Interview with Segullah’s Art Director Linda Hoffman Kimball

Interview with Segullah’s art director, Linda Hoffman Kimball

 

What were some of your early art experiences?

As I child I generally had a crayon in my hand at all times. One early adventure with art was when I was 10 and created a papier mâché and coat hanger Bullwinkle the Moose headdress for myself for a friend’s Halloween party. Always one for getting the most bang for my creative buck, I sent a photo of myself in that get-up to a Chicago newspaper contest that was calling for “celebrity look-alikes”. I won two tickets to see “How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying” at an elegant Chicago theater. I took my mom as my guest.

Another contest I entered at 10 was for a shoe company. My crayon drawing of a hippo with a wild hair-do wearing saddle shoes earned me the 5^th prize in the national competition. It was a “Kissy” doll which I was a little too old to play with, but the thrill of victory lingers still. Another win when I was 12 was for a contest sponsored by McDonalds. I created a 3-D collage of happy dancing French fries and won a transistor radio! Very cool.

I frequently placed well in local and national competitions sponsored by Scholastic. In 1976 I was honored to win 1st place in the New Era annual non-fiction and art contests for my essay and illustrations of my genealogical treasure hunting.

 

 

What media do you most enjoy working in?

That’s a tough question. I love working with colored pencils (Prismacolor). I love working with pen & ink – and sometimes I combine the two. I also love simply drawing – pencil or pen on paper, observing the world around me. I love collage with fabric, exotic papers, text, trims, buttons and bits.  This journal’s banner for Segullah is one I made in honor of the great LDS leader Emmaline B. Wells who famously appreciated thinking women.

I love printmaking – especially linoleum cuts. There’s something essential about that process that appeals to me – a challenge to create pleasing compositions in their most elemental forms in stark black/white contrasts. Scratchboard also invites those adventures.

In graduate school I spent a lot of time with ceramics building handmade pots. (I never quite got the hang of using a potter’s wheel.) Some of my pieces were displayed in the “best of student works show” at Boston University.

I am also rarely without my camera (made easy these days by having an iPhone.) I love to take photos! Then I decide if I want to use them as works of art on their own or if I want to see them as prompts for some other kind of artistic medium. I am also a quilter, preferring freestyle  quilting to precision-oriented patchwork.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You mention Boston University for graduate school. Where else have you studied? Yes, I got my MFA from B.U. My Master’s Thesis was on “Art as Propaganda in Nazi Germany.” Before that, I earned my BA in Art History from Wellesley College in Massachusetts. I was always more interested in making art than studying its history, but that was a rich foundation to learn how creativity, art, and techniques have evolved over the centuries. I have also taken courses with art centers when time and circumstances allow.

How have you kept up your art practice through the years?

When I first had children – my 3 most creative “projects” ever – I learned that it was easier to turn my attentions to less messy art projects that didn’t require as much storage space. Instead I put most of my creative energies into writing. I have written both fiction and non-fiction books, many essays and articles, and occasionally for newspapers. I also write poetry. The best pay I got for any of my writing – if you count pay per word – was for a 17-sylable haiku for the Chicago Tribune. I still write, and now that my kids are launched with kids of their own, I’m free to make expansive creative messes again. Hooray!

I’m in the process of revamping my website. In the meantime, I’m reachable at Segullah.art@gmail.com.