Hey there steemit world. I think I need to officially introduce myself, my name is Kristian Winnie and I come from the great northwest.

I grew up in seattle along with my sister and mother. My father was involved in my life but not so much a source of positivity, he held animosity towards my mother after she came out as lesbian and it bled out into a hostile up bringing when we spent time with him. I spent a lot of my time indoors drawing pictures, but also a great deal playing in junkyards and adventuring around the swamps behind my grandmothers. It took me years and years to figure out my mom was lesbian, even though her social circle consisted primarily of other lesbians. A friend of mine was actually the one who brought it to my attention (I was very young when she came out). My sister and I were both supportive of her and her lifestyle, even after my dad continued to be unsavory and bitter about it throughout the years, I was even the minister at her and her partners wedding.

I was always a big kid, but in highschool I got into a weight gaining competition with another chubby buddy of mine to see who could hit 300lbs first. It was an exhilarating competition that ended with me being 345lbs at the age of 19. I gained a huge reputation of being a drunk cheeseburger addict that wanted to do nothing more then drain a keg and closeout a denny's. I spent years as the fat party animal that was always adding some relief to whatever the situation. They were great years, but I'm glad I dropped the weight before diabetes set in.

After highschool I decided I wanted to make a living in the maritime industry after I spent a summer in a fishing cannery in naknek alaska. I got a job as a sailor working for a company called coastal transportation (where I still work almost 11 years later). I got fired pretty quickly from being a sailor for just being a fatty fatty who didn't understand (at the time) that the 8 hour work day doesn't apply sea folk. I quickly picked up a job within the company as a member of the longshore team and would continue to sail off and on for them and another company (Trident) for a few years, before land locking myself to the longshore team. A big reason why I stepped away from sailing was my infatuation with fighting, I did a lot of backyard fighting within my community of friends and others associated before I stumbled on a muay thai gym a few miles from my house. I fell in love with the martial art and the spirituality and strength that was bestowed upon me by my Instructor, who truly believed in the old ways when it came to his students, and spent countless hours keeping me on a right path as many of my friends fell into drug addictions and other wayward activities. During this period of my life I ended up losing over 150lbs, which added a culture shock of what life was like as a more "physically acceptable" person. It was very strange considering I lost a large amount when I was out at sea for 4 months, out of the public eye eating fish and rice everyday and working 20 hrs a day. The rest came off pretty easily with my muay thai instructors lessons and conditioning.

I move away from muay thai after I started getting more serious about playing music and joined a shitty reggae band. I played bass for years but it was always something on the back burner. I spent a few years playing terrible bar gigs with a sub par group. Until a friend of mine took interest in me and started pushing me towards taking lessons to learn the upright bass and after some reluctancy I dove into it, deep. I got linked up with a local instructor who was a fantastic player and really showed me the roots of the instrument and total power, how to control a band and bring breaks and swells to the listeners. I started spending most of my free time over at his house learning and soaking up everything I could from all the local players coming through. Over the years I ended up taking a variety of classes in many genres but the foundation was always jazz and I was in love with it.

I still frequent these workshops from time to time, but my ever evolving focus has fallen heavily upon painting at the moment. I got into painting after seeing a terrible painting hung on a friends wall, it was painted by his wife and when I asked him about it, his answer was so easy I loved it, paraphrased it was something like "she wanted a painting of something like that over there so she did it.". It got me thinking about everything I wanted hung up at my house that I couldn't find for sale, tortoise pies, chicken and waffles, angelic shrimp... there's a real food and animal theme. So, it got me painting, and it really didn't matter if it was good or bad because I was just painting for myself. that's pretty much where I've been since. some people have grown fond of my off-brand style and I've gained a small fan base for my paintings and artwork, and am currently trying to use steemit as a platform to further help me get my name and what i'm about out there. So if anybody has any advice or any other helpful ideas as to help me figure out exactly how I should be approaching this outlet to it's full potential I would greatly appreciate any and all.

If any of you made it to the end of this, that's great! and thank you, and if you didn't? well I probably wouldn't have made it through all that if I wasn't typing it either. Good luck steeming and I hope you're into what I got to offer!