We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kim Baise a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Kim, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
When my youngest son was born, he would stare up at the ceiling fan. I wanted to make a mobile for him. Our family had moved 4-5 times that year (from the east coast to the west coast) and the only things I could find unpacked around the apartment were newspapers, cardboard boxes and water and flour. I made him a mobile with little paper mâché houses that I hung from a branch. I loved this mobile of homes so much that i made another, put it on my jikits blog and listed it in my etsy shop. It sold immediately! Paper mâché was the perfect medium for me. I received my master’s from New York University in printmaking and sculpture. It wasn’t until I had 3 babies that I realized the easiest least-toxic works for me to create at home are paper mâché sculptures. All throughout my life and art education, I had never been taught this simple medium. Almost everything comes from discards and things around the house.
It’s become my purpose for the past 14 years to expand my education in different methods of the paper mâché medium and develop a way to share it by teaching children of all ages this wonderful form of art.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I create lots of custom mobiles for new babies and small children and always try to include bright colors, stripes, movements and shapes that will hold their attention. But I also design mobiles for adults. I’ve made a few custom mobiles for boyfriends and husbands and even included their favorite beers! Before the Holidays, I am in a frenzy filling batches of ornament orders for my favorite small business shops around the world. It would be a dream to own a paper mâché factory!
Throughout the year I make large pieces for movie sets and music videos. In the fall season, I work creating Day of the Dead sculptures for 4 different cemeteries. The largest piece I ever created was a 10 foot Lion for the Discovery Channel Serengeti.
I try to push myself to teach at least one workshop a month. Whether it’s at the local library, school, retreat or non-profit. Sometimes I travel far.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Travel, education and mental health have been most impactful in my journey of discovering and growing the art of paper mâché. Through traveling 6 continents, ( I haven’t been to Antartica or Australia yet) I’ve learned to be resourceful and to use what I have. When I was 19, I backpacked down the West Coast of Africa, Gambia, Senegal, Guinea Bissau… I learned how to live and to appreciate life! I don’t believe we need to own a bunch of junk and dislike how artists today create so much plastic, polluting our planet. Selling reprinted toxic ink drawings on plastic shower curtains and hair clips and plastic keychains is not for me. While I did not learn the art of paper mâché in school, education in the fine arts of sculpture and printmaking were the catalyst for my career path. Sculpture involves clay and printmaking involves paper and when you combine the 2 artforms, paper mâché just feels right.
Working with my hands to form paper sculptures is relaxing and satisfying. That’s how I stay mentally fit and content.
If you knew you only had a decade of life left, how would you spend that decade?
I’d love to take the time and learn more about connecting and finding the right paper mâché production companies, maybe one locally so that I can mostly design and have my works made. It can become overwhelming to create everything by hand over and over. I’ve been fortunate to have big companies reproduce some of my art in large quantities, but now I’d like to learn how to get it done myself and grow and compete with other brands. The problem is that the paper mâché factories exist in India and Haiti and I don’t want to support any sweat shop work… how can I know but to travel there! Communication can also be difficult in art reproduction. My Unicorns that were reproduced in Haiti for large Home Goods company came back with claws instead of hoofs!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.kimbaise.com/
- Instagram: @kimbaise
- Facebook: jikits
- Linkedin: Kim Baise
- Twitter: jikits
