We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Catherine Kirkland a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Catherine thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
About the Freedom Collection Collaboration
It is my firm belief that things happen for a reason. That opportunities are presented to us in ways that guide us, and that we make connections that help us achieve our goals.
I believe that meeting Felipe Roberson-Torrech was one such occasion.
Felipe and I met a couple of years ago, at The LoFTs where he resides and where I had an art studio at the time. Felipe is a lifelong athlete from Puerto Rico, who is an accomplished and well-respected Capoeira instructor. Capoeira is a Brazilian martial art of African origin, which combines elements of dance, acrobatics and music. Felipe’s priority is to pass the art to as many people as he can, inviting them into the freedom of movement and expression he has found so personally enriching.
As I was working in my studio, developing a new mug collection for my online shop, I decided to seek input from someone else in the selection the art for the designs. Some fresh eyes and perspective seemed in order, preferably from someone whose life experience was different than mine. Out of the blue, Felipe knocked on my studio door. Catching him a bit by surprise, I asked if he would be interested in working with me on this project. Without hesitation, he said yes.
After briefly describing the project to Felipe, I shared my wish to support an organization with 50% of the profits generated by sales. Felipe and I each proposed causes that moved us, and we both quickly realized that supporting a charity which aids victims of human trafficking, especially children, was common ground for us.
After agreeing on the cause, I immediately thought of an acquaintance of mine, September Trible, who is a certified trainer and visionary leader at The Stop Trafficking Project organization. This local organization’s mission is to promote education for youth, parents, educators and guardians in order to prevent domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST). They do a phenomenal job! I reached out to September to share my plans and she was pleased to hear of the project.
The Freedom Collection, named by Felipe, started as a small grouping of mugs, with the artwork selected by Felipe for the designs. It has since been expanded to include all mugs on the CKirkland Art Shop site. Since The Freedom Collection launch, my business, Kirkland Creative Art + Design, has periodically sent funds in support of the Stop Trafficking Project.
Felipe and I are grateful for those who have helped us support this wonderful and important organization.
Catherine, 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?
Since I was little, four-years-old in fact, I have always known I would be an artist. I have pursued arts-related education and careers my entire life. Not just visual arts, but performing arts: music and theater; graphic arts: art direction, design and production; decorative arts and crafts: leather work, sewing, needle-craft, interior design.
It has been an amazing journey, and I have absorbed and internalized many lessons and experiences along the way. Who I am now is the culmination of all these art influences to date. My art education informs my color choices, composition, painting techniques, interactions with other artists, art lovers and patrons. The business lessons learned help me immensely in understanding the business side of art. All this brings me to the present and what I now create. Of course, today is just a point on a continuum, and I plan to continue to evolve and grow in skill and style. This is an unmapped journey, which makes it even more intriguing and enjoyable. I don’t fear where this will lead. I’m along for the joy ride of discovery!
In college, I majored in Studio Art, which was a broad Fine Arts program that exposed the students to many forms of visual art: illustration in multiple media, painting in oils and acrylics; print-making: lithography and etching; sculpture: clay, resin, metal, ceramics; and of course, theater production and film-making and art history! I was in heaven!
A few years after working in retail and banking, my very luckiest career break occurred when I was hired as an Art Director and designer at a newly formed advertising agency. This life-changing event set me on a path of a fantastically satisfying, award-winning career! I worked with an amazing team of creative people: writers, artists, illustrators, actors, film-crews, etc. As an Art Director, I conceived a vision, and then selected and worked with many talented designers and illustrators. Who interpreted my vision and made it reality. Amazing!
Fast forward to my post-advertising career in publishing at Andrews McMeel Publishing and newspaper syndication at Universal Press Syndicate. At these sister companies,I enjoyed and learned from this opportunity to work … who created books, calendars, greeting cards, syndicated cartoons and columns, and many other popular consumer products.
I also had the privilege of working with internationally and nationally known creators. Some of the best known are: Abigail Van Buren/Jeanne Phillips (Dear Abby), Bill Watterson (Calvin & Hobbes), Gary Larson (Far Side), Garry Trudeau (Doonesbury), Scott Adams (Dilbert), Cathy Guisewite (Cathy), Betty Debnam (The Mini Page), Jim Davis (Garfield), Lynn Johnston (For Better of For Worse), and many more talented cartoonists and writers.
While at Andrews McMeel, I proposed and became responsible for creating a searchable database of creators’ comics. One unexpected result of this project, was my being invited to participate in the Library of Congress “Preserving Creative America” project, part of the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program or NDIIPP Strategic Initiative for short.
My primary involvement with the Library of Congress was coordinating the transfer of images and data of the Doonesbury comic strips and Pat Oliphant political cartoons to the Library of Congress collection. As part of the broader “Preserving Creative America” project, I met, presented to and worked alongside executives, creatives and technical professionals from a broad spectrum of creative industries, to create standards for preserving digital creative works. These included: The Recording Academy (Grammy), Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (Oscars), Walt Disney Company, Getty Images, Warner Bros Studio, Universal Studios, 20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures and more.
This was a joy, and the pinnacle of my graphic arts career.
Then, the “Great Recession” hit in 2008, and I was “right-sized” out of a job. This seemed like the perfect time to return to school, so in 2009 through 2011, I built on my art and design experience with an interior design degree. Following graduation, I was certified as a Kitchen and Bath designer and as an Aging-in-Place Designer. Though I wasn’t successful in launching an interior design business for a number of reasons, it was while studying Interior Design, that a class project rekindled my interest in painting. Since then, I have been painting and showing full time.
