Meet Kimberly King

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kimberly King. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kimberly below.

Kimberly, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

Visual art functions as an anchor and a guide, and through practicing my art, I return to myself. Art enhances my perception, consciousness, and my way of problem-solving. It’s a process of trial and error fueled by imagination. I visualize what I want and implement it through various solutions. From an early age, I have explored color, mark-making, and construction. When I nurture this stream of consciousness, I enter a realm where time disappears. In this space, I cultivate resilience, tenacity, persistence, energy, and the mindset to keep going. It is the inner source of my mental, physical, and spiritual strength. Art is a pathway to growth, connection, and the substance I share with others. Creativity is the space that sustains my life.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I am a visual artist and educator based in Washington, D.C., with a focus on ceramics and traditional printmaking. My art explores mythology, the visual language of nature, and resilience through large-scale woodcuts, linoleum cuts, screen prints, ceramic sculptures, and vessels. Goddesses and deities from African, Asian, and Indigenous cultures are central to my research as symbols of strength, balance, and protection.

I see parallels between the powers of the goddesses across cultures and in the resilience of nature. My fascination with nature and the radiant power of goddesses from the ancient past has led me to a space of restoration. I nourish myself and teach my students through the practice of creativity from one’s center. Goddesses support the contemplation and trust in the qualities we want to bring to ourselves; an emanation of strength, healing, and transformation that cultivates our ultimate reality.

As I find the strength to pursue my artistic practice, I teach the ceramics and sculpture II courses at a DC Public High School, where I must have patience and persistence. Balancing my art and teaching has stretched me thin between the classroom and the studio. The challenge is to work consistently even when it feels difficult; my imagination is my refined tool, carving time, modeling emotions, and organizing space. A spectacular female artist, whom I worked for as an assistant after I graduated from college, told me, “You’ve got to think on your feet”, and I have been doing that ever since. In the summer of 2025, my solo exhibition, Emanation: Goddesses of Resilience, was on view at the Strathmore Mansion Invitational Gallery. I will continue to expand the Goddess series with more large-scale prints and ceramic work, and explore ways to bring my work to a broader audience.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

I have an image of a waterfall with a quote overlapping the image. It reads “Energy and Persistence conquer all things” – Benjamin Franklin. Many people misunderstand the physical and mental demands of being a visual artist and educator. It requires the balancing of time, energy, and production without burnout. Exhaustion can easily take over, and motivation or inspiration is not the solution. It is the discipline to show up for your work consistently, even in small pockets of time, that builds momentum. Persistence and discipline are the keys to progress.

One of the tools I continue to refine is my imagination. Einstein has a quote that includes, “I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” The quote can be interpreted in many ways, and I was drawn to it because it confirmed an intuitive way of thinking. Imagination, to me, is about experimenting and trusting the little sparks that illuminate your vision as you proceed. The artist I worked for as an assistant would tell me, “This is trial and error.” That meant trying things to see if they work. Test your inner knowing and transform what seems like an obstacle into possibility.

The rules will change, people may disappoint, and work may need to be adjusted. I could get upset and discombobulated, or I could find my center, organize, and adapt. There could be a lack of time, space, or money, but the winning attitude is to find a way. Feel the emotions, process the experiences, and don’t let setbacks derail you. Remain flexible, bend like bamboo, as Bruce Lee said, “Be like water”. Adaptability is what allows you to keep going.

As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?

I read a book by Iyanla Vanzant called Spirit of a Man: A Vision of Transformation for Black Men and the Women Who Love Them, as a high school senior. Although it was written for men, I chose to read it to learn about them. The book includes a section that provides instructions on pranayama and alternate nostril breathing. Fueled by curiosity about what lies beyond the physical body, the alternate nostril breathing gave me a way to explore it. The breathing exercises led me into meditation, and I began to practice every morning and many evenings. Meditation helped me think clearly, feel aligned, and experience moments of resonating joy.

That early experience with meditation resurfaced years later in one of my woodcut prints of a woman seated in meditation, her hands in prayer, a gesture I later learned is called Anjali Mudra. I titled the artwork “To Honor the Inner,” not knowing that Anjali itself, with hands placed at the heart, is a salutation honoring the divine in oneself and others. In the composition, the same figure is echoed behind, above, and to one side of the original figure in various sizes and detail. Could these represent the different subtle layers of existence, reflecting my curiosity about life beyond the physical? Indian Yogic philosophy describes these layers through two frameworks: seven shariras (bodies) and five koshas (layers). I had not read about these concepts when I created the work, so the artwork is an intuitive reflection of my experience with meditation.

Though my practice of yoga and meditation has been sporadic in my adult life, I recall the awakening I experienced as a youth. It is beneficial to return to this practice that develops awareness beyond the physical. When I create, I often sense an inner observer and a connection to something greater than myself. The process requires discipline and devotion in centering the clay on the wheel, sculpting forms, carving my vision into a woodcut, and passing the skills on to the students I encounter.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kimberlykingstudio.com
• Instagram: @kimberlykingstudio

Image Credits

Rowan Gjersvold – Image of me holding my pot
Anthony Pierce – Large Head Shot