Join us for our first Koger Center show of 2024 featuring the incomparable Wilma King! Her work will be up until mid-February.

Artist Statement:

This collection, “Love Heals: The Margins and Time In-between," includes 14 new works that expand on “Love Heals," which debuted February 14, 2023. Thanks to The Jasper Project for sponsoring both exhibits, and to the South Carolina Arts Commission for funding this current endeavor.

Indulge me as I share my lifetime in these series of montages comprised of memories of two generations before and after me – thus, the “Time In-between.”

I focus on dreams, hopes and desires of individuals in various stages and with various obstacles in their everyday lives, including elderly, autistic individuals; young children with Cancer and their families; mentally challenged and long-termed ill individuals.

I tell stories of my parents, their lifetimes, their influences. There are memories of me playing with my grandfather Manuel’s gold pocket watch; wallpapering the walls of my aunt Sedonia’s house (which was destroyed by a Louisiana storm last year); me ritually painting my mother’s nails; or dancing like nobody’s watching just to keep my cousin upbeat during her last few months!

We all have turning points in our lives -- some are cataclysmic. But I believe that the persistent, more powerful triggers are those that are slow, unforgettable images, sometimes rising out of nowhere, that quietly give us a heartfelt thump. Words are not needed, but touches, smells, soft sounds, and even tastes lend to the very intimate and secret thoughts that we hold close inside.

These moments are the perfect companionship and fulfillment – a very pure form of love and loveliness – for whatever voids we need or want to fill. Although faceted, these “ordinary” and “frequent” thoughts and memories are what I wish to capture in my art.

I usually rely on memories, and sometimes collaborative storytelling with family and friends. Most often, the fusion of these memories and recollections are didactic approaches manifested in the art that I enjoy creating. I fully enjoy the outcomes as I see the bits and pieces of the storytellers’ realities and attempts to bring the pieces together in a relationship-building effort and artwork.

Bio:

South Carolina native, Wilma R. King, endeavors to combine her experiences of living in 11 states (including Alaska) with her educational background into a visual storytelling collaboration
through her painting. Her pursuit and passion goes beyond a daily practice of technique and development. She believes that universality -- seeking common ground -- is what makes art
purposeful.

Wilma taught public relations, communication studies, advertising design, publication design, and photography for more than 30 years in American universities in Kentucky, Tennessee, New
York, Virginia, Texas, and South Carolina, and taught Study abroad courses in Italy several years. She was an associate professor of Public Relations at both Western Kentucky University
(Bowling Green, KY) and Rochester Institute of Technology (Henrietta, NY), and served on faculty at Benedict College (Columbia, SC), where she wrote the curriculum for, and taught the first courses in the college’s now defunct commercial art program; O’More College of Design (Franklin, TN); Texas Southern University (Houston, TX); The Art Institute of Houston (Houston, TX).

Wilma has collaborated on more than 13 papers, and conference presentations in Italy, across the United States, and Spain, and has also collaborated on courses in Italy and in the States on ethics in fashion, international PR, and events planning and PR in the Italian tourism industry.

Her fellowships and grants include: the American Society of Newspaper Editors’ (ASNE) Institute for Journalism Excellence Fellow (news, and features editor for Gannett News Service, and USA TODAY graphics, Arlington, VA); the Kentucky Press Association (KPA) Fellow (advertising designer, copy editor, and graphic artist for the Fulton Leader, Fulton, KY). Her commissions
include: Graphic designer of the Houston Economic Summit Host Committee’s newsletter staff, Summitimes, newspaper ads, logos and brochures for the World Economic Summit of Industrialized Nations; and newspaper design of the Texas Medical Center News. Ms. King has a M.A. in Journalism from Texas Southern University in Advertising/Public Relations, and Organizational Communication; and a B.A. in Studio Art from the University of
South Carolina Studio Minor with a Journalism minor, and non-credit coursework at St. Bernard’s School of Ministry and Theology, Pittsford, NY. She has certificates in Arts and Heritage Management; Managing Fashion and Luxury Companies; Managing Food and Beverage Companies; and, International Leadership and Organizational Behavior – all from the Università Bocconi; International Organizations Management – from the University of Geneva; The Changing Global Order – from the Universiteit Leiden; How to Change the World – from Wesleyan University; and, Leadership in 21st Century Organizations – from the Copenhagen Business School.