In 2014, a visit to a museum in Denver changed my artistic direction!
While visiting my younger son in Denver, he suggested a visit to the Vance Kirkland Museum. What a brilliant suggestion! The museum’s collection included works by Vance Kirkland that span his career, from his earliest watercolors to his pointillist abstracts. It was amazing to see the progression and evolution of his style over decades and his unusual way of working, suspended by leather straps over his painting! I returned from that trip transformed and inspired as an artist and could not wait to try his pointillist techniques!
Prior to experiencing Vance Kirkland’s work, I was influenced by and in awe of the Greek and Roman classics, as well as the amazing work of the Renaissance and Baroque Masters. However, after
Though I am best known for my brightly colored, space-themed pointillist abstracts of nebulae, I also work in three other primary collections: 1. landscapes and representational, 2. Mid-
I am honored that my artwork has been recognized with many awards and has been exhibited in local and regional art centers, galleries and museums. My painting, Cosmos, was featured at the entrance of the 2017 special exhibit, Solar Flair; Celestial Bodies in Motion at the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art in St. Joseph, Missouri. Additionally, my work can be found in collections throughout the US. In the heart of Lenexa, Kansas, my home town, several of large space-themed works were purchased and installed in a multi-use development, The Lofts at City Center. Just this summer, my latest pointillist space painting, 100,000 Stars, was recognized with a Best in Show award at the Lenexa Artists’ Annual Juried show.
In addition to participating in juried group exhibitions, I have mounted several solo shows over the years. In 2018, my work was displayed at the Johnson County Arts and Heritage Center and was part of a metro-wide art festival, known as Open Spaces. I have also had solo shows at metro city hall galleries and KC Crossroads Art District galleries. In 2019, I was invited to install a solo exhibit at the SPIVA Arts Center in Joplin, Missouri.
In addition to painting, managing my web site and social media, and updating designs at my online store, I also lead workshops, host painting events and offer Artist Talks.
I don’t think I’ll ever stop discovering new things about paint, color and painting, which is what makes art and creativity so intriguing and perfect as a lifelong pursuit.
Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?
My participation in the Library of Congress on the “Preserving Creative America” project, part of the larger National Digital Infrastructure and Information Preservation Project (NDIIPP), gave me an entirely different perspective on digital artwork. What I learned is that if you create something that is wholly digital, you must manage that digital work for the long term. That may sound easy, but it is not. Digital art is “ether ware” or “vapor ware”, meaning not tangible.
Hard drives corrupt. Files corrupt. Storage media and file formats change every few years. Once digital, it can be easily copied and stolen. My opinion is that one hundred years from now, those future archeologists who look for artifacts of the 1990s and 2000s, will discover Digital Dark Ages. There will be nothing to show of our civilization, but defunct hardware. By contrast, the pyramids, stone statues, and other stunning (and durable) art forms will still exist, but not NFTs.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
My father was an electrical engineer. He was logical, methodical, and very detail-oriented. He also was the sole breadwinner of our family of eight. I was the eldest of six children and I am sure he felt the weight of responsibility. He taught me many things, work ethic, determination, that I could do whatever I put my mind to. The one thing he didn’t embrace, was my desire to be an artist.
We had an enormous “discussion” (disagreement) when I was in college, sparked when I told him I was going to major in art. He said there was no future in that field, and no steady income to support myself. Of course, I was naive, and didn’t have a plan for how I was going to apply my artistic skills, but at the time, I was determined to pursue what I was passionate about. I ended the discussion by saying “All right! I’ll teach art!” Well, I took two Art Education classes and said “no way”. I would have been a lousy teacher then.
After school, I worked a variety of non-creative jobs, until I fell into an opportunity to work as an art director in a start up advertising agency. From there, my creative arts career was launched. I built a very successful career while working as a creative with many amazing creatives. While it wasn’t the “fine arts” career I had imagined, it was a fantastically creative career. My job responsibilities taught me so many valuable lessons about art and art business that I was able to apply after I left the graphic arts world.
The most amazing thing happened years later. At a family event, my dad pulled me aside to congratulate me on my successes in my creative career. That meant so much to me, as we both had been wounded by our disagreement so many years prior. I was grateful for this praise and affirmation from him, and his expressed pride in what I had accomplished. Sadly, he didn’t live to see me gain success and recognition as a fine artist/painter, but I have to think he is smiling from heaven.
The takeaway? To non-creatives. Look around. Everything you see from buildings to books, logos, cars, magazines, technology, movies, etc., was designed by a creative person! Fine art is just a facet of the broader creative industry. We need creatives to make our world not only beautiful, but functional. Without creative visionaries…ooh, perish the thought! The world needs creatives. Appreciate, support and encourage them.
Creatives: Follow your passion. Find ways to be creative and support yourself. Open yourselves up to learning something everyday. Even though graphic arts wasn’t my initial goal, it was rewarding in so many ways, and prepared me for my current art career. I learned business skills, print production and product design, marketing and advertising, all that can be applied now to my fine art pursuits.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.kirklandcreativeart.com
- Instagram: @kirklandcreativeart
- Facebook: @ArtbyCatherine
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/catherinekirkland
- Other: https://kirklandcreativeart.threadless.com/ https://linktr.ee./kirklandcreativeart https://houseofhelmet.com/product/catherine-kirkland/