Art & Life with Kimo Minton

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kimo Minton.

Kimo, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
I began teaching myself art from books when I was 22. I moved to Little Five Points in 1976 bought an old house and supported my family as a carpenter. I shared a shop beneath the Atomic Cafe and worked on my art for several hours before work every day. In 85 I was in a Mattress Factory show and got a photo of my sculpture in the Journal Constitution. The developer Bill Bailey gave me a yearlong commission carving and designing columns for a building. I got with Tew Galleries in89 and have been with them ever since.

Can you give our readers some background on your art?
I carve sculptures in wood and stone and make one of a kind painted wood panels of various sizes. I’m influenced by all of classical art history but especially early modernism as it grew out of artists love of primitive art. My art grew out of abstracted figures to a greater abstraction as I got older. I am very influenced by Jazz and the idea of immediate improvisation. I study composition and proportion and develop my sense of color a lot these days. I try to express freshness and the feeling that I never left the sandbox I was playing in.

Artists rarely, if ever pursue art for the money. Nonetheless, we all have bills and responsibilities and many aspiring artists are discouraged from pursuing art due to financial reasons. Any advice or thoughts you’d like to share with prospective artists?
I always made my art the first thing I worked on every day. Some artists and I used to pool ten bucks each once a month to buy one of us a whole day to work on art. I’m self-taught so I never knew about the academic world of grants but that’s an option. Mostly my advice is to have a backup career, I’ve done okay since I was almost forty making my living from art, until I was 55 or so I felt that I could have leaned on my carpentry skills, there are art stars that make great money, but for most in the fine arts, it’s a vow of middling poverty at best. I’m lucky to have made a living from what I love for 30 years.

What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
I am with Tew Galleries in Buckhead. I have a piece in the High Museum Collection and the Georgia Museum. I show in Galleries in Charlotte, Nashville, Santa Fe, and London. If they like my work and have any connections with Galleries in other cities I’d love an introduction, personal relationships are everything in the Art world.

Contact Info:

• Address: 1162 Behnke Rd
  Los Lunas NM
  87031511a Kings Road
  SW10 0TX
  London England
• Website: kimominton.com
• Phone: 505 379 4977
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: Kimo Minton
• Facebook: Kimo Minton

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