We recently connected with Kimberly Salinas Silva and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Kimberly thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

It’s Christmas morning. I see an image of myself at five to six years old. I am standing at a child-sized easel equipped with paper, ready to paint on. I turn back to look at my mother or father taking the picture. A set of oil paints rests next to me. My parents were hovering over me, watching to see if I would paint something and if so what would it be? Needless to say, I felt pressured to produce! I was a very shy and private child. I knew it was kind of ridiculous to give me, a child, an adult set of oil paints, But they meant well.

They had already seen my future. And this moment seemed to seal the deal for me. Even before that, I always knew I was an artist and demonstrated that by electing to stay in my room and draw much of the time. At the age of three, I was already drawing people that my family and friends exclaimed over. I am grateful that my parents were able to see my direction and follow up on it.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

When I was eighteen, I won a full scholarship to the Art Institute of Houston. At that time, I was living with my grandmother In a small town in North Louisiana, where I grew up. I moved to Houston and studied there, not realizing it was a commercial art school! It was years, when I turned twenty-nine that I started painting for myself.

Eager to explore oil painting and subject matter, I studied about Jung and the collective unconscious, the shadow and became enamored of learning about my subconscious through painting. A whole new world had opened up! It was a very exciting, a time of self discovery. I began painting full time, lucky enough to be at home all day with a toddler; I could paint when he slept.

For years I continued to paint and participated in several exhibitions in Houston. I went back to school, earning a fine arts degree from Vermont College and then finally a Master’s degree from The Savannah College of art and design. I was like a horse let out of the stable, painting non stop. Won a residency in Manhattan, where I painted steadily for three months. That is probably my proudest moment.

The whole focus of my work was the exciting journey of uncovering the subconscious. I sold work and exhibited but this is what mattered most. I just loved to be alone in my studio, making discovery after discovery. It was a beautiful time.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding thing about being an artist is the communication with myself. I have been called a loner many times throughout my life. That is accurate but I also wanted to speak to the viewer with these images. To take them back to a time, most likely in their childhood, where they painted and drew naturally. A parallel language that could be understood intuitively, back tracking difficulties with ordinary language in which meaning and relevance often got lost for many reasons.

I was always very shy and introverted, struggling with language and conversation. Painting had become my. “who I am”. How I speak without being misunderstood. But that idealism soon faded when I saw that many people could not ‘go there.’ I have had to realize that I will often be misunderstood and that is ok. Thankfully, I realized I didn’t need that now and could go ahead and paint my often bizarre (not to me) images no matter what.

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

The most rewarding part of being an artist is doing the work and being surprised at where I land! I do not work from sketches, preferring to develop an image intuitively, never knowing where I’ll end up. So, the painting is the sketch. It can run the gamut from disappointing to elation. I never truly know. Of course I have my cast of characters to draw from; they are constants.

Subject matter tends to revolve around my mother with whom I had a challenging relationship. When I was fifteen, she was committed to a ‘mental hospital’ with paranoid schizophrenia. Sooner or later, she will populate both my paintings and poetry. Clowns as well.