Kim Vanderheiden
Artists often play an important role in reflecting their time and place. My work draws from my experiences as a mother of three, a small business owner, and a woman raised in Wisconsin, living in California, and working in an urban neighborhood in the 21st Century .
There are many in my time and place, including caregivers, business owners, and the career focused, who need to be “on” and ready to respond at all times, even in sleep. This intensity is reflected in my work through the energetic colors, competing media, and crowded compositions.
My artwork marries text and image. This grew out of my professional experience in letterpress design and printing, and is further influenced by love of literature, and street art prevalent in my studio neighborhood. My works embody the barrage of sounds and language that accompanies my time and place in the “information age.”
My time and place is one of stress and hurry, love and hope, destruction and redemption, democracy and fighting, decay and vision, birth, death, and over 8 billion people all doing something every minute. I love to think of the energy of those 8 billion people and the microscopic role I have I this intricate, writhing, thriving, web.
