THE BLURB
ART EDUCATION RESUME
BIO
45 RANDOM THINGS
In short, I come from an eclectic background. I am married, I have 5 children, the oldest is 24 the youngest is 11. I am an artist, photographer, I write, I am a homemaker, gardener dog owner and I have an appetite for knowledge. The following is the long of it.
A BLURB WRITTEN ABOUT ME
Kim’s background in fashion editorial has created a photography style that is a mix of fashion editorial and artistic photojournalism. Kim was an editorial model in New York and Paris with Elite. As an agent in San Francisco she developed model portfolios with an editorial feel. As an artist she has cultivated her artistic eye to create a calm and enjoyable method encapsulating the spirit of her subject’s essence and beauty. She skillfully directs her subjects to create an emotionally filled portrait. She brings fashionable style to her photography.
Member PPA Professional Photographers of America.
Kim’s company, 1000 Words Productions, a multi media company, is owned and operated by Kim James and houses her other sites…..
ART AND PHOTOGRPAHY EDUCATION FROM 1999 TO 2009:
FINE ART:
2 semesters of Life drawing classes Lassen College.
3 semesters Fine art watercolor classes Lassen College.
1 semester Feather River College: Art history.
1 semester Drawing classes Feather River College.
2 semesters Watercolor classes Feather River College.
5 Mendocino Art Center workshop, Nancy Collin’s Watercolor workshops including color theory three times.
Birgit O’Conner watercolorist workshop.
Arleta Pecks watercolor workshop.
PHOTOTOGRAPHY:
New York Institute of Photography Professional Program.
Mike Colon and Bob Davis, Master Your Craft, photography workshop.
Shoot with Beckstead photography workshop. Focusing on Composition.
Zack Arais Onelight Workshop working with strobes.
SOLO AND PARTNERED EXHIBITIONS:
Plumas County Arts Gallery October 2006.
B B Booksellers Gallery September 2006.
B B Booksellers Gallery June 2007.
B B Booksellers Gallery October 2007.
B B Booksellers Gallery May 2008.
Moons October 2008 Photography show.
GROUP SHOWS:
Art around the lake 2005.
Art around the lake 2006.
Art around the lake 2007.
Art around the lake 2008.
Almanor Art Show 2005.
Almanor Art Show 2006.
Almanor Art Show 2007.
ASSOCIATIONS:
AGWPJA The Artistic Guild of the Wedding Photojournalist Association
P P A Professional Photographers of America
FRFAA Feather River Fine Arts Association
Lake Almanor Community Foundation sponsors of Art Around the Lake
AWARDS:
2006, 1st place, people, Northwood’s Gallery.
2005, 1st place, people, Northwood’s Galley.
2008 to 2010 ON GOING GALLERY SHOWS:
Nantaucket
The Good Vibrations Gallery
PRESS, PUBLICATIONS AND TELEVISION:
Feather River Publishing, regional article for the arts, featured artist, October 2006.
KIXE annual Invitational Fine Art and Wine Auction April 27 & 28, 2007.
PRIVATE COLLECTIONS:
“The Boot”, Dr. and Mrs. Nord.
“Last Light” , Ms. Valladeo.
“Dog and pony, no dog” , Mr. Jacob Winkler the 3rd.
“Iris”, Karen Nelson
INSRTUCTOR:
Artists in the Schools 12 week series
2008
2009
2010
Teaching the 6 Elements of Design through the watercolor media with an emphasis on color theory to 4th, 5th and 6th graders.
BIO AND WORKING RESUME
Kim was born and raised in San Francisco. At 17 she started her modeling career with Elite New York working as a fashion model. She worked with many photographers in New York, Paris and San Francisco.
While working in Paris, with Elite Paris, she was booked by Oliviero Toscani , (best known for his Benetton ads) for Esprit’s Roman Holiday campaign. She also worked with the great Guy Bourdin in Paris. They ignited her love for the visual arts. Among others, she has been on the pages of French Vogue, French Elle, Seventeen magazine and Glamour magazine. Her time as a fashion model, traveling in Europe, exposed her to the vast landscapes of photography, art and her other favorite thing FOOD.
Back home in San Francisco she went to work for Lisle Taaje at Taaje Models as an agent, which later became City Model Management City model (now City Model Management Inc.). The creative side of her career was model development; part of that process was to match her models up with reputable fashion photographers for their portfolio development. Kim chose her team of photographers from San Francisco’s best. Some of test photographers were Michael Muller, Terry Richardson, Michael Davis, Tony Metaxes, Paul Cruz, David Jay, the Vogue fashion photographer, Cliff Watts, when they were all starting out. Only time would tell that her personal tastes in photography was keen. During that time she began her photography education editing their film for her models, under the supervision of Lisle Taaje and Paul Nelson, both experts in their fields of model and portfolio development. She stayed at City MM for eight years to run the Woman’s side and develop models for the New Faces division. The 10 years she spent in the fashion industry set the foundation for Kim’s visual creative side. She had a lucrative and successful career in the fashion industry, but soon realized the industry didn’t posses the stability she wanted for her children. She frequently flew to New York, Miami and LA with a nursing baby in tow to meet with a model or client.
It had always been her dream to raise her family in the mountains. That aspiration was met in 1993 after an extensive interviewing process with The Bidwell House Bed and Breakfast in Chester/Lake Almanor. Managing the upscale Inn helped make Kim a seasoned wedding planner and wedding photographer when she filled a niche that was sorely missing in the local market. Kim moved on from The Bidwell House in 2006 to open her own full time professional photo and art studio.
Kim is a fine artist and has been showing and selling her work for the last few years in Chester and The Lake Almanor Basin in Northern Ca. To view her art www.kimjamesfineart.com
45 RANDOM THINGS ABOUT ME
As a wedding and portrait photographer I am going to have an honest look at you when you are at your most venerable. So I thought if you are considering spending your wedding day with me photographing your intimate moments, I would share a few things about myself to give you an honest look at me.
1. I am straight up. I value honesty. I am clear about my wants and needs. I will do everything to set you at ease and make you comfortable besides take abuse. I will say it to your face, but only if you ask.
2. I study photography and art every day, every single day. I love Edward Weston, Alfred Stieglitz, Sylvia Plachy, Steven Meisel, Paolo Ravorsi, Bridgette Lancombe, Sally Mann, Annie Leibovitz, Guy Boudin, Albert Watson, David Jay (the fashion photographer), Terry Richardson, Carol Carter, Birgit O’Conner. I am in love with Maxfield Parrish and Georgia O’Keefe. I saw their work when I was 5 and it took my breath away. I would have Maxfield Parrish originals all over my house if I could afford them. I want to paint the inside of flowers.
3. I would rather paint, photograph and write more than I want to fit in, gossip or hang out.
4. I am my most critical judge of my work. It’s never strong enough.
5. I wanted to be a bareback rider in the circus when I was five. Sometimes I still do.
6. I am afraid of the ocean’s power and I desire to be near it. Same with horses.
7. I believe in reincarnation, life in other galaxies and a great creator.
8. I hate dogma. HATE IT! I am a fiscal conservative and a social liberal. I believe in = rights for ALL humans.
9. I love photographing people because it is such an honest experience for me. To really see someone is an honor.
10. I know boys and girls are different. Not better or worse.
11. If we taught sex as biology rather than as morality we would have less knocked up teenagers.
12. After I photograph a person I come to know them through their images and I miss them and find I feel a kinship to them, even if we were strangers before.
13. I am fiercely in love with my entire family.
14. I hurt when they hurt, but unless they are under the age of 17 I don’t usually run interference between them and the disaster they choose. I believe we must grow in our own way and own pace.
15. Dave Matthew’s lyrics knock me over and I never get sick of him. Some Devil, is my favorite CD of his.
16. I was a fashion model in NY for Elite in the 80s I lived in NY and Paris, worked in Rome, danced at studio 54 and Regine’s and I didn’t do a thing to create that for myself. It was handed to me. I didn’t appreciate all the wonderful people who were kind to me. But one by one I am saying thank you. Martin Ryter, Oliviero Tuscani, John Casablancas.
17. I have 5 living children I had a baby that died and another that almost did. We survived it, I survived it.
18. I started smoking when I was 10 and quit when I was 42. Marlboros, I still miss them and would rather smoke one in Paris at a cafe with Shirley than paint.
19. I have had my heart broken 5 times. Every time I thought I would die. I did not.
20. I think about my grandpa and my brother every day.
21. I like physics. “What the Bleep do we Know.” is one of my all time favorite films.
22. I let my beautiful 16 year old daughter go live in Switzerland for almost a year because it was the best thing for her and I miss her so much!
23. I have 3 dogs, I will always have dogs. Big ones.
24. I love camping and swimming and BBQs at our families special place on the Trinity. I dream of it.
25. I live in the wilderness and I never tire of the smell of summer in the pines, campfires and fresh thunderstorm rains mixed up with freshly wet dirt.
26. I want a little fine art show in a gallery in New York when I am 80. I love to shoot nudes, but you would not be catching me naked.
27. I miss San Francisco so much I dream of a little apartment in the Marina when I am old.
28. I will write a book in my older years. I have already written a script, I write poetry, only when I am in a grave amount of turmoil and some is really good, I have been told.
29. If you are my friend I will love you till I die even if we have had a falling out.
30. I cannot believe that my children have grown up so fast I still feel 25. I also think they are better people than I am.
31. I love medicine and science and I read the news on them often.
32. I am 20 pounds overweight and I love to eat especially desert. Chocolate cake please. I work out daily and do not allow myself many food items and still 20+. ARG.
33. I am a damn good cook! I am also a damn good gardener.
34. I was a model agent and scout for 8 years and I commuted to SF from Sonoma everyday with my babies. I also traveled to NY and Miami with them.
35. I love raunchy comedy, but I have to listen to it alone. It is too embarrassing and I laugh loudly.
36. I dropped out of school in the 10th grade and went on to manage an Inn for 13 years and run the woman’s division at City MM in SF. I am a rogue. I have been going to the school of my own curriculum ever since. I own close to a 1000 books. I read 2-3 hours a day, everything.
37. I love to swear. It is my last indulgence. At 45 I have learned a time and a place.
38. I believe there are only 2 forms of being, love or fear. I may feel fearful but I try to love anyway.
39. In another life I would be born to 2 gay men in the Castro and I would be their princess.
40. I once rode on the back of a motorcycle going 120 mph. I was in a swimsuit. I also raced from St. Tropez to Paris going 130 in a Ferrari. I was not driving.
41. I used to sneak into the San Francisco zoo when I was 9 and I would take the bus and the troll all over the city alone.
42. Days at the beach watching my children swim and photographing them is one of my favorite ways to spend the day.
43. I fly in my dreams and dream in color. Last week I was in Dubai and I was also visiting Steven Meisel in his NY apartment.
44. French Vogue is an indulgence. I LOVE FASHION!!!!
45. I have been studying painting, fine art and photography for 11 years now. I teach the 6 elements of design through the watercolor media to 4th and 6th graders.