Today we’d like to introduce you to Kathleen Kane-Murrell.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
Art did not feel like a career choice when I was growing up in San Diego. I went to college at San Diego State University and earned a BS in Marketing. But, the one art class I took has stayed with me over the years since.
When my children started school, there wasn’t an art program. I was asked to start one. I knew how to train and teach from my business experience. I then studied under numerous local artists, attended many lectures and discovered what I really wanted to do with my life.
I began teaching kids and adults through my art program, Fine Artists™. I’ve been able to bring art history and the artistic process to thousands of children and adults for the past 25 years. Children’s artwork from Fine Artists™ resides in the permanent collection of the San Diego Airport and the San Diego County Office of Education. Artwork created through the Fine Artists program has been exhibited locally in many prestigious juried shows and received numerous awards including California State recognition.
I have been a guest educator for many schools and institutions, including the San Diego Museum of Art. My work has been exhibited throughout San Diego including Martha Pace Swift Gallery, Cannon Gallery, the La Jolla Athenaeum, Art on 30th, Oceanside Museum of Art Alliance, San Diego Museum of Artist Guild, Ray Street and the San Diego Art Institute.
Please tell us about your art.
I try for a tactile response through color, impasto and mixed media techniques. Materially, philosophically and spiritually my work focuses on cycles of transition and repetition.
Each painting is an opportunity to create a magical place. I don’t always intend to use what is thrown away, but some things call to me with a feeling of potential. I find I want to give them a second life. I grew up in a large San Diego family and we made and re-made what me needed. I also find the detritus from my art teaching to have a certain energy. I often use these materials. They can define space, not as the subject but to enrich surface.
The children and adults I teach, consistently inspire me and bring new ideas and techniques to my art making. I find the history of art matters in a way, I would never have guessed. It has taught me about the human condition as nothing else ever did. Through art, I began to understand what makes us human. This is the big question that uncovers itself every day.
Do you have any advice for other artists? Any lessons you wished you learned earlier?
Go to the studio and work. When you can’t work, go in and sharpen pencils. Don’t wait for inspiration. This process doesn’t work that way. Hang out with other artists; read about other artists (we all have the same issues/concerns/challenges). Find positive support. You get to decide who that might be. Know EVERYONE gets rejected. If you keep working, you will get better, doors will open. It is the next work that keeps you going.
One of my favorite books I go to often, just to read a passage or two as needed is: Art and Fear by Bayles and Orlando.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
My work can be seen as posted on Instagram and Facebook (Kathleen Kane-Murrell) and on my website: Kathleenkanemurrell.com. I generally post new work and upcoming shows/events on Instagram.
I have an upcoming show for the month of March, 2018 at Sophie’s Gallery 4186 Adams Avenue, San Diego, CA 92116.
I will be showing with 16 women artists at the Cannon Gallery in April-June 2018 in a group show, “Prom Dress: Seventeen on Being 17”.
I will be part of a group show “Voices” at the Fallbrook Library in May 2018.
I will be showing with ceramic artist, Pierre Bounard at the Studio Door, North Park in September 2018.
I will have a solo show at the Japanese Friendship garden, Balboa Park in May-July 2019.
Contact Info:
- Address: 5021 September Street, San Diego, CA 92110
- Website: kathleenkanemurrell.com
- Phone: 619-787-7699
- Email: fineartists@email.com
- Instagram: Kathleen Kane-Murrell
- Facebook: Kathleen Kane-Murrell
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