Meet Kim Winberry

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kim Winberry.

Hi Kim, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I got started with painting and more specifically watercolors back in 2005. My husband became disabled and after a 4-year fight with social security, we won and had a large lump sum benefit check that back paid us to the initial application date 4 years prior. With that chunk of money, he wanted to buy art supplies and set up a station where he could learn and play with art in short segments of time, and laying down when things got too painful. At that point, I asked him if it would be okay, that’s when he ordered art supplies, that I could have some watercolors and instructional materials so I could do art as well, maybe together.

I went through instructional books and other tutorials and started painting in January of 2005. The watercolor techniques came easily to me and bolstered my courage enough to do my first art festival in April of that same year. I didn’t sell anything but kept doing that same show year after year, making adjustments to my pricing, my display, what I was painting, the size I was painting, how I framed the pieces.

During the housing market crash, I took time off and didn’t do shows for a couple of years. I also did not do shows between 2011 and 2013 as my husband had a stroke and was in a nursing home. I was taking my kids to visit him on the weekends and personally, I was just lost. He died in 2013 and I fell apart.

I dived into my art as a way to escape the pain of having lost the love of my life and the stress of raising three autistic kiddos. The youngest of which developed seizures at age 10. Not a huge surprise as I am also epileptic. I would not have done it without the support of my family and the escape of my art.

In 2019, I made a profit for the first time. I found 10 other shows to do that year and with 11 shows I ended up with about 10k in sales. I had figured something out. I planned on doing, even more, shows the following year. The world had other plans and Covid hit.

It was Covid and the shutdown of all the art festivals that prompted me to upgrade to a better and more robust website. So I joined ArtStorefronts, which provided not only a powerful website but marketing advice and calendar as well as how to do all the things they were saying to do. I ended 2020 with 11k in sales, even though everything was shut down. In 2021 things started to open back up and that made 2021 a stellar year having done 23 shows and 40k in sales. Money wasn’t the barometer of my success to me though, the number of people following my journey was and I ended up with a subscriber list of over 3000 people.

When things started opening back up and shows were available, we jumped back into doing shows again (I was taking my youngest son with me so that I could make sure he was safe) He was my helper (he was a grown man at this point, physically. But it was clear at this point that not only did he experience seizures, and autism but also a cognitive deficit and consistently operates at the level of a 9-year-old.

The medication that my son was on made him sleepy and he was constantly falling asleep in his chair at these shows… we laughed about it and I nicknamed him “the sleeping art roadie” and he became a big hit with the crowd that followed me. so much so that he started his own Instagram account with the username “thesleepingartroadie” and likes to take candid pictures of me in compromising positions and make fun of me on social media. And I established a speak-easy discount of 15% off when you mentioned the sleeping art roadie…

I expanded what I was doing and created stickers, mousepads, keychains, magnets and a whole sleu of products with my images on them. I was testing out the various shows throughout the western united states, traveling to Arizona quite frequently and then not so frequently there was Colorado, Oregon and Washington. I stopped traveling out of state when gas prices skyrocketed.

Ian, my youngest, wasn’t the only one of my children to help me out with my art endeavor, all three participate to some degree. My oldest helps me pack the trailer as well as input and opinions when I need someone to chime in. My middle child, would turn out to be a great sounding board for new ideas and had plenty of input and helped me out with the direction I headed in. They also ended up with a diagnosis of a degenerative condition of their spine, which is what debilitated my husband and ultimately cost him his life. It’s anticipated that they won’t survive beyond another ten years or so. We’re hoping that something will change that but are savoring every moment that we do have.

During my show in Carlsbad at the end of September of this year, I had a seizure where I fell and broke my back. It was a long seizure and has taken me months to get back to something that resembles normal for me. I’m still not there, but I’m functioning at this point. It cost me all of the shows that I had planned for the end of the year and my entire Q4 was spent recovering, as well as planning for what I was going to do when I finished recovering.

At this point in my career as an artist I have developed multiple products with my art on them including: water bottles, magnets, keychains, puzzles, coffee mugs, tote bags and a few other things that I tried along the way but no longer do, either because they aren’t profitable, have any interest or are just not successful for some reason.

One of my biggest successes so far has been the integration of augmented reality into my art. I took my skills as a web developer and taught myself how to create videos and animations to embed into my art. The first project that I did with those skills was a coloring book (92 pages) each with a code that when scanned would show you what the original painting that the coloring page was derived from as well as a video timelapse of me painting the piece and a “fun facts” animation for whatever item was on that page. I self-published this through Lulu and they have become quite popular as well as being a fun conversation starter.

I took the augmented reality a bit further and started creating animations and embedding videos and seeing what sort of experience I could create. I daydreamed about the applications that this could have.

Another thing I did this year was to invest in a sublimation setup so that I could produce my own products, that served several purposes, which included lowering the cost and increasing my profit margin but also gave me more control over the quality and eliminate shipping costs to get the products to me when they were done.

In the end, this year brought in a little less than I did last year, but I also lost the entire fourth quarter to recover from the seizure. Overall Im happy with how successful my art was this year but it made me think about what should my measure of success be. Am I all about the money? No, I’m not. I’m fortunate enough to be employed as my sons caretake through the state, so income is there whether I sell art or not, but my main job has always been to take care of my kids and prepare them for their futures, but now that they are older and more self-sufficient (with the exception of my youngest, so he comes with me to all the shows)

I’m realizing now that I may be overextending myself and that I probably need to scale back before the demanding schedule does more damage. So instead of the 26 shows I had scheduled this year (I only did 20 as I couldn’t do anything in the last three months), I’m cutting back on the shows, or at least that’s the thought.

I had to ask myself what is the goal? Why am I doing what I’m doing? What am I accomplishing? I came to the conclusion that whereas I had great sales, it was because I changed what I was doing to cater to the economy and ensure sales, but I ended up forfeiting some of the visions I had for pieces. So in 2023, I’m going to follow my ideas and visions for my art a little closer and not compromise them for the sake of a sale. If you like what I do and who I am, come follow me and see where this art journey takes us.

One week into the new year and I have completed two new paintings, have three more partially done. I’ve secured a gallery show starting the end of January and been asked to coordinate and find other artists to hang in the gallery. I have registered for 5 shows, gotten into 3 and have several more I plan on registering for when the time comes.

Even though I plan on cutting back the number of shows, I’ll probably still be at least as busy as we are planning on moving in the next couple of months and getting into our own house, and whereas there will be fewer shows, it will still be a hectic show schedule and I’m adding in some gallery shows, product releases and so much more.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has not been a smooth road. during my journey to being a full-time artist, My husband passed away, I’ve lost my mother, biological father and a stepdad. My family can be both very supportive or not at all, depends on which family member and what mood their in.

The biggest struggle has been balancing being there for my children and managing a full-time artist career. There’s no way I could do this if my kids were young children, but because at this point my youngest is almost 