Tristina Dietz Elmes is a self-taught mixed media abstract artist with a passion for color. She expresses her art in the form of 2 and 3 dimensional paintings and through art journaling. Texture, both physical and visual, plays center stage in her works. Her playful experimental attitude results in positive energetic art. Tristina grew up in Asia, the daughter of a Chinese linguist. While living in Korea, she found fascination with ink and rice paper paintings. In Taiwan she studied Chinese language, character painting, and flower arranging and graduated from Taipei American High School. After returning to the United States to attend college in Maryland, Tristina settled in Florida and enjoyed a successful career in Computer Systems analysis, design, and training, assisting such clients as National Geographic Society, Sony Music and Microsoft. Having left the computer industry to raise a family, Tristina began her journey as an artist and art teacher in 2001.