Born and raised in southwest Pennsylvania, Kristin has spent most of her life with Pittsburgh as her home base. She studied studio art, psychology, education, and art therapy in both undergrad and graduate school. Kristin has been working for several years as a professional pastel artist. She has been an award-recipient in international pastel exhibits and has had several solo gallery shows. She has been designated a Master Pastelist by the Pastel Society of America. Her work has been exhibited at The Butler Institute of American Art, in Youngstown, Ohio. She currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Board of Governors, Pastel Society of America, based in Manhattan. Kristin Divers’ art is an exploration of people and the places they live, serve, work, or play; where they gather to build relationships, or retreat to for respite. She seeks to connect viewers to similar environments and communities within their own life experiences, and to the emotions that correspond with these people and places. She also seeks to show viewers a slice of other people's life experiences, in order to enrich their imagination or abilities to empathize. Her current body of work portrays American industry, specifically the steel industry. She has been escorted through, and able to photograph, the interiors of steel mills and steel workers across our country’s heartland. Divers hopes to show not only the drama, but also the beauty, found within this American subculture. Kristin Divers works in pastel, which is very tactile. She loves the feel of working directly with the colors, without even a brush in between. “Working with a pastel stick gives you the feel of drawing, but with the added excitement of expressive colors, complex layers, and textures that can only come with painting,” she says.