Painting her life on canvas: April Kim

April Kim is a visionary artist with a plan: to put her life down on canvas.

Currently in her third year studying at Mt. Hood, Kim is in the midst of an art journey that she calls “The Little Girl” series, as a working title. Each painting comes with a story inspired by Kim’s own life, a “visual memoir” as she calls it.

“There’s so many stories, so many experiences that I’ve had,” she said. “I always kind of wanted to share that. And then, as an artist, it’s like, well, why don’t I just put the two together?”

Through that realization came a series of vivid, dreamlike scenes on canvas, each with their own accompanying story. Kim said that she aspired to someday combine both of her works, painting and writing, into a book.

Kim, 54, hasn’t always been a painter. She began painting at 40 years old, when her children were nearly grown and out of the house. “There was this woman, Julia Turk, who did a tarot deck. I was in a New Age shop and the shop owner had a couple of these huge paintings,” she said. “I was so taken by them, I asked ‘Who did those paintings?’ ”

And, as luck would have it, Kim ended up meeting Turk nearly three times after that, all chance meetings. Each time she asked, “will you teach me how to paint?” From there, a friendship bloomed and a passion for painting began for Kim.

As for how she arrived at Mt. Hood, Kim said, “it was all just happenstance.” While working as a health food store clerk, she began suffering serious foot issues. She had to go on disability and stop working. “I may be on this disability for quite some time and I don’t want to just sit in my apartment,” she mused to herself at the time. She lived about a mile away from the college, and had vaguely recalled driving by it.

She walked on campus “extremely naive. Like seriously, extremely naive about it,” she said. She didn’t know what kind of school it was, what classes were available, or how to begin. She ended up in the Orientation Center, where she was instructed to register right then and there.

“Before I knew it, I was a full-time student,” she said. “I didn’t plan any of it. I just wanted to fill some time while my feet healed.”

Now, two and a half years later, April Kim has fallen in love with the school. She still studies full-time, and plans to possibly transfer to Marylhurst University. She’s a member of the Rho Theta honors student group, but most of all, she’s an artist: “I wake up and I paint. I start my day as an artist.”

If anyone would like to get in contact with April Kim about her art, you can find her on campus, or leave a comment with the Advocate.

Advocate Staff