Meeting Kamilla White - Birds of a Feather
When I first spoke with Kamilla I was jumping around half dressed. On the phone…
My husband and I had just moved back to Seattle from Chicago and I had immediately set up my studio and began producing art. I was experimenting with resin and super excited to get my work out into the world. I can’t even remember how we came to find Art/Not Terminal, or affectionately called The Ant Gallery, but we loved it right away. Formerly in the South Lake Union area it can now be found in Seattle Center’s International Fountain Pavilion. It was, and still is, an Artists Cooperative Gallery run entirely by artist volunteers with shows rotating every month.
The gallery was full of interesting and fun work and we felt right at home showing there. In order to show you had to volunteer to man the front desk during business hours. So as I was working a ‘9-5’ my husband opted to put in our time answering phones and questions when people came into look around. Between calls and visitors he entertained himself looking at the art.
The first afternoon on duty he called me. I expected to hear how it was working and what was going on, but instead he was so excited to tell me about this “crow artist” and some crow with a beret. I couldn't picture what exactly he was talking about. He insisted I come in and see it when I picked him up.
It was really cool, an almost perfect replica of a crow made with polymer clay wearing both a red beret and an Eiffel Tower charm around it’s neck. And Bill loved it.
It was mid-November so I filed the crow away as a Christmas gift idea and decided to call the artist. Later that week I left a message with Kamilla White asking if she’d consider a trade, one of my pieces (if she liked them enough) for the Parisian Crow.
It was getting close to Christmas and I hadn’t heard back from her so I thought maybe I had insulted her, or she didn’t like my work as much as I liked hers. But as I was trying on a pair of pants my phone rang. Slamming into the walls of the dressing room, hopping around looking for my phone I thought I was going to break something or at least have to call her back, so when I found the phone I just sat down half dressed and talked with her.
Kamilla’s voice is a lot like Lauren Bacall’s, deep and mysterious. So, at first I was intimidated to ask for this favor but right away she said she liked my middle piece and I could have the crow! And that was the start of a great friendship. And our first Kamilla White Original.
Over the years Kamilla and I have worked on a few projects together. She is a featured artist in my book, Art Baby - The Vocabulary of Fine Art for Young Children, and we have collaborated on several pieces of art, like the one above. Her crows on my pipe and resin painting.
When Kamilla isn’t creating hand built, crow sculptures or paintings for upcoming shows, you can find her bellydancing. Yes, bellydancing! She dances with a local dance troupe called the Sirens of Serpantine and makes all her own costumes too.
Her work is for sale at https://ravenlunaticstudios.com where you will find clever and whimsical paintings. Kamilla comes up with the best titles. I should have her title my work!
Below you will find:
Olive or Twist? Acrylic on reclaimed board, 16”x25”
Tea at Hampton Court With Sir Jack Dawe. Acrylic on map, 8”x10”
Saddle Up! Acrylic on reclaimed board, 8”x8”
You can also follow her on facebook at Raven Lunatic Studios and at the online art store Artful Home;
https://www.artfulhome.com/artist/Raven-Lunatic-Studios/7470
Mini interview with Kamilla White
JH. When did you know you were going to pursue a career as an artist?
KW. I guess when I moved to Seattle with my newly-minted BFA degree in 1994 and finally got out from under my mother’s thumb. I found a little artist-run collective downtown and started showing my work there. Giving up my acting ambitions, though, was just about the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Some days I still regret it.
JH. How did you come to choose the mediums you use?
KW. I like acrylic paints because they are easier to clean up than oils, and because the faster drying time forces me to work relatively quickly. I use paperclay for my sculptures these days (instead of polymer) because I feel like I have a lot more control over the result. I used polymer clay for years and years, but then the manufacturer changed the chemical composition of the stuff, and suddenly I was getting all these air bubbles and cracks, the failure rate became unacceptably high.
JH. What is one real life experience that you’ve had that has inspired you?
KW. I went to Emerald City Comicon one year to meet George Takei and I gave him one of my sculptures, a crow in a Starfleet uniform (one of the red ones from the films). He seemed very pleased. He asked me if this was a hobby of mine, and I said no, that I was actually making money at it. He said he wasn’t surprised, that it looked very professional. And I think George’s partner Brad liked it even more than George did. So that was gratifying. It’s pretty freaking cool when someone whose work you’ve admired for years likes your stuff, too.
JH. What is one memorable response you’ve had to your art work?
KW. Many years ago, I showed my first website to a fellow artist while we were working together at the collective gallery Art/Not Terminal. He said it looked like the work of 8 or 9 different artists. Not in a bad way, it was just a statement of fact. That WAS how it looked. I took it as a compliment to my artistic versatility, but it did remind me that I needed to try and develop a consistent style. I think I’ve made some progress on that front.
JH. What is your dream project?
KW. I would love to make a film. Brian and I riff on ideas sometimes for short comedy sketches, and occasionally remember them long enough to write them down. Some of them are actually funny, stuff we wouldn’t be embarrassed to share with other people. We’ve talked about stringing them all together into a feature-length film, maybe with animated bits in between sketches. Or, I guess it could be a YouTube series instead. If we only had the time.
JH. What are 5 things you can’t live without?
KW. Here they are, in no particular order:
Coffee
Cheese
My partner Brian
Music
My work boots