5:22 AM, February 5th, 2016
Allison is up early. I can tell because she has answered my message from the night before asking if we are still on for today. The time she answers is 5:22 am. I am up at about 5:25 am and see her response. An early bird like me. That’s cool.
I always wonder what people do who get up that early. I know what I do: coffee making, exercise doing (sometimes), dog feeding, contest entering, kitchen cleaning, art making, news reading. But others? I usually think they are doing more momentous things. Some out of this world exercise routine that lasts for an hour and sculpts them into Greek Gods and Goddesses maybe? Perhaps they are making every meal for every person in their house for the entire week. Or they could be answering the 200 international emails from overnight, solving world problems and arranging to solve more.
Is Allison doing any of those things? I decided to ask. She doesn’t answer. Maybe she is busy doing one of those epic things I mentioned or maybe she went back to bed like I am inclined to do.
1:36pm, May 20th, 2015
Instead I decide to look through the photos I took the first time we met. It was at Philbrook Museum of Art here in Tulsa, Oklahoma in May of 2015. She worked there at the time. I had decided to do some blog profiles of local artists and she was one of the more interesting I had come across. She was a curator, a single mom, and an artist with a distinct style.
Allison and me at ‘La Villa’, the restaurant at Philbrook Museum of Art
She had just changed jobs from being an preparator (someone who gets the artwork and gallery space ready for exhibition) to being a fundraiser. Even though both jobs are in the same museum, it’s like going from being a blue collar warehouse worker to a white collar office worker. It’s going from jeans and tool belts to dresses and high heels. She talks extensively about the transition, how her background and her heart prepared her to be a preparator and fundraising is a brand new challenge tapping into a whole new range of skills she has or needs to acquire. It’s a challenge but very interesting and exciting.
We talked extensively about a very difficult childhood. It’s one that scarred her but also, maybe because of, maybe in spite of, instilled in her a unflappable vision of who she is and an equally fierce determination of who she wants to become.
This is evident by her current situation. She is a full-time worker, a full-time mother to 2 young children and a part-time artist whose bedroom doubles as her studio. She is not making any excuses. She is an artist and she is going to be one, even if that means she paints in her small bedroom.
While we were there we walked around the museum. I asked her which art piece was her favorite and she led me here. This is her very favorite piece of art in the entire world.
Allison with Milton Avery’s ‘Child with Doll’
Here is a better view of it.
Child with Doll, 1944 – oil on canvas – Milton Avery
It resonates with her deeply on many levels. For her it’s more than a child and doll. It’s a mother and child, it’s love, it’s family, it’s emotion in art. It’s always an honor to have someone show me their favorite piece of art, something profound and sacred about it for me.
Our plan was to meet up again at her studio to take a look at her work and finish up the interview. That doesn’t happen for a variety of reasons. I moved on to other projects and she did as well.
9:05pm, January 29th, 2016
Fast forward 7+ months and she contacts me saying she is no longer at Philbrook and is wondering if I want to meet again and update the interview. She is now a full-time artist she says. I really want to hear how this came about and get a chance to see her artwork. We plan to meet in a week.
5:25am, February 5th, 2016
10:08am, February 5th, 2016
Philbrook at Sunset
And where is she doing this painting? In her bedroom. In her small bedroom. On large canvases much taller than her and bigger than her bed.
And that is where she is now. She is in her studio. A studio that happens to have a soft horizontal surface with warm blankets where she can sleep. But where it is doesn’t matter. What matters is she is doing it. She is doing commissions, having exhibitions, hustling to make her dream come true. She is making art.
This is not easy. The canvas is filled with emotion, memory and heritage even before she starts. She is filled with fight, self-determination, independence, rebellion, hesitancy. She is confronted.
She decides to do what she has set her sails to do. She is going on her journey, not her grandmother’s. She grabs the white paint, stuck shut, and uses all her strength to open it.
Then she makes her move.
If you would like to find out more about Allison and her art, perhaps purchase a piece or commission her to create something for you, you can find her at her website http://allisonkeim.com
This is my year of honesty. It’s my year of not succumbing to an idea that was born out of another mind that will determine my future. It’s the year to be real and unapologetic about it. I am flattered to have had this conversation with you, Marty. It makes this journey real and solid and more concrete. SO MUCH LOVE!
And that is what I saw in you!