We were lucky to catch up with Kim Marra recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Kim, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

In summer of 2022, I was able to fully realize a curatorial project that had been simmering with me for quite a while. Back in 2020 I’d submitted to curate an exhibition at Angel’s Gate Cultural Center in San Pedro called “Magically Thinking”; my concept for the show was to exhibit artists and artworks that transport their viewers to other worlds with their work.

Magical Thinking is the idea that the way we think or act can change things beyond our control. It is something that all people have engaged in, consciously or otherwise, to create a sense of control in an uncertain world. This can be as simple as a harmless superstition or can spiral into detrimental, ritualistic behavior.

The work we produce as artists often employs obsessive or ritualistic methods. However, within the confines of our work, we control the outcome. The artists exhibited in Magically Thinking travel between our physical world and worlds of their own creation, often blurring the lines between abstraction and representation. By utilizing self imposed rules in their work about how their work is made and what it should be, they are manipulating these worlds in response to their own desires. This method of magical thinking is different in one way: it works.

I was awarded this show early in 2020, and of course the exhibit was delayed two years due to the pandemic; to finally be able to see this come to life, in greater color than I could’ve imagined, was incredibly gratifying.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I learned how to draw when I was a young kid by tracing “How to draw Disney Characters” out of a book; from there, I was hooked. I have only ever wanted to be an artist. I started painting when I was in high school. First with acrylics in art classes, and then decided to try oil painting on my own. I subsequently destroyed the carpet in my childhood bedroom as I experimented and played with this new medium; I knew it was for me.

I studied painting at SUNY New Paltz, a liberal arts college in the Hudson Valley. It was an incredible experience and I credit a lot of my understanding and approach to painting to my education here. I spent several years living and working in New York City before relocating to Los Angeles in 2016. I have exhibited extensively over the past 10 years and have shown both nationally and internationally. In Southern California, I have exhibited with The Torrance Art Museum, The Helms Design Center and SoLA Contemporary. I have been featured in several publications and was recently selected as one of Saatchi Art’s “22 Artists to Collect in 2022”. In 2018, I began curating in independent art spaces and have produced several successful exhibitions around the Los Angeles area, most recently at Angel’s Gate Cultural Center in 2022.

Moving forward, my main goal is to one day be able to financially support myself with my art practice. I’ve had so many jobs over the last decade; waitress, dog walker, textile designer, neon sign installer, art advisor; all of these have impacted my career in ways I would not have expected. That said, my goals have not changed since I was tracing pictures of Goofy out of a book; I want to be an artist. I want that to be my job. I’m flexible in the realities of what that may look like but I’m rigid in my pursuits.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

This is so simple and obvious, but invest in art and invest in artists! Buy art if you like art! I’ve never been wildly comfortable financially (I have been wildly uncomfortable financially), so I understand that the average person considering purchasing a piece of art can feel irresponsible or frivolous or maybe even impossible. However, if you’ve been admiring someone’s work, you can’t get it out of your head – contact them! Artists are motivated to get their work out there and will often work with you on pricing, offer payment plans, whatever it might be. Even just hearing from people that enjoy the work helps us thrive.

Societally, there’s a lot more that could be done, but there’s a reason I’m an oil painter and not a politician. I find it frustrating and exhausting and the lack of systemic support for creatives who are professionally trained in their craft does make one want to beat one’s head against a wall. We shouldn’t all mostly need second jobs to support ourselves, and there are other countries that have far wider governmental grant initiantives to support creatives in their pursuits. But alas, I am getting worked up just thinking about all I’d like to do here so I’m gonna go back to painting little flowers.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I learned how to draw when I was a young kid by tracing “How to draw Disney Characters” out of a book; from there, I was hooked. I have only ever wanted to be an artist. I started painting when I was in high school. First with acrylics in art classes, and then decided to try oil painting on my own. I subsequently destroyed the carpet in my childhood bedroom as I experimented and played with this new medium; I knew it was for me.

I studied painting at SUNY New Paltz, a liberal arts college in the Hudson Valley. It was an incredible experience and I credit a lot of my understanding and approach to painting to my education here. I spent several years living and working in New York City before relocating to Los Angeles in 2016. I have exhibited extensively over the past 10 years and have shown both nationally and internationally. In Southern California, I have exhibited with The Torrance Art Museum, The Helms Design Center and SoLA Contemporary. I have been featured in several publications and was recently selected as one of Saatchi Art’s “22 Artists to Collect in 2022”. In 2018, I began curating in independent art spaces and have produced several successful exhibitions around the Los Angeles area, most recently at Angel’s Gate Cultural Center in 2022.

Moving forward, my main goal is to one day be able to financially support myself with my art practice. I’ve had so many jobs over the last decade; waitress, dog walker, textile designer, neon sign installer, art advisor; all of these have impacted my career in ways I would not have expected. That said, my goals have not changed since I was tracing pictures of Goofy out of a book; I want to be an artist. I want that to be my job. I’m flexible in the realities of what that may look like but I’m rigid in my pursuits.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I’m not sure how much this illustrates my resilience, but I think it’s a good lessson;

When I moved from New York to LA in 2016, I was coming here with no studio, no job, no friends and no resources. I just knew that I wasn’t happy in New York and my circumstances had lead me to this moment. The moment in particular I’m referring to is me, on the curb outside my apartment in Queens, with my car packed to the brim and all of the artwork I’d planned to bring with me still on the curb. There was no room left, and my partner at the time hadn’t even packed his stuff yet; Oh, then it started to rain.

I’ve always believed that as an artist you can’t take your work too seriously, and you can’t be too precious about it, That said, being left with the prospect of abandoning most of the work I’d made in my life on the street was a bit more than I’d bargained for. Fortunately, I also had enough resolve to understand that while I believed in myself as an artist, I was only 24; Most of the work left on that curb I’d made in high school or college. It wasn’t very good. It wasn’t going to sell. I had pictures of most of it. And more importantly, I was starting my life over and was about to make new work – better work! So, I drove away. I left the moody self portraits I made in high school, the just-figuring-myself-out-abstract-landscapes, the ill-proportioned figure studies out in the rain and I started my life over. And with that instant being seven years in the rear-view, I have no regrets.

Take yourself seriously, but don’t be precious. Your work is important, but mostly for you; that act of making it is what matters, not where it ends up. Sometimes I wonder if one of my flawed, earnest college self portraits are hanging in a stranger’s apartment in Queens – that makes me much happier to think about than knowing they were gathering dust in a stack in my studio.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

This is so simple and obvious, but invest in art and invest in artists! Buy art if you like art! I’ve never been wildly comfortable financially (I have been wildly uncomfortable financially), so I understand that the average person considering purchasing a piece of art can feel irresponsible or frivolous or maybe even impossible. However, if you’ve been admiring someone’s work, you can’t get it out of your head – contact them! Artists are motivated to get their work out there and will often work with you on pricing, offer payment plans, whatever it might be. Even just hearing from people that enjoy the work helps us thrive.

Societally, there’s a lot more that could be done, but there’s a reason I’m an oil painter and not a politician. I find it frustrating and exhausting and the lack of systemic support for creatives who are professionally trained in their craft does make one want to beat one’s head against a wall. We shouldn’t all mostly need second jobs to support ourselves, and there are other countries that have far wider governmental grant initiantives to support creatives in their pursuits. But alas, I am getting worked up just thinking about all I’d like to do here so I’m gonna go back to painting little flowers.

Contact Info:

• Website: kimmarra.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/kimmmarra