We recently connected with Keri Kimura and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Keri thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

As a kid, I loved drawing and painting. When I was in high school I took an apprenticeship with a muralist and worked for two years on a three story mural that spanned three buildings. After that, I couldn’t figure out how to do anything else. Painting felt like it was an innate part of me. I studied art in college, worked for a couple of artists, then went to graduate school for painting but dropped out. I struggled in school. You get so much feedback in a painting classroom, which is so invaluable. But you have to be smart enough and confident enough to know what criticism to take, and what to let roll off of you. I just wasn’t ready at 24.
I think for me, the things that move me forward are just being in the studio, sketching, painting, pushing myself to experiment with new materials, new ideas. Looking at as much painting as I possibly can, going to shows I want to see, having art books open in the studio and art books on order from the library.
I’m in the middle of it. I’m always learning.

Keri, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My paintings explore pattern and chaos in nature. They reference the landscape around me, but are not representational landscape paintings. I’m a scavenger of colors and shapes, shadows, forms. I collect them and weave them together, move them around, search for the places they resonate.

Recently, I’ve been interested in pattern pieces. The kind you use to sew a shirt or pants, which is something my mother and grandmother both did. When you cut out the shape of a sleeve, it isn’t shaped like an arm. It has flat sides and gentle curves. But there’s a sense that it mimics the body, like a strange geometric shorthand.

For me, painting is a kind of shorthand too. A way to put a multi-dimensional moment in time into the flatness and stillness of the picture plane. Every painting begins with a collection of shapes, colors, patterns, ideas about a place, point in time, problem, or desire. But I let them depart from that point. They take shape organically and sometimes come to reference a landscape or physical space. But ambiguity is important, because it keeps them in motion. I want the viewer to find their own room, their own world within the painting.

I sell some paintings through galleries, and also work on commission. Sometimes clients come to me with a blank wall they need to fill. They have specific themes or colors in mind. Or they might just know they want a painting of certain dimensions. I enjoy working with people to make the right painting for them and their space. We usually go through a sketching process where I make several preliminary sketches and we look at them together, make edits, and move on to a final piece.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I did a residency with Golden Artists Colors a few years ago, and I was blown away by how much knowledge they had about paint, pigment, and everything involved in the painting process. It completely changed the way I use and think about paint. Since then I’ve reached out to them a few times when I had a very specific question. Like, if I’m painting a mural outside, near the ocean, on this kind of substrate, what colors are light safe and how do I seal it? They helped me figure it out. They are just an incredible resource for painters. I used to be so frustrated by the surface quality of acrylic paint, as someone who had previously worked in oil. But by configuring which mediums to use and how to use them, I’ve come to a place where I think acrylic can have even a richer surface than oil.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I’m never bored. There is always a way to keep growing and learning and expanding as a creative person. And I love going into the studio every day.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.kerikimura.com
• Instagram: @kerikimura