As a young child, Kristian showed artistic potential as he regularly entered and won local coloring contests. His artistic efforts shifted toward creating humorous comic-style drawings as he progressed through his teenage years. It wasn't until his first year in college that he began to explore the world of fine art, beginning with a class that taught observational drawing. The challenges of fine art intrigued him and decided to continue down this path.

In 2005, he transferred to The School of the Art Institute of Chicago where he concentrated his efforts on painting the human figure. After graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and suddenly finding himself without a model to paint, he ventured into the outdoors in pursuit of new subjects. After a great deal of plein air painting, it became clear that the one subject he was truly interested in was light itself.  

In 2019, he moved to California where he hoped to find more artistic opportunities and better weather for painting outdoors. Since then, he has made an effort to compete in as many plein air competitions as he could, resulting in a large number of awards and a great deal of recognition. He is currently working towards taking what he has learned in the field and developing that into more ambitious studio work.