About the artist

With a background as a professional photographer specializing in black and white art portraits of children and hand-coloring with oils, Kristen Solis (aka Dr. Groovy) is always dabbling in some sort of art form. She lives in New Orleans East… Like, way East. Like, North Carolina. She’s been a New Orleans "native" (& we use the term EXTREMELY loosely) since 2008 when she first visited the city with her husband, an actual New Orleanian. She instantly felt a connection with the city, the people, and the incredibly diverse culture bubbling up from the streets. She instinctively knew that this is where she belongs—consequently, she ugly cries every time she has to leave.

Though she doesn’t currently reside in Orleans Parish, you wouldn’t know it to look at her wardrobe or her interior design choices. In her spare time, she creates itineraries for NOLA visitors and locals alike, creates tutus and Mardi Gras beaded corsets for Carnival, makes king cakes from scratch, improves upon gumbo recipes, and plots how to get to Jazz Fest. One of her favorite things to do when "home" is to meet tourist strangers and advise them on how to see the real New Orleans. Often accused of being a pathological extrovert, on several recent trips she took on the role of Pied Piper of Revelers as she led unsuspecting tourists to a second line. (If you don’t know what a second line is, you should definitely Google it.) Her personal motto is "I mean, I could rally!"