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Kim Kool talks encaustic painting, helping people discover the arts

May 1, 2020   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

“The studio’s still there, at the Alton Mill [Arts Centre],” said Kim Kool. “But, we’re closed until we can open safely.” 

She explained, “The studio is The Hive; I’m co-owner with Karen Brown. My business is Edge of Grey and, right now, I’m doing some writing and ‘creative planning.’ 

“I’ve started a blog on my website about the art of crafting community. It has a focus on art creating, community building and social justice. This is just something that I hadn’t talked about. It’s been on the to-do list, at some point.”

Not exactly a new venture, perhaps more of a revival of her past work combined with the natural evolution of ideas.

“The premise is:[on her website] there’s going to be different posts – there are two posts right now: looking at the inclusivity of the arts, and the arts as a mechanism for building capacity and helping how arts and creativity are as accessible to as many people as possible. The last thing is to share some advice as an entrepreneur.”

These models are based partly on Ms. Kool’s early working life with women in prison. She has a degree in Criminology from St. Thomas University. 

Enlarging on her ideas, “It’s just around disability inclusion, around accessibility for people who haven’t got access. Many of our most vulnerable population,” she said.

 Defining them in part: “When I worked with women in prison, from my mid twenties to my early thirties, about six years, I learned a lot about them. There’s quite a bit about this on my blog, about how I was working; how I did a social recreation program, focussing on women’s reintegration into the community.”

In fact, these profound years of her life were also the years of her first connection with art. Her blog tells us also that “Many of the women that I met had never had the opportunity to really explore their creativity and felt immense joy at making something beautiful.” 

This experience, so says her blog, “has been a driving force behind my vision for Edge of Grey.” 

She said, “I started my own private practice, Edge of Grey,” which has expanded, as well, to include her work as an encaustic artist.

“I learned encaustic painting while I was working with the women. I learned through a bunch of different mediums and I just sort of fell in love with it.

“I’m not painting right now. What I’m doing is writing and creative planning with others. There’s the whole chance of helping people, who want to delve into the arts somewhat and they just don’t know how to start. It can be overwhelming and they want to start something new and they don’t know what way to go.”

Ms. Kool wanted to clarify, “This is not an art lesson. I ask some very gentle questions and try to find the answers. It’s just another way, during COVID-19, of offering that service for free, for families and individuals with developmental differences. And the vulnerable, like women who are in or engaged with our social system; women who are engaged with our justice system, in any way.

“It’s on my website. I know people, dealing with developmental differences – I have contacts. That’s why I emailed Kim of Branching Out, in Orangeville, saying what I’m offering.” 

Also, “To some agencies in the justice system, social media, as well, and to service providers.”

Here is how Ms. Kool conducts her “individualized creative planning”. 

“If you get touch with me, there is one telephone session. What I’m going to do, is to start a conversation and ask some questions to learn where your inclination can be. What interests you and from there, we might be able to find some medium that you’ll enjoy. 

“Many people don’t have the money to buy art supplies but there are different ways to go about gathering those supplies. 

“Often people want to engage in a creative hobby – they might want to meet people from the same creativity community. I try to guide them; there’s a lot of community q & a: ‘I’m looking to start painting – does anybody have paints?’ and, sometimes, people have supplies they don’t want or use any more. 

“For instance, it’s a way to start building up a community but it’s going to be very gentle.”

Encaustic painting is an ancient art. In 2019, the Royal Ontario Museum announced there was an exhibit of two portraits of ladies, done before they died, that had come to light. They were encaustic paintings produced by artists in ancient Egypt some 2,000 years ago.

“The process of encaustic painting, is it’s done with pigmented molten beeswax- a product of making honey; it is scarce but we deal for the majority with bee keepers. In our studio, we have a teeny sampler testing, we call, ‘Give it a whirl.’”

The excitement is, the “spontaneity of the wax – it moves in really unexpected ways and the colour is beautiful; it’s very different, unlike any other process. For me, I live in a rural area. So, for me, that’s what I see; there’s a lot of water where I live – it’s very much the rural area.”

Not surprisingly, we talked about this down time caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“Go ahead and binge watch Netflix,” is Ms. Kool’s opinion. “I don’t think you should have any expectations for yourself. If people want to pursue interests, that’s fine but, if they don’t, they shouldn’t put any pressure on themselves.”

She said, “We need to be very kind to ourselves and we need to be very gentle. There’s things that we can do to take care of our basic needs – a general healthy life style, activity can release stress at all; it is helping me to write my blog and do all the other things, but if I want to just stay in my pyjamas, I do. 

“I certainly hope that we learn from the lessons here,” she said it wistfully. “That we can see some real change for our vulnerable population and certainly for our climate in all ways.

“Certainly,” she confirmed, “Creativity can calm stress.”

Kim Kool’s website iswww.edgeofgrey.ca

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