KIM SLEVIN

The Embrace
Bluebells-a-Float

Ode to Joy
Buddha's Delight

Country Roads, Take Me Home
Castle in the Sand

I grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio and lived next door to a fairly prominent Cincinnati artist, and Dean of the Cincinnati Art Academy. My father was a great appreciator of this artist and over the years our home became filled with Herbert Barnett paintings in trade for other work my father would do for Barnett. For my dad, and some of our family, many afternoons were spent viewing and talking about the paintings in process that Barnett was working on,  and socializing with his very artistic family. I think this early exposure has helped to develop my love for Art. My mother had wished she had been a fashion designer and also had some very good artistic skills to pass along as well.  As a child I loved coloring and going to summer nature art camps. My father took me to the ballet, symphony, plays, and museums.

My main artistic focus has been photography, though I love and appreciate all the arts. When I saw my first copy of the photography book, “The Family of Man” my heart was captivated by the beautiful images. The Family of Man was a black and white photography exhibit created by one of my photographic heroes,  Edward Steichen,  for a show at  the Museum of Modern Art in New York.  This exhibit, and a book of the exhibit, was a world wide answer to a call for photographs representing the family of mankind. That book began my love affair with the art of photography.

I have had the good fortune to have worked as a photojournalist in Washington, D.C. and as a photo-editor for a monthly magazine there as well. Raising four children kept me starting and stopping in my creative growth, yet kept me flowing through various aspects of people photography; portraits, freelance public relations work in D.C., soccer teams, school and wedding photography, etcetera.

With my children mostly grown, and as the very proud mother of four talented artists, I have been recently focused on my love for nature expressed through my photography. What I love doing now is observing the exquisite beauty found in nature and creating images captured with the play of light and a soft dream like focus. I feel this reflects best the stirrings in my heart.

I am very happy to become a member of The Art Group, and to be a part of the very talented, creative, and eclectic group of artists represented in this gallery here in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.