″ canvas – $300
• Original Art – 24″ x 30″ canvas – $500
• Original Art – 36″ x 36″ canvas – $600
• Original Art – 30″ x 40″ canvas – $700 24″ x 48″ canvas – $700
• Original Art – 30″ x 48″ canvas – $800 48″ x 48″ canvas – $1000

Contact Info:

• Email: kerrypastine@gmail.com
• Website: kerrypastine.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kerrypastine/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kerrypastine
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/kerrypastine
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOA_BYkXs9bz6vJD1fnpi3Q/featured
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/kerry-pastine

Image Credits
Dan Sidor, Dave Barber, Leslie Van Stelten