Conversations with Kim Polomka

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kim Polomka.

Hi Kim, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My artistic background in Australia was focused on the Fine Arts, specifically Fine Art painting. My reputation as a professional Gallery artist was created there with some off-the-beaten Track murals, like the 1974 Adelaide Festival of Arts commissioned mural created under the City Bridge. I arrived in USA from Adelaide Australia in 2000. It was an emotional and aesthetic change for the artist, a challenge to a blank canvas in Colorado Springs. So many historic buildings had been leveled, and the downtown streetscape was rather dismal, no sensitivity to the surrounding environment when new structures were erected. Fortunately the Springs is changing with the new Olympic museum, downtown apartment developments, the influx of murals and the Public Art Master Plan, which has spearheaded new gateway structures to the city. Today the Springs has been reborn, we have so many wonderful murals and a focus on a revised aesthetics of the Downtown area. We are now a creative district. My first mural was a homage to Mozart’s 250th Anniversary 2005, many more followed. I always considered the immediate streetscape when considering any mural placement. I was fortunate to have a very prominent Australian Architect, Brian Polomka who taught me “Good design costs the same as Bad Design, but mostly the latter is chosen”.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
The value of the artist is not as important as in other communities. They inject a visual meal for the senses and their work is on the Public platform. This artist has also encountered conflict with the expanding homeless issue, especially when it has impacted downtown mural sites, stolen materials, waste deposit, harassment, but one gets use to this after a while. The physical landscape has been somewhat difficult. Extreme heat and cold affect paint and the human frame, I was awarded the slings and arrows by the Gazette re the United States Olympic Committee mural, which recognized the hardship of working on an unforgiving surface in extreme weather conditions.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Firstly, how I started doing what I do. I was awarded a scholarship to the South Australian School of Fine Arts, after 4 years, graduated with a BFA in Fine Art painting. The youngest elected member to the Royal South Australian Society of Arts. I had numerous shows in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane, and a group show in New York City with the Arts League. Collections of my work are in Australia, Paris, New York and recent collections in 2 major hospitals in Colorado Springs. My last two-man show was in Denver in 2010. Since then I have been focused on Public Art in the Colorado Springs, Australia and in Arizona. I was included in the 2013 Art on the Streets with a unique hanging tree sculpture. Handcrafted jewelry, and miniature paintings in silver frames have also been an evolving distraction. I worked in Acrylics ( allergic to oils) watercolors, colored pencil, and time lapse photography.

What was your favorite childhood memory?
Sleeping as a child in a unique architectural, designed home with huge trees that created moving shadows in the bedroom, shadows that danced with the gentle winds and inspired the imagination, but terrified me.

Contact Info:

• Email: kp11@comcast.net
• Website: www.kimkpolomka.com