Today we’d like to introduce you to Kelly Hider
Kelly, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I have been a visual artist for as long as I can remember – I always loved drawing as a child, had an apt for it in school, and always felt the joy in self-expression and of creating something beautiful with my hands. I didn’t have parents who tried to dissuade me from pursuing art in college, so I pursued and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting and Drawing from SUNY Brockport (I am from Rochester, NY) and then moved to Knoxville, TN in 2008 for graduate school, receiving and Master of Fine Arts in Painting and Drawing from UTK in 2011. After teaching as an adjunct instructor for three years at numerous colleges in Knoxville and the Nashville area (Pellissippi State Community College, Walters State Community College, Middle Tennessee State University, and Tennessee State University), I found full-time employment at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts as their Gallery Manager. Since then, I’ve dedicated myself to supporting programs at Arrowmont, a nationally recognized non-profit craft school, in several staff positions – moving from Gallery Manager, to Youth Education Programs Manager, and most recently my position as Arrowmont’s Director of National Programs. So, my background is mostly in drawing & painting and fine art, but I’ve learned a lot about craft practices at Arrowmont – ceramics, textiles, metal smithing, woodturning. I still make and exhibit my own work and have a studio with two other artists in south Knoxville.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Ha! Choosing a career in art is not a smooth road. Like I said, my parents never questioned or dissuaded me from pursuing a degree in art, so I just blindly followed that path. But having a degree in visual art requires one to be creative in figuring out how it will sustain you. Some, but few, artists can make a living selling their work. It is also difficult and hard to secure a tenure-track teaching position at a college or university. So the advice I give young artists is to seek out and gain experience in a number of art-related realms, because you never know where you’ll land. You might get a job in youth art education, gallery work, arts administration, or studio maintenance. I waited tables for 10 years while I was working on my two arts degrees, and worked lot of odd jobs while I was an adjunct instructor to make ends meet: bartending, catering, but also teaching summer kids camp classes at the KMA, did some contract work for Dogwood Arts as the chair of their Regional Fine Arts Exhibition, taught art classes for at-risk youth at the Public Defender’s Office in Knoxville. Anything to pay my rent and get experience in the arts.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
In my own personal studio practice, I have moved past traditional painting but still make 2-dimensional work. I use found photographs as the base for my work, and then use photo-editing and surface manipulations to celebrate these ephemeral moments, and to explore ideas of presence and absence.
My work traces threads within an existing domestic visual narrative, as well as creating new ones. The carefully applied surface embellishments – most recently taking the form of fine glitter – suggest human care, and by altering found images and presenting them in a gallery setting, they are given new life and purpose. The surface glitter embellishments are both seductive and unsettling. I use a variety of vernacular photographic source material – Kodachrome slides from the 1950s, antique black and white photos from the 1930s, and family snapshots from the 1980s. In my work many stories emerge: some personal, some universal, others surreal and fictitious.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
Hard work. But also being open to any opportunity that was even remotely related to art – gallery work, teaching youth and adults, volunteering at other non-profit art organizations – anything to get experience and lines on my resume. Also, I want to give credit to and express infinite gratitude to my teachers over the years – from high school through to grad school. Their support and belief in me made me keep pushing myself to succeed.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.kellyhider.com
- Other: https://arrowmont.org
