Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristina Tokar.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My journey started with Pearl’s Arts & Craft store in Oakland Park, Florida. If you never had the pleasure of visiting during their glory days, it was a store for everyone. For children, amateurs, and professionals alike. From aisles of toys and model kits to more aisles of paints, papers, and pencils. Art classes in the back and framing services in the middle. Most memorably, their walls weren’t blank white but covered with art made by employees and local artists. My grandmother and mother worked there until they closed their doors in 2014. I was there on the weekends, for bring your kid to work day, and when they had their final sales where you could get as much as you could fit in a bag for 10$.
I attended North Andrews Garden Elementary, also in Oakland Park, where I was introduced to more types of art through their magnet program. Focusing strongly on theater acting and theater tech, thanks to a passionate teacher, Mr. Rob.
Participating in plays as an actor and as a tech op. By middle school, my passions led me to photography with Boca Art School under Gregory Ross. While still pursuing acting with Bluedog in Plantation. When I could, I used my friends or parents on the weekends as subjects for my weekly photography assignments. When I couldn’t, I made self-portraits. Often shooting outside in parks, cemeteries, beaches, and backyards. Inspired by surrealism and conceptual art from Flickr, my photos from middle school are primarily portrait based. Exploring storytelling, incorporating props, manipulating lighting, and adding post production effects. Often spending late nights editing on photoshop, sometimes watching YouTube tutorials, but more often learning through trial.
The acceptance came late to attend G-Star in West Palm, after I was already enrolled in Fort Lauderdale. An opportunity worth saying yes to as a public charter with both an acting and filmmaking program, as well as the largest motion picture sound stage in South Florida. I met my first friend at IB orientation , Holly, a tall blonde. Together we commuted with TriRail, me from Cypress and her from Boca. From 6am for four years, napping in the early mornings or catching up on homework. Then chatting in the afternoon over books like The Hobbit, Maze Runner and Divergent.
Transitioning to filmmaking was initially difficult, coming from a stills mindset, but ultimately all the skills I had learned from photography translated into the visual language for my video work. Around sophomore year, I started using my photo skills to make some money using a site called Model Mayhem. Before I could even drive, my mom would drop me off a block away to shoot headshots and portfolio work for actors and models. By summer of junior year, I was driving myself all the way to Palm Beach Gardens. The youngest intern to be accepted at 16 for the Palm Beaches Commission. Working shortly after as a graphic designer on the book “Palm beach: A Tribute to the Community”, diligently learning InDesign the night before. Ultimately graduating in the top 10 of my class after competing an intensive 4 years of IB (International Bachelorette) program. I continued to pursue my creative dreams and went to study at the Art Institute of Chicago in their Film Video New Media & Animation program. Working 2-3 jobs throughout my degree, I graduated with a student leadership award for my contributions to ExTV as a Production Manager and to the Neiman Center as an event assistant.
Around 2024, I won second place for my first public artwork called, “Kristina’s Little Art Gallery” with Art13 on the H.O.M.E.S campus in Fort Lauderdale. A furry kaleidoscope of girly maximalism using plaster casts, reflective materials, and original cut out drawings. Walking down the street there was a ceramic studio that I must have been passing for years but never entered. It was a sign. Like all signs, they take confidence to act upon. It took some weeks yet looking back, it’s been a life defining choice. It’s a choice I make everyday to keep creating and to keep trying. It didn’t make much much sense to start doing ceramics at first but it’s a medium that I fell in love with. The slow, meditative process. The hands on, intuitive nature of shaping clay by hand. Above all, the surprises after each kiln firing.
Less then a year creating at Mingo’s Pottery Studio, came an unexpected opportunity. One could say the opportunity of a lifetime. Joali, an ultra luxury resort, in the Maldives offered me the chance to be an artist in residence for one year, teaching ceramics to guests in a gorgeous bungalow style studio. I learned wheel throwing the month prior to leaving. Planned weekly classes and ideas for a year’s worth of holidays worldwide from Earth Day to multiple women’s days,Halloween, and multiple New Years celebrations. Getting up at 5 a.m to speak with staff on zoom during work hours for 2 months. Putting together an inventory purchasing list with what I needed comparing it to what they told me they have. All before having stepped foot on the island. That was only the beginning, all while putting together the extensive personal paperwork required for work visas.
Marketed as an art immersive island, they brought the art but forgot the artists. I taught press trips for Vogue, royal families, and celebrities. Inside a glass studio, there was little room for privacy. Constantly challenged by strict standards and unreasonable turnaround times, I only stayed 3 months. Taking the memories but leaving my art behind to join artwork on the island made by notable artists Porkey Hefner, Misha Kahn, Zemer Peled, Chris Wolston, and more. Still, the best part was the international food and walking everywhere.
Returning mid 2025, I participated in multiple open calls across South Florida. Participating in exhibitions from “My Lens Our City” for Ethel M. Gordon Oakland Park Library to “Belly of the Bird” with O Miami Poetry, once in June then October. “Frequencies” part of Ignite Broward, a video projection, at Dania Beach City Hall, to Riverwalk Magazine exhibition, where I received an honorable recognition for creativity.Culminating in “BitBasel Space” part of ArtBasel at Sagamore Hotel. A program sending art to space. Published for the first time in April 2026 with Riverwalk magazine and now Voyage, I am thankful for these continued opportunities to share my story.
Currently creating inside Gasper Arts Center, Dania Beach, studio #20, it’s taken five years to afford my first real private studio space. Coming back full circle, now over 10 years ago, I exhibited videos with Secret Art Garden in Wynwood, Miami. In the same neighborhood, this year I joined the Wynwood Kollective, a local artist collective, with a storefront steps away from the infamous Wynwood Walls. Selling ceramics, cyanotype prints, and handmade incense.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Never.
It’s been obvious since high school that if you don’t stand up for yourself, you’ll get walked over. Most definitely when I worked on “Palm beach: A Tribute to the Community” with Olympia Devine and she never credited me for my work as a graphic designer in the book. One of my first real publications made it inside The Flagler Museum, an accomplishment, I could never fully celebrate. Olympia wanted me to come in to do unpaid labor because I made some mistakes when translating her revisions. I refused the irrational request, more than busy with IB. I later learned that my friend, Hope, who I helped to get the job with as a filer was being paid 25$ an hour meanwhile I was being paid embarrassingly less at 15$.
Graduating in the middle of a pandemic to a world, on pause, was creatively isolating and professionally stunting. An entire semester spent creating a 4k multimedia animation for the Gene Siskel Film Center. Cancelled and never rescheduled. I was working with a theatre in Chicago to do a public reading of my feminist, absurdist play “Trust in Wheels” – cancelled. It definitely felt like many doors were shut for a longtime after.
Meanwhile, it became impossible to just wait for a breakthrough opportunity. Chicago stayed in shutdown much longer then I could hold out. Moving back in with my parents meant downsizing – throwing out work for the journey home to Florida. Less space and less privacy so I took jobs that underpaid me and exploited my labor.
Taking a few steps back, professionally, to start over again as a production assistant for C&I studios. My expectations were low after reading their Glassdoor reviews. After going to Orlando for a shoot with only the evening’s notice to be back by 5 a.m, I was totally done when my paycheck didn’t reflect travel time. My first but not last time experiencing wage theft in Florida. I worked as an executive assistant with Here to Inspire Foundation during the summer of 2021, fired after the grand opening then ghosted. Months after reporting the theft to Fort Lauderdale city and starting the claim process, I was paid on Christmas.
Years of bouncing around from freelance video editing to Ingest Operator for a porn company in Miami.With the rise of AI alongside competing with international labor, video became progressively less profitable with expectations for work to be fast and cheap. Like everyone, I adapted to new roles from Customer Service Coordinator for Broward Center for the Performing Arts to Associate Project Manager for Encore working on 100k+ AV events. Even briefly moving back to Chicago to work for Studio Soo as a Community Manager to launch a new selfie studio business. It was difficult to find the energy and time to make art working full time. With Encore, I experienced being so sleep deprived that I couldn’t figure out how to open a door I just came out of. Eventually I fell into Brand Ambassador work, starting with Amazon at Best Buy then came Spotify, Google, Uber. Represented my favorite childhood chocolate brand – Kinder. Flexible and semi-well paying, I found enough stability to rekindle my passion for art and invest in ceramics.
The opportunity to go to the Maldives also came with plenty of challenges. First, I needed to get my blood drawn for the work visa. Being afraid of needles, it’s something I never wanted to do. With the help of my supportive partner, Bee, and the amazing team at Dr. G’s, we accomplished this nightmarish task. Yet there was much more to overcome from flying anxiety to imposter syndrome. At JFK airport, I had a panic attack and got off my second flight. Returning to Florida while my flights were rescheduled, starting the 36 hour journey all over wasn’t any easier the second time.
The studio I am at now, I found out of necessity while searching for studios that accepted outside firings (clay not sold by the studio or work made outside of the studio). Determined to have my totem pole ready in time for the Coral Springs Museum guild member show after my previous art studio delayed firing my work. Despite finishing my work in time, being accepted, and dropping my work off at the Coral Springs Museum; shortly after, I received an email to pick up my totem pole because they wanted wall hanging art only. It was only a temporary letdown since then I’ve had so many more accomplishments to be proud of – another public artwork with Art13, my first retail shelf in Wynwood, an artist in residence show with Gasper, and teaching with Arts4All starting in August.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
The arts has always been multidisciplinary for me. Unlike other artists that stick to one medium, throughout my life, I am constantly trying and learning new techniques of creating. My favorite type of making comes from unstructured play also known as process based art. An art practice that investigates the ritual of meaning making through the lens of absurdity. Experimentation, feeling and colors are prioritized to recreate a reality as vivid as the imagination.
Currently, focusing on ceramics. There’s plenty of trial and error learning. Incorporating cooking tools for texture or filling heads with paper or mixing rice into clay. Sometimes I use molds but mostly it’s all handmade, one of one work.
I’m most proud that I’m still creating art for all these years.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://KristinaTokar.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ktokar_ceramics/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinatokar
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ktokar
