We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kimberly Turner. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kimberly below.
Hi Kimberly, 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.
One of the most meaningful projects I’ve worked on was the revisitation of my graduate thesis work. My graduate school experience at Indiana University Bloomington was pretty tumultuous. I started right after undergrad and didn’t fully know what I was getting myself into. I didn’t have a plan other than wanting to be a photography professor.
During the first two years of my tenure I struggled to find a consistent project to focus on. As the time ticked by, I had one and a half semesters left with nothing cohesive to show. My professors were doubtful, but I was determined to prove myself.
The summer before my final year, I revisited all of my work up to that point. I found the threads of recurring concepts that ran throughout: fear of loss, the complexity of human relationships, and the hierarchy of life. From there, I reflected on what, outside of art, I am truly passionate about. That answer was the natural world. From that point on, I have dressed these concepts and thoughts through visual methods relating to nature, wildlife, and science.
After several months of long days and late nights in the studio, and every last second I could get installing the work, Mnemonic Amalgamation was finally on view at the Grunwald Gallery of Art. At the opening reception, I received the long sought after approval from my professors, peers, and the general public. I finally felt validated, but the work didn’t feel complete.
Seven years later, in 2019, I was offered an exhibition at the Crary Art Gallery in Warren, PA. I had two rooms of the gallery and a hallway connecting them. I hadn’t had this much space to myself in a gallery before and I wanted to make the most of it.
With my exhibition (Un)Natural I expanded on the concepts and work from my thesis exhibition. It was a chance for me to revisit a project that I worked so incredibly hard on, this time to share with my new community.
I expanded the collection of large scale photographs to fill one room and the connecting hallway. In the second room, I fully immersed visitors with an even larger interactive installation of what could best be described as a naturalist’s study from a time long past. A blend of found objects, scientific equipment, illustrations, sculptures, photographs, and furniture melded together to create a curious and cozy atmosphere. Visitors were invited to explore the space as if it were their own.
Prior to revisiting this work I had started working at a small non-profit nature center in Western New York. With four years of day-to-day experiences alongside nature lovers I found a whole new relationship with the work. I brought a more sincere perspective to it, which I think allowed it to hit at a whole new level. The opening reception left me with such an incredible sense of self and love. I felt as if I opened my heart to the world, allowing everyone to see the deepest darkest corners of it all, and in return they explored with wonder, curiosity, and care. The perfect response to this work.
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 live two separate lives that I have melded into one; Artist and Animal Care Specialist. This title spans my personal creative work and my day job for a small non-profit organization. My home and studio are in Northwestern Pennsylvania and I work in Western New York.
I began my artistic education at SUNY Fredonia, where I graduated with a BFA in both Photography and Illustration. I continued my education at Indiana University Bloomington where I obtained an MFA with a concentration in Photography. These degrees taught me so much beyond just making art. I learned accountability, resilience, creative problem solving, how to collaborate, how to process and express complex concepts both visually and verbally, and so much more.
My passion for nature along with the skills learned through art school are what helped create my current day job. Through a lot of determination and perseverance, I kept working towards what I wanted until eventually, after climbing the rungs of the ladder long enough, what started as a dream and a volunteer position transformed into my full time job.
My job as an Animal Care Specialist influences and inspires my personal artwork and business. It has introduced me to a community that truly understands and resonates with my art. The experience I gain from being in a shared space with naturalists, mentoring under wildlife rehabbers, and mingling with others in the field on a day to day basis are reflected in my art.
As someone who loves to learn, I continue to explore different media and ways to express my concepts through visuals with themes pulled from the natural world. Most of my work is expressed through photographic exploration, science-like observations, delicate assemblage, small sculptures, and illustrative studies.
I love sharing my excitement for art and nature with others. From teaching botanical drawing workshops to painting watercolor commission pet portraits, I welcome the collaboration with clients that creative projects offer.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
As I mentioned previously, going into graduate school I was convinced that I wanted to be a photography professor. I adored the teachers I had in undergrad and I wanted to inspire others as my professors had inspired me. Five years into teaching at the college level and I realized it wasn’t the right atmosphere for me.
It was an unpredictable hustle that was taking a toll on my mental and emotional health. I was tired of not knowing if I would have a job each semester, and even more tired of having to pack up and move in search of other jobs/schools if a semester didn’t come through. My husband (also seeking a job in the creative field) and I were living apart as jobs shifted for both of us in different locations. I loved teaching, but the college classroom environment wasn’t fully what I was looking for. I decided after being fully immersed in academia for over a decade that is was time to walk away.
It was scary. I didn’t have a plan. I moved back in with my husband and took some time to reflect. I was pretty burned out on academic art and tried to focus on making for the fun of making. I found inspiration in curiosity and rekindled my love of nature. I spent time outdoors. I planted a giant garden. I volunteered my time to care for live animals at a nearby nature center.
Living in a small town without many career options in the fine arts, I decided if I couldn’t find a job in the arts, that I would start a career in a field that inspired my art. That was when I sought out working for Audubon Community Nature Center in Jamestown, NY. This was a huge career shift. I went from teaching college students the ins-and-outs of photography and drawing to teaching young children how to play in the outdoors. A few years into my new career and my responsibilities and titles starting morphing into something more sincere to me. When the organization decided to rebrand, I was assigned to the committee and task force responsible for giving the organization a facelift. At the same time the live animal collection was also placed under my responsibility.
Eventually, my title landed at Designer and Animal Care Specialist. Two very different responsibilities wrapped up into one very interesting job. I get to explore both of my passions during my work day – creativity and nature (specifically animals). In one week I might get to illustrate and design a T-shirt, layout the bi-monthly newsletter, assist with creating education tools, and design interpretive signs for exhibits. Then, I get to train birds of prey, develop proper turtle diets, teach programs about native species, and learn how to exam blood work from a snake. I never know what my day will involve, and that’s what keeps life interesting. It all comes back to that curious spark and the desire to never stop learning.
Outside of my day job, when my creative energy allows, I still try my best to find time to get in the studio and make work for myself. The career/life balance can be difficult but I am grateful that I get to use my creative brain daily, in various ways.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
One of the biggest things I have had to unlearn has been the thought that to be successful, art has to have meaning. This is not true at all. I recognize some people do feel this way, and that is fine, but for my work and my practice, this thought is crippling.
After graduating with my MFA, I was pretty burned out. I needed a break from making, but still felt the need (not a want, a need) to make. I struggled each time I sat at my desk or got behind my camera lens. The nagging questions “what does it mean?” rang deafeningly in my mind.
During critiques I had to explain every single little choice and decision in my art making process. This process can be incredibly valuable, but can also lead to a lot of doubt. Without the classroom setting, those voices still rang in my head and continued to rattle around in the echo chamber of my mind.
I didn’t have a community to bounce ideas off of any more. I felt isolated and lost.
This is something I still struggle with over a decade later. I have to remind myself whenever that question arises that I can make things solely because I enjoy it. Not everything has to have a deep conceptual meaning. “Because I feel like it” is a valid statement. Tying meaning in is great and can add a whole new depth to the work, but sometimes working on something is better than working on nothing, and that dreadful thought of “what does it mean” does not do me any good. 
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.kimberlyturnerart.com/
- Instagram: @kimberlyturnerart
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KimberlyTurnerArt
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimberlyturnerart/