Longboat Key, Florida-based painter Kim McAninch credits her B.F.A degree. in Surface Pattern Design from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and a 17-year career—in which she designed a wide range of products from wallpaper, fabric, and flooring to wrapping paper and dinnerware—with informing her current work.
“My education, my design of all products printed or woven, and interior design experience have all informed my art. Trends in home décor were always important. Color was very important. I have designed for many interior styles which is definitely a strength. My challenge now is to be less rigid and use repetition to my advantage and create a composition with successful entry and exit points.” Kim now enjoys the absence of a set of dictated requirements to explore the space and achieve balance between representation and design, leveraging the very same elements she has mastered–design, color, and line among others.
Living most of her life in suburban Cleveland, OH, Kim moved to Pittsburgh, PA in 2013, enjoying downtown living and an urban collective studio space. She moved to the Sarasota, FL area in 2019. A visitor to the area since 1979, the views have long been the inspiration for her coastal landscapes and they continue to be the subject of most of Kim’s work. The horizon gives her a base, an armature on which to build. “I can’t seem to leave the horizon behind. This is likely from the allover design of my past, where order is intentional.” She uses this element purposefully, as within this structure she is allowed a loose interpretation of color, scale or gesture, without losing the viewer’s ability to read it as a landscape. She says she is currently working towards more information with less
detail.
The art originates in her mind and her point of view. She prefers not to lead the viewer by naming her paintings. Instead, the viewer adds personal experience to give the art life. “When I begin, there are no mistakes and eventually, I see the connections and work with the positives. I love when people have a favorite painting of mine and one with which they connect. I love when what emanates from my mind’s eye can be viewed with the same familiarity.”
Kim has a large body of work on paper, which originated from twod residencies on Cape Cod, experiences that provided direction. She uses an array of media for both the work on paper and the work on stretched linen. Her technique uses anything that makes the mark, texture, and energy desired in the landscape. “My work over the past 35 years has never been about social or cultural commentary. I paint to immerse myself in my own process and escape thoughts about our system or division. It is selfish work, for sure.”
