BIOGRAPHY
Contrasting and comparing environments through artwork is a natural extension of Kristy Darnell Battani’s persona. Battani herself is the product of a series of contrasting environments. Although characteristically private by nature, as the only child of a college football coach, Battani’s life was influenced by the very public world of collegiate athletics. Many of her earliest encaustic works from the “Gridiron”series embody the personalities and experiences of her childhood spent on and around the proverbial gridiron.
Captivated by painting and drawing from early childhood, Battani pursued undergraduate studies in communications and advertising with supporting studies in studio art at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. Battani obtained her juris doctorate from Vanderbilt University, eventually building a legal practice specializing in intellectual property protection in Atlanta, Georgia. During her legal career, Battani successfully argued many copyright, trademark and trade secret cases in front of the United State Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, the Georgia Supreme Court and numerous other federal and state courts.
Ultimately, Battani missed using her artistic skills and returned for graduate studies in graphic design at Portfolio Center in Atlanta, Georgia where she subsequently taught courses in art business for graduating designers. In 2003 Battani founded the arts-based program Chartreuse Art for Children which provided studio space, classes, workshops and special events for young artists. Throughout the years Battani continued to gravitate towards a studio practice for herself and established Battani Art+Design for the creation of original artwork and installations for commercial and private collections. Battani currently resides in Austin, Texas and continues to lecture and work with educational institutions and artists groups on art business topics.