Artist Statement, Autobiography, Resume, Interview and Favorite Quotes

 Artist Statement

       My art is the way I explore ideas concerning both day-to-day life as well as more profound ideas surrounding relationships, the environment and culture. It is a meditative practice of sorts that helps me stop and think about life. Over the years, I have developed a personal visual language that uses symbolism and surrealism to transform my subject matter into archetypal images. I have been told this gives my work a mythical quality making them both timely as well as timeless.

      I create my art in series so I can fully investigate my subject matter. The size of each series is determined by what I need to think through and what holds my interest. While all my art plays well together, most are complete works of art on their own. Global - Bear Hugs, Instrument - Fe & Male, Journey - Hi & Lo, Landscape - inner & Outer, MidLife - Anchored & Adrift, Rights - Balanced & Unbalanced, Star - Evening & Morning, and WoMan - Wo & Man are exceptions in that they are bonded pairs that were created together and need each other to complete the visual statement.

     I am often asked where I find inspiration for my artwork. In answer to this, I would say life is full of inspiration and I find it wherever I happen to be. It may be when I am traveling in other countries, or when I lived in China, or here in the States. I find if I look to nature, ideas for new work are all around me. I have found inspiration looking at trees that were peeking through a window in a thoughtfully crafted room in Japan. I was inspired by a sweet-faced mud-covered cow I saw standing by a road in Thailand. A delightful, spotted creature running through the woods in the States, has sparked new ways of thinking. These are just a few examples, and their resulting artwork can be seen in my Landscape,  Cosmic, and Xtrasensory Series'.

     When I am thinking about what my mission as an artist is, I have to say that I strive to create work that is aesthetically, and emotionally, meaningful. The fact that I portray all living beings as equals to be considered, and valued, is very important to me both as an artist, and a person.

     The historically important artists I most admire are: Kathe Kollwitz, a German/ Expressionistic printmaker/sculptor, Remedios Varo, a Spanish/Mexican Surrealistic painter; Georgia O’Keeffe, an American Modern painter; Brancusi, a Romanian Minimalist sculptor; and Elizabeth Catlett, an American/Mexican Modern printmaker/sculptor. These very different artists all inspired me to create my own visual language, which is accessible to others while remaining intimately personal.

Kathleen Zimmerman

Autobiography

What inspires me? Life.

Creating artwork is a meditative practice that helps me slow down and think about life.  The act of creating seems to help me make sense of the world that I find myself in.

The world I first found myself in was a beautiful one. I was born in Fort Collins, Colorado, which is nestled along the front range of the Rocky Mountains. My father was a carpenter with a love for the outdoors and my mother was an educator with a love for the arts.

At the early age of three, I, along with my family, began spending our free time either exploring the mountains of Colorado, or in the horse pasture with our Welsh pony. These were developmental experiences that instilled in me, a love for the natural world and a strong bond with animals.

When I am asked about being an artist, I have to say that as far back as I can remember, I wanted to make things. This need to create and my unique way of expressing what I saw and felt was noticed in school where I excelled in art. So, it was a natural progression for me to take art classes when I went to college. After a couple years, I left school to have a more hands-on approach to learning and to marry my sweetheart.

I got a job at Art Castings of Colorado and started a family. These choices led me to concentrate in sculpture. After a few years my husband got a job in Connecticut, so I acquired gallery representation there. The gallery owner encouraged me to make a life-sized sculpture. So, I enlarged and cast two of Melody. I showed Melody in a national sculpture exhibition where it was purchased  for the renown Benson Park Sculpture Garden in Colorado. I showed the other one in New England where it was purchased by a private collector.

Then I was awarded artistic merit scholarships from the University of Hartford's Art School, in Connecticut. After earning my Fine Art degree, I continued working three-dimensionally but became more and more interested in drawing and printmaking.

While I raised our two boys, I continued to develop my artistic skills by fabricating metal. wood working, teaching art to children, creative writing, and making monumental molds of sculpture. I fully enjoyed being a mother and I found it inspired me to create artwork that was timely as well as timeless.

Once my sons were grown, and in the military and college, my husband and I took advantage of an opportunity to live in China. This was the first time I was able to work full-time as an artist, and I soon became part of a group of international artists.

During these five years, I concentrated on my drawing skills. It was a very productive time for me both creatively and personally. Not only did we explore China and its culture, but many other countries, such as Mongolia, Japan, and New Zealand, to name a few.

These experiences gave me a broad perspective on life and helped me develop a very strong body of mature work. The drawings from this period were exhibited in China, as well as in the States, where I won numerous awards and honorary memberships.

When we moved back to the States, I continued drawing and exhibiting my drawings but then I began creating hand-made prints using my drawings as their basis. I had made lithographs while I was in art school, but now I was looking for a printmaking method that fit with my current work. First, I worked on a number of intaglio prints at Dogs Eye Print Studio in Massachusetts,

but then I decided that serigraphic prints were a better match for my artwork. At this time, I received a Regional Arts grant and started working with the master printmakers at Modern Multiples in California creating my first serigraphs.

What made serigraphy, or more commonly known as silkscreen printmaking, the perfect printmaking mode for my art was, I could retain areas of pure white paper, capture the tonality of my drawings, and place blocks of intense color that either overlaps part of the image,

or lightly kisses the edge of image. To fully understand the process, I first took an intensive month-long workshop at Zea Mays Printmaking in Massachusetts. Now I am an artist member there producing collector worthy serigraphs.

Professionally, I continue to gain galley representation and my work is in public as well as private collections. I have been invited to exhibit in solo exhibitions in both public and private galleries, as well as being juried into international competitions.  

All these factors, along with my continued need to create keeps me busy in the studio and looking to nature for inspiration. Jason Horejs, owner of Xanadu Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona said this about my recent serigraphs.

"Kathleen Zimmerman's serigraphs accomplish something amazing: by stripping away complexity and simplifying the detail, the artist invites us to see beauty in the elemental nature of the world around us. Animals become mythical,

outdoor scenes are transformed into magical landscapes,

and interior spaces come to life with characters all their own.

Each artwork tells a story, and we as viewers, are invited to bring our own imagination into the narratives." Jason Horejs

On reflection of my life and art up to this point, I must say I needed to live a balanced life before I felt I had something worth sharing.

While I have always made things, it took time to find which media, or in my case medias, best fit with my vision and to refine my visual language.

I am often asked about how I developed my vision, and to tell the truth, I am not completely sure.

I know I have a strong bond to the natural world, an inherent way of seeing and a very active imaginary world. All those things seem to have come together in my art.

As a young artist, all I thought about was creating unique works of art.

Now that I am a mature artist, I also think about how these works of art can make a difference in the world.

Maybe even help others make sense of the world they find themselves in.

Kathleen Zimmerman

Resume

Education

     Kathleen Zimmerman received artistic merit scholarships and academic grants from the University of Hartford Art School in West Hartford, CT. There she earned her BFA majoring in sculpture & printmaking. Since graduation, she has taken printmaking workshops at Zea Mays Printmaking in MA, made molds of large-scale sculpture for Lands End Sculpture Center in CO, taught art at Irving Robbins Middle School in CT, participated in a five-year residency in Beijing, China, worked with the master printmakers at Modern Multiples in CA before opening up her own art studio in CT.

Art

     Kathleen Zimmerman's love affair with form, along with her natural tendency to use symbolism and surrealism in her work, has come together to create her distinctive visual language and more recently written language. Zimmerman uses this language to communicate ideas concerning relationships, the environment and culture. Elements of the natural world, especially animals, are the subject matter she uses to express these ideas. Drawing, printmaking, sculpture, the written and spoken word are her medias of choice.

Exhibitions (a few selected shows)

     Solo

Mill Works, Look to Nature by Kathleen Zimmerman, Willington, CT

Canal Street Art Gallery, Look to Nature - Up Close & Personal, Bellows Falls, VT

GR Art Gallery, Exploring, Stamford, CT

Norman Stevens Gallery, Symbolic & Surreal, Storrs, CT

                  Bell Galleries, Symbolic & Surreal, Simsbury, CT

                  Kehler Liddell Gallery, Couples, New Haven, CT

                  Alexey von Schlippe Gallery, China Drawings, Groton, CT

Farmington Valley Art Center,  Symbolic & Surreal, Avon, CT

Zimmerman Fine Art Studio, Open Studio, Beijing, China

                  Arlene McDaniels Gallery, Kathleen Zimmerman, Simsbury, CT

    International and National Group

Leonovich Gallery, NAWA’s 136th Annual Members Exhibition, NYC

Slater Memorial Museum, CAFA’s 113th Annual Juried Exhibition. CT

One Art Space, NAWA’s 134th & 135th Annual Members Exhibitions, NYC

Five Points Art Center, 2023 International Printmaking Juried Exhibition, CT

DeDee Shattuck Gallery, BIG INK, MA

                  National Association of Women Artists Gallery, The Paths We Take, NYC

One Art Space, NAWA’s 132nd Annual Members Exhibition, NYC

Artios Gallery, HOME, NYC

The Art Center, Printmaking from the Edge / International Juried Exhibition, NH

South Gallery, NAWA’s 129th Annual Members’ Exhibition, NYC

                  Greg Moon Art, Wilder Nightingale & David Anthony Fine Art Galleries, Taos Art Insurgency, NM

                  National Association of Women Artists Gallery, Open Small Works, NYC

                  National Association of Women Artists Gallery, Ev(e)ulotion, NYC

                  National Association of Women Artists Gallery, Clothing Optional, NYC

Cavalier Gallery, Sculpture Walk, CT

                  Benson Park Sculpture Garden, Sculpture in the Park, CO

     Regional Group

The Art Gallery, The Alchemy of Art and Science, MA

Gallery on the Green, Word/Art, CT

The Art Gallery, The Alchemy of Art and Play, MA

The New England Art Center, Speak Up III, MA

Arlette Kayafas Gallery, Embracing Uncertainty, MA

The Art Gallery, Transformation, MA

Canal Street Art Gallery, Open at Atlantic Gallery Exhibition, NYC

Connecticut Academy of Fine Art, 2024 CAFA+Members Exhibition, CT

Wedeman Gallery, Ambition, MA

Kehler Liddell Gallery, 20th Anniversary Members Group Show, CT

Canal Street Art Gallery, Summer Group Show, VT

Galatea Gallery, Contrast, MA

Gallery on the Green, Word/Art, CT

Wellfleet Preservation Hall, Depth Perception, MA

Connecticut Academy of Fine Art, 2023 CAFA+Members Exhibition, CT

Canal Street Art Gallery, Art For All Exhibition, VT

Connecticut Academy of Fine Art, 2022 CAFA+Members Exhibition, CT

The New Leaf Gallery, Calling on Special Places, NH

Connecticut Academy of Fine Art, 2021 Annual Exhibition, CT

Canal Street Art Gallery, Summer Group Show, VT

State of Connecticut Office of the Arts, 2017 Artists Live, CT

Mystic Museum of Art, The 59th Regional, CT

Mill Gallery, 66th GAL Annual Juried Show, CT

                  Jorgenson Gallery, CT Women Artists, CT

                  New Britain Museum of American Art, Nor'easter, CT

                  Slater Museum of Art, CT Academy of Fine Art, CT        

Awards

High Plains Arts Council, Public Commission

University of Hartford Art School, Artistic Merit Scholarships & Academic Grants

New Britain Museum of American Art, Award for a Sculpture

National Association of Women Artists, Award for Works on Paper

Connecticut Women Artists, Award for Works on Paper

Mystic Museum of Art, Award for Works on Paper

Mill Gallery, John Fleming Memorial Award

State of Connecticut Office of the Arts, Regional Arts Grant

The New Leaf Gallery, Patron's Choice Award

Memberships

National Association of Women Artists, Inc., Signature member

     Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, Elected member

     Connecticut Women Artists, Elected member 

The Art Gallery, Artist member

ZeaMays Printmaking, Artist member

Arts Center East, Artist member

Eastern Connecticut Center for History, Art, and Performance, Artist member

Collections (selected)

      Modern Multiples, Los Angeles, CA                            

      Benson Park Sculpture Garden, Loveland, CO

Canal Street Art Gallery collectors, Bellow Falls, VT

      Tilting at Windmills’ collectors, Manchester, VT

 Kehler Liddel Gallery's collectors, New Haven, CT           

      Arlene McDaniels Gallery's collectors, Simsbury, CT

Books and Publications

Magic Circle: Animal Tales / Poems, Sierra Club Newsletters

(2024 December Issue) Bear, Porcupine & Me | https://www.connecticut.sierraclub.org/bearporcupineandme

(2025 February issue) Moose, Hare & Puffin | https://www.connecticut.sierraclub.org/copy-of-fall-in-love

Magic Circle: Animal Tales / Poems, published 2024

https://www.blurb.com/b/12032497-magic-circle

Magic Circle: Animal Tales / Poems, Sanctuary Magazine Poetry Corner (2024 February & 2025 March Issue)

https://www.sanctuary-magazine.com/poetry-corner.html

china through an artist’s eyes: drawings, published 2022

https://www.blurb.com/b/11722272-china-through-an-artist-s-eyes

ABC…The Art of Contemporary Artist Kathleen Zimmerman, published 2023

https://www.blurb.com/b/12032511-abc

Look to Nature - Serigraphs - Kathleen Zimmerman Artist, published 2023

https://www.blurb.com/b/12032506-look-to-nature

References

 “It gives me great pleasure to recommend Kathleen Zimmerman to you.  I worked both formally and informally with Kathleen throughout her years of study at the Hartford Art School.  Kathleen quite simply is a wonderful artist and person.  She started classes at Hartford Art School with a lot of talent and through much hard work and dedication rapidly became one of the school’s pace setters as well as one of the school’s prized students.  Kathleen always works at her peak performance and so became an inspiration to all of those around her.  She is extremely bright and assimilates her experiences directly into her work.  Kathleen is a solid draughts person who is constantly working to improve her drawing skills.  Her work, though sometimes representational, works on the abstract level as well.  She has a knack for developing the subtleties that are present in her subject and presenting them powerfully to her viewer.  I feel her work is sensitive and thoroughly engaging.  Kathleen Zimmerman is a delightful person.  Her personality is cheerful and upbeat and her dedication is relentless.  I enthusiastically recommend Kathleen to you.” 

Fred Wessel - artist and retired tenured professor who was head of the printmaking department at University of Hartford Art School    

"Kathleen's intricate, delicately layered graphite drawings each appear to come together to form the complex entity.  As with life, each lovely drawing is made up of so many ethereal textures, shades and shapes that you want to look at more deeply to experience the emotions visually laid out before you."

Julia Provone - artist and curator who founded and ran the Alexey von Schlippe Gallery on University of Connecticut’s Avery Campus

“Kathleen is one of the most productive and innovative artists who I have the pleasure of knowing. Her style is easy to recognize both of her drawings and her sculptures. Her collection of drawings, which were inspired by her stay in China, are both imaginative and masterful. The fluidity of her lines and the softness of her shading, compose a powerful and exquisite delicacy that captivate the viewer. The same holds true for her sculptures with surfaces that flow like landscapes or waterways. I would recommend Kathleen for her professionalism, her consistent and prolific work habits, her attention to form and content using symbolism, detail, composition and originality. I have admired her work since we met years ago - fellow sculptors and friends. Her manner of living and creating Art are abundant with sensitivity and thoughtful perceptions. She translates her life into volumes of expressive works, both visual and literary and her character is as amiable as her Art."

Barbara Scavotto-Early - artist, art teacher who became a patron and a friend

"Benson Sculpture Garden...this public treasure annually draws tens of thousands of visitors from around the globe. It has been recognized as one of the 200 most important modern and contemporary art sites around the world and as one of the 20 must-see contemporary art sites across the USA. Kathleen's sculpture, Melody, was selected for permanent placement in Benson Sculpture Garden in 1992. It is a beautiful piece... And, after more than 20 years, it continues to be a favorite piece in our collection."

Polly Juneau - Chairman on the Board of Directors of the Loveland High Plains Arts Council who purchased Melody

Interview

An artist interview that captures Kathleen’s humble, and endearing, way of talking about her life and her art. It was recorded at a local radio station at a historic time in history in March 2020.

Favorite Quotes

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."

“Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art.”

 Leonardo da Vinci 

"I totally agree that there must be understanding between the artist, and the people. In the best ages of Art, that has always been the case."

Kathe Kollwitz

"He (or she) who works with his (or her) hands is a laborer.

He (or she) who works with his (or her) hands and his (or her) head is a craftsman.

He (or she) who works with his (or her) hands and his (or her) head and his (or her) heart is an artist."

St. Francis of Assisi

“Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.”

"Creativity is intelligence having fun."

Albert Einstein

"Do your Art for yourself first. Then no matter what happens, you have been true to yourself and your soul will be richer for it!"

“Art can be timely as well as timeless, and may even start a revolution of kindness.”

Kathleen Zimmerman