Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kimberly Gutierrez. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Kimberly thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you wish you had started sooner?

I think if I were given the opportunity to start my creative career sooner, I would take it. I didn’t have much of a creative career until a few years ago but I do wish I had started taking my art more seriously earlier in my life. I knew I wanted a creative career since I was child but I had never really known how I would achieve that. Much like my older brothers, I didn’t start considering that until I was a senior in high school and was confronted with college applications. Up until then art was more of a casual hobby for myself since I was frequently preoccupied with keeping my grades up. I didn’t really start using my art as a way of self expression until I started taking AP Art during my last two years of high school so a lot of art I did before then consisted of portraits and very traditional stuff. When it came time to do my admissions essays and final exams, I started to see how many options were available in terms of creative professions. Working with my peers I was also able to see that the art I was creating didn’t have to be realistic and traditional, it could be really far out and weird. I think my creativity did suffer during that time because I went through a deep depression during my high school career and had I thought of using my art as a form of expression, I think it might have given my creative career a better start and would have let me start building up a good body of work while exploring a variety of disciplines. Since then it feels like I’ve been playing catch-up with a lot of the other creatives I know. I have to remind myself that this is my journey and my only competition is myself, although you can’t help but wonder what might have been.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am currently working as the lead graphic designer for Museo de las Americas while making art on the side to sell at markets and submit to exhibitions. I make art in a variety of mediums such as gouache, graphite, ink, and occasionally acrylic. I also make some digital illustrations as well, these often get turned into prints, charms, stickers, or buttons that I sell at local markets and Museo’s gift shop. Depending on the media I am working with my art will take on drastically different meanings. I like using gouache and acrylic to create series that are particularly reflective and introspective, whereas I tend to use graphite for portraiture and character studies. On the other hand, my digital illustrations are a little more far out and tend to come from whatever I scribble in my sketchbooks, usually nonsense doodles about whatever is on my brain at the time. I like making art that gets reactions from people and allows me to share what I love with them. It can be difficult for me to put my thoughts into words so I prefer to show people how I feel about things with my art, it’s how I communicate with others best. As for my job as a graphic designer, that involved more restrictions since it’s my job to create materials we use for marketing, exhibition branding, and maintaining the institutions identity. I manage all of our printed and digital collateral including posters, vinyl, brochures, marketing materials and toolkits, invites, labels, infographics, the works! I feel like I got a hand in just about everything when it comes to creating.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

As I mentioned before, my art is a method of communication and expression of my feelings. So, I suppose that would be my main goal, to be able to communicate with others and start conversations. I like it when my art gets a reaction out of people and gets them talking. They don’t have to like it, a reaction is a reaction! I like using my art as a way to work through stuff that goes on in my life. It helps me reflect on myself, my past experiences, and process events. It also lets me share things I love with others. My body of work so far has a few series that deal with all sorts of different topics like existentialism, astronomy, physics, religion, inspiration, and my heritage. It helps me explore myself and share my experiences with others in the hopes that I’ll find other people who are like me. I don’t really have much aspiration to be a world famous artist who goes down in history books, although I guess that might be a nice bonus if it ever does happen. I just want to make and share weird art that gets people talking.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

My journey to get here hasn’t been easy, I think the biggest challenges I have had involve my mental health which I don’t usually talk about. I’ve been dealing with depression and anxiety since I was in freshman in high school, which was at its worst during my last two years there. I remember being miserable and unmotivated to do anything, even art. It was a really difficult time in my life where I felt very alone and isolated because I had no one to turn to who understood how I felt or what I was going through. I barely understood myself. When I went to study at my dream college in New Mexico, the Santa Fe University of Art and Design, I felt that I found a place I really belonged and could call home. Although it was short-lived. I had to face the news that the school would permanently close before my first year ended and was forced to transfer 2 months before the semester ended. As you can imagine this really affected my mental health and put me in a pretty bad spot for a while afterwards. It felt like something so personal and precious was taken away from me… I was fortunately able to transfer to another Regis University in Denver, but it was difficult to have to start over again in a new state where I didn’t know anyone. I still have my ups and downs but I feel like I am starting to get to a good place. I’ve been able to graduate, have my art exhibited around town, built a great network of colleagues and friends, and been able to experience all sorts of new things. Despite wondering what might have been, I am very grateful for all the people and experiences I have had since coming to Denver. I don’t think I would trade it for anything.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://bloodgulchblue.wixsite.com/dambrosiart
• Instagram: @d_ambrosia_
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dambrosiart
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimberly-gutierrez-76396a98/
• Other: https://www.redbubble.com/people/d-ambrosia/shop?asc=u

Image Credits
Kimberly Gutierrez