Red Lodge Clay Center – Short-Term Resident 2013
Kimberly Rumfelt was born and raised in central and south Texas. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2005 from Texas Tech University and moved to North Carolina in 2006 to continue her education at East Carolina University. During graduate school she attended summer sessions at Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts in Maine, taught youth classes at Belvoir
Terrace in Lenox, MA as well as worked locally with at-risk teens through PORT Human Services in Greenville, NC. After receiving her Master of Fine Arts in May of 2009 she moved back to Texas and resides in San Antonio. Since earning her terminal degree Kimberly has participated in local and national
exhibitions, was a co-founder of Clamp Light Artist Studios and Gallery, is a collaborator in community art events and continues to teach both adult and children’s classes with Northwest Vista College and the Southwest School of Art.
As humans it is impossible to not be influenced by our culture. Each one of us participates daily through our behaviors. As children and even into adulthood we are impacted by the individuals around us, we mimic and repeat their actions and attitudes. Much of what we do is part of a larger cycle, and the actions we take as individuals through this cyclical process lead to the behavior of those who follow.
The way that individuals communicate and interact within a family, a community, a society and a culture has interested me and always been an integral part in how I see the world and create objects within it. When crossing cultures, the social activities are different, but the ability to reproduce them is the same.
The relationship I have with the work that I create is based on the knowledge of these cycles and recognition of the importance of objects within the social and domestic setting. The domestic setting becomes a home for not only cyclical social processes and ideals but also the items that reflect them. The way with which we interact and the value that we place on physical goods in the home has been a driving force in my own desire to create. The domestic object becomes a vehicle to introduce ideas and expose the politics that lead individuals to participate in society a certain way.
Items that we live with in the home are often a reflection of our society and can ultimately influence the way that we see the world and carry ourselves in it. The work that I make assimilates this process and reflects the ideals and structures that are seen in both domestic and cultural settings.