A Terrific Conversation with Kira Maria Shewfelt
Photo credit: Zach Ruddell
Kira Maria Shewfelt is a Los Angeles-based artist whose paintings engage elements of storytelling and a translation of personal into shared experience. Taking influence from the literary and visual genres of Magical Realism, Symbolism,m and Romanticism, her work engages physical-spiritual unions, tangible, often athletic existentialism, and metaphor as a vulnerable offering for connection. She has shown across the United States, including Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Miami, and internationally in Rio de Janeiro.
She received her MFA in Drawing and Painting from New York University, her M.A. in Art History from the University of Southern California, and her B.A. in Comparative Literature from Yale University. She has taught undergraduate courses at NYU and Pepperdine University, as well as courses for local and international arts outreach programs, including Proyecto Sitie, ArtWorxLA, Inner City Arts, and LAUSD’s Gifted and Talented program, and considers social reflection and impact an important part of her practice.
I had the pleasure of asking Kira about motherhood and connections, how she selects colors, what her favorite period of art is, and so much more
UZOMAH: What is something you have found both poetic and artistic about motherhood that made you want to focus on it for your current exhibit?
KIRA: Moments of connection between figures in sports, nature, and romance have long been subjects of interest for me, but motherhood became a new role in which to explore and expand my intuition around touch. There is no language in our nascence and such intuitive connection; this heightened my awareness of its importance. What feels good is a matter of survival. I have always been intrigued by the idea of transferring the action and energy of love into painting, and my new relationship to carrying and caring for my child prompted me to think about this in terms of nurture, too.
The Visitation, 2023-2024 Oil on linen 16x20x1.5in. KMS.24.07
U: What has that done for you in terms of how you create art and within your relationships?
K: I think we all change each other a bit every time we connect. Over the last few years, I have enjoyed returning to pieces over time, to be responsive and grow towards them. I’ve learned to be slower, become more patient and open to returns and layers, both in relationships and art.
U: Have you experimented with AI art? How will AI impact the life of artists and the creative process?
K: There’s a Spanish word, calido, which means warm, but has a different feeling about it. It's often used to describe more than temperature, but how people are towards each other. The Latin root caleo has a second meaning, “to glow.” The things we make signal and recognize the spirit - what we are behind, inside, beyond form. We search to describe and materialize this because it's fascinating… It’s the great mystery. I don’t think the stakes are high enough unless the spirit of the maker is there too.
U: How does art help you better communicate your beliefs and feelings?
K: I hold a lot of space for evolution in my work and the inherent time of painting often helps me learn something more about what I want to share. I would say my beliefs are tested in the process and come out of the journey more nuanced.
Kitchen Cat Draw, 2023 Oil on linen 16x20x1.5in. KMS.24.08
U: Do you have a favorite art movement or period, and how does it inspire your work?
K: Recently, I’ve been revisiting the Symbolist and Art Nouveau movements. I’m drawn to the idea of adornment as a practice of care and also the universality and recurrence of certain shared life themes.
PrayerTouch(Memory of a previous butterfly life),2023 Oil on canvas 16x20x1.5in.KMS.24.12
U: Can you discuss how you decide on the scale and format of your work? Does it depend on the theme of the artwork or piece?
K: I tend to move between large and small-scale works, and it has to do with intimacy and distance. Some things require you to be a part of them to feel closeness, and others can just be observed.
U: How do you balance your time between creating new work, marketing, exhibitions, other responsibilities such as motherhood, and vital relationships?
K: Living and art-making are so intimately connected. Without my relationships and the challenge, play, and discovery of life experiences, I’m not sure how I would be inspired to paint. Though there’s a lot of fluidity between these roles, I find enjoying each requires being focused on one at a time. I will also say, I wouldn’t have been able to make this show without my family. Everyone helped me find moments to create work and still feel support and care for our daughter, my husband, my mom, siblings, my father, and many friends.
Lohengrin Supernova, 2023-24 Oil on Linen 43x50x1.5in. KMS.24.02
U: How do you select colors? Do you create any new colors on your own? What is the process if yes?
K: I often start a piece with a strong sense of color, either deciding on a fully dominant hue or a weighted combination. Color is feeling both abstracted and freely associated for me; it's encompassing and open. I know how I want a piece to feel before I start, and color lets me build that emotional world. For example, I may want the energy of a bright green, and find it in nature, in my backyard garden, a blade of grass, a sweater I own, and the associations align and bounce on and on like that… warmth, hope, freshness… Once the painting surface has color, it also influences me and gains its own energy, especially in relation to its size. I frequently mix my own colors, but there are some direct ones I love, too. This show has a full spectrum, but a recurrence of a lot of fluorescents and earth tones.
U: What is the greatest joy for you about creating art? What makes it rewarding?
K: I like to make things that I care about. I like to elevate tenderness and strength, joy, and the private and cosmic connections we share. With technology, anything and everything that otherwise would not be discussed seems possible.
The Sanctuary,2023-2024 Oil on Linen 55x83x1.5in.KMS.24.17
