AJ Lindstrom-Oye. Photo: Chris Emeott
One Minnetonka painter finds healing—and her sense of identity—on the canvas.
Minnetonka painter AJ Lindstrom-Oye found her way to art, so she could “show up as me,” she says, after a life marked by uncertainty, stress and burnout. “Being adopted at 3 months old from South Korea has always left somewhat of an unknown space inside me,” she says. Without a strong sense of identity or understanding of what her future would hold, she had to look inward—and to her big imagination—to find herself.
Lindstrom-Oye grew up in Maple Grove. Her adoptive parents divorced when she was 2, and she says her childhood was marked by poverty and instability. School was an escape. “I leaned into friends and learning,” she says. Lindstrom-Oye always loved art but didn’t pursue it seriously until well into adulthood. Instead, she earned her bachelor’s degree in finance from Augsburg University, Minneapolis, while working full time, and built a career as a project manager in the tech and financial services industries.
It wasn’t until 2020, after her young family settled in Minnetonka, that art began to play a transformative role in her life. “We moved so many times; we never put anything on our walls,” she says. But their Minnetonka house felt like a place where the family—Lindstrom-Oye, her husband, Dan Oye, and their children, Makenzie, 10, and Liam, 7—could put down roots. “I thought, ‘You know what? I’m going to paint something.’”
AJ Lindstrom-Oye is inspired by her favorite artists, her children Liam, 7, and Makenzie, 10, who she often paints alongside. Photo: Valentina McCachren / GM Design Consultancy
Armed with a large canvas, paint and an old house-painting brush she found in the basement, Lindstrom-Oye created her first piece in an afternoon. She posted an image of it online, and friends and family members reached out to tell her how impressed they were. But she wasn’t thinking of herself as an artist. “I just wanted something for our house,” she says.
Nevertheless, that first painting ignited something. “I just couldn’t stop painting,” she says. “It was such a good outlet and space for me to not have to do structure and strategy and planning and risk management like I did all day long at my job.”
She hasn’t looked back.
Reflection by AJ Lindstrom-Oye
Today, Lindstrom-Oye works primarily with acrylics on large canvases (Her biggest to date was 48 by 60 inches.), creating pieces that are abstract, intuitive and spontaneous. She uses a lot of texture, allowing the paint to build up on the canvas, and natural color palettes. “I’m into really warm, earthy tones and blues and greens,” she says. “I also love solid black and white. I’m drawn to earthy, deep and abstract colors.”
Painting also lets Lindstrom-Oye feel grounded in her physical body, not constantly tangled in her thoughts. “I’m just kissing 5 feet tall, so I paint things that are the size of me,” she says. “But it allows my body to move freely.” She set up a studio space in her home and now spends several hours each week painting; her goal is to finish one piece each month.
As it goes for many working parents, burnout and exhaustion necessitated a move away from her corporate job. “I built a website and gave myself a brand and a brush name,” Lindstrom-Oye says. Her brand is GHL Artistry, an homage to her Korean name, Gyehee Lee. “The name has a lot of meaning to who I am at my core,” she says. “I’ve been on a journey my whole life, trying to navigate and love and enjoy life. The name represents a part of me [that] I knew nothing about.”
Lost in creative thought in her home studio, AJ Lindstrom-Oye spends several hours each week painting; her goal is to finish one piece each month. Photo: Chris Emeott
In addition to her journey of self-discovery, she also draws inspiration from her children. “If I could say anyone is my favorite artist, it would be my kids,” she says. “We’ll paint together, and I’ll give them canvases and let them just kind of go. They don’t have any conditioning or preconceived notions. They just go and create.”
Lindstrom-Oye also embraces the business side of her art. She’s sold several pieces and has done a few commissions for special spaces in clients’ homes. Even then, she lets her intuitive creativity guide her. “I meet with the client and get a feel for them. I let them know what colors I’m thinking, and the goal is to paint something beautiful that feels good in the space,” she says.
The artist has shown her work at a small community gallery in St. Paul and has reached out to other local galleries and businesses about showcasing pieces. And while Lindstrom-Oye is proud to sell her work, her focus remains on the joy it brings. “Whether or not it’s sold, I just love it in public spaces for people to enjoy,” she says.
Discover AJ Lindstrom-Oye’s art on Instagram at @ghlartistry and at ghlartistry.com.
