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Kristin Haynes is an artist, most famous for the creation of the popular Dreamsicles range of figurines and related collectibles.
Kristin was born Kristin Whitney in Utah in 1954. She was one of four children born to Richard Everett Whitney and Abbie Lou Wight. Kristin was always interested in art, a trait she probably inherited from her mother; Abbie was an artist, initially working in oils but then specializing in watercolors, who studied under landscape artist LeConte Stewart, and portrait artist, Alvin L. Gittins, at the University of Utah.
Kristin followed in her mother's footsteps, doing a major in Fine Arts at the University of Utah, when she met her future husband, Scott Haynes, in 1971. Scott was a music major from San Diego. They met at a dance, through a friend of Scott's. Kristin was there as the date of Scott's fraternity brother, Wade Bledsoe.
Both Kristin and Scott left college before graduating. They married on June 12, 1974 and remained in the Utah area, living by Kristin's parents. A couple of years later they had their first child; a daughter they named Harmony.
In 1978, when Harmony was just 2, the family moved to Long Beach, CA. Scott toured as part of a rock band and also began a successful recruitment agency for the computer software industry. Between being a wife and mother, Kristin spent much of her time painting and sculpting. Their family grew with the addition of 2 sons, Dustin in 1982 and Patrick in 1986.
From their many weekend trips to Mexican beaches, where roadside vendors sold smiling plaster-of-Paris animals, Kristin was inspired to make her own clay animal figurines. Her chubby toddler, Patrick, was the inspiration for her first cherub figurines.
Scott and Kristin established a company, named Dicky Ducksprings, as a vehicle for her creations. She used to sell her figurines at gift shows throughout southern California, with the help of her daughter, Harmony. Once Harmony reached high school age, the demand for Kristin's work was too great for her to manage without assistance, so she approached Cast Art Industries. That was the birth of the Dreamsicles collection.
The name Dreamsicle comes from the Jimmy Buffett song of the same name, a favorite of Kristin's.
Cast Art agreed to mass produce the Dreamsicles figurines from 1991. With the ability to reach more target customers, sales of her creations grew rapidly. Scott was no longer the main income provider once the royalty checks began to roll in, so he sold his recruitment business. Scott and Kristin started planning their early retirement and they moved to Sandpoint, Idaho, where they had previously vacationed.
Everything was idyllic for Scott and Kristin until they realized that with high earnings comes a high income tax liability. Scott, never a fan of authority, began talking with some like-minded people in the tax denier movement and was given some advice as to how he could avoid paying tax. They stopped paying federal tax in 1992 and so began lengthy troubles with the IRS.
Throughout the 1990s, Kristin continued to add further designs to the Dreamsicles collection, with Cast Art, and added several additional series of figurines, including a 1999 collection called "Love, Kristin" and subtitled "Heartland Collection". This collection featured resin chubby-cheeked children and animals in clothing and situations reminiscent of a simpler life in the heartland.
In 1998, Scott was sentenced to 21 months in prison for tax evasion and ordered to pay $1.27 million in back taxes. At this point the family moved to Colbert, WA. The prison time apparently had little effect on the couple's attitude to taxation. When Scott was released, in 2000, he became a vocal advocate of the idea that taxes cannot be taken from citizens involuntarily, and they continued to not file tax returns. In late 2004, after a lengthy tussle with the IRS, they gave up the legal fight and instead moved from Washington State to the Caribbean island of Roatan, part of Honduras. Honduras has no extradition treaty with the US.
The early 2000s also saw a sharp fall in demand for Dreamsicles (and similar collectibles) causing a fall in royalty payments. This fall in income may have been another factor in deciding to leave the country. Unfortunately, for Scott and Kristin, they flew to Fort Lauderdale, FL on June 22, 2010, with intentions to visit and catch up with old friends and family, and they were picked up by federal agents on arrival. On Nov 16, 2010, they were sentenced to 40 months (Scott) and 24 months (Kristin) and ordered to pay $833,781 in back taxes, penalties and interest.
Currently the family is back living in Washington State, in Anacortes. Kristin continues to produce her own artistic creations, including Caribbean paintings of island life in Roatan, and art collections of bears, lizards and other animals. Her work can be seen and purchased through a series of blog websites and her Zazzle store. www.kristinwhaynes.blogspot.com
(c)2014 Woolvey LLC
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