Kate Toussaint

W. Kim Kimerling standing in front of one of his premier works at an expo.

This article outlines the exhibit "Totally Square" held in Pamona, CA on September 30, 2000.

Another exhibit held at the Avatar gallery in Pomona, CA in July of 2001.

Kate Toussaint, born in ND, has lived in Yuma, AZ, since 1986; Art has been a special interest of hers since she was a child. Like many artists, her interests are varied and lend themselves to what she brings to the canvas. She plays her violin in community orchestra and two classical music groups. Kate uses music-listening to inspire her feelings for art - painting scenes from nature - flowers and animals among her favorites. Her educational background includes an MA in Human Services. She is certified in psychiatric nursing, a profession that has led her to discover the benefits of Healing Touch - an alternative health practice for which she is nationally certified. Healing Touch uses subtle hand gestures to channel energy, enhanced by music and visual imagery.


Watercolor is Kate’s favorite art medium. She loves the freedom it offers, its transparency, the layers of color, and how it all works together to draw the eye into the depth of the painting.

“Water and the flowing pigment can change your painting because you start to see things that you hadn’t planned and it can take you in a different direction. The artist becomes the tool to assist in the painting’s evolution.”

Kimerling was born in Ramah, Colorado July 5, 1931, reportedly in a snowstorm. His youth was spent on a farm his family operated after relocating to Idaho where a more abundant water supply made for better farming. Art seeped in through his father's carpentry work, sketching horses, and the folk crafts of his mother. However, the artist credits his maternal Grandmother for encouraging his creativity. She was a quilter and Kimerling grew up with his chin on the quilting frame. She also gave him pencil and paper at the age of four and said "draw." Seeing he could she continued to encourage him until she passed away in her 80's.
He went to the University of Idaho on a 4H scholarship but agriculture turned out to be more than he bargained for and soon made a career change to art education. He received his bachelor and masters degrees in art education with minors in speech, drama, and dance. He continued his art education at the University of Oregon and Portland State.
Art education has manifested itself as a career of teaching stints at the University of Oregon, University of Nigeria, several community colleges, public schools and a boarding school on the Navajo Reservation in Tuba City, Arizona.
Kimerling's work comes in as diverse in media as the number of cultural influences from which it is derived. In addition to acrylic painting he works in watercolor, collage, cast paper mask and baskets, jewelry, wood, metal and clay sculpture, mono prints, and ceramics.
Somewhere along the way Kimerling has been called a multicultural Symbologist. "My whole purpose in life is to bring the cultures and people of the planet together." Kimerling has been a Baha'i' since 1958. The pivotal principal in the Baha'i' faith is the oneness of mankind. A favorite quote from his faith is, "when thy fingers grasp the paintbrush, it is as if thou wert at prayer in the temple." Baha'i's believe that when you do whatever your work is, at its highest level you are truly worshipping the Creator.
Someone once said of Kimerling, "He went out to change the world and the world changed him." That is certainly true of his work. A fellow art teacher has said of Kimerling:
"Kim uses the raw materials of his life more consistently than anyone I have ever known. He was always enormously inspired in the classroom through setting the example of deep creative commitment with in-progress works of his own. With steely dedication by blending imagination with technique, he was constantly distinguishing himself with excellence.
Kim has a sense of everything is possible. He comes back to what is in the heart. Relentlessly focused, life can'crash and burn' all around him; self-pity doesn't exist, and he floats on the up-draft of originality. With unfettered imagination and geometric certainty of what he is doing, Kim's creative force rings like gold on marble."
Kimerling's work has been exhibited in over 100 one person shows throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Nigeria, and Belize. He is currently showing in numerous venues in the Reno, Nevada area and Palm Springs, California. He has retired from teaching three times but is currently teaching at VSA the Northern Nevada Museum of Art.
With the richness of yesteryear, Kimerling hopes his work will perpetuate itself for tomorrow. "My spirit has always been nomadic, my blood is a mixture of many cultures and I have always felt myself to be a traveler and yet at home wherever I landed. I came to live my life as a dreamer with a pre-arranged design following a spirit flight."

Member of:
National Art ducation Association
Oregon Art Education Association
Oregon Education Association
Arizona Education Association
Oklahoma Education Association
Phi Delta Kappa
Selected Outstanding Art Educator for the State of Oregon, 1979-80
Selected Workshop Presenter for National Art Education Convention, 1979

In 2001 she won first, second and third place for watercolor at the juried miniature show in Yuma. In Yuma’s Birding Festival art contest Kate won second in 2002 with Burrowing Owl and in 2003 she placed first with Elf Owl. In 2004 her Agave painting won “Best of Show” at the Yuma County Fair and in 2005 she placed first in the “Miniature” category also at the Fair.

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