Kim Rose Adams

~ An Artist from the Dirty South Who Fell in Love with the hungry Forests at the Edge of the World ~

My main medium is landscape photography, and I shoot with a Nikon DSLR. I chase natural light to create a lot of ethereal, painterly images of our world as it exists. I love moody overcast days for shooting waterfalls and the gigantic sweeping hot pink horsetail clouds during sunsets. I get asked sometimes if my photos are paintings, and that lets me know that I am on target! I am known for creating beautiful postcards and have those in a lot of shops on the North Coast of Oregon for people to take home as keepsakes.

A year after shooting around the south end of Big Sur, I got discovered by a hotel in Pismo Beach, where they put several of my large prints inside, and there is a group of gorgeous custom designed modern vacation homes in southwest Washington that exclusively decorate with my photography throughout. Such locations as these are where I like to have my work so visitors can be inspired to spend time in the beautiful outdoors, and it is a huge compliment to have them in well thought-out spaces. I would say this is the medium from which my animal spirit speaks without words.

In the last 8 years, I have organized several international photography trips for myself, which brought me to Western Cuba, the Yucatán Peninsula, Scotland, the Big Island, and most recently Iceland. These trips are physically and mentally challenging, as the main goal is to get the shots, despite a tight sleep schedule, miles of driving alone, unpredictable weather, and off-road hazards in wild places.

Illustration has become another strong medium for me in the last 3 years, and I had almost left it behind in my 30’s. Once I figured out how to design stickers, it’s been game on! I brought in my old skills from the tattoo shop and taught myself how to digitize and color my drawings in Photoshop. I now have a growing catalog of mostly coastal-inspired designs with some special effects papers, which I wholesale to shops. This medium is one way to express joy, humor, and contribute to culture using relatable imagery.

My most niche work though is wood-working, specifically in restoring historical nautical elements for design projects and pairing that with some maritime knot work that I learned from a captain. Restoring old growth cedar relics from early American commercial fishing and pairing that with eye spliced hemp rope in long strands is the crux of that design work, which has ended up in bars, a local library, as set design on ‘Hawaii Five-O’, and many other places. My decorating style is dark Americana with a focus on the industrial, coming from a tomboy aesthetic of repurposing old or found objects that just need some hands-on love.

Education

My formal training in studio arts is comprised of 5.5 years in a versatile set of BA studies which were spent developing a print-maker's eye, illustrating attentively from life and imagination, and appreciating the darkroom aspects of photography.  The University of New Orleans, The University of Oregon, The New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts, and Sitka Center for Art and Ecology have contributed vital resources and studios in which I built the foundation of my education in the arts. I became self-taught in the graphic design arts and digital photography post-education in order to participate in e-commerce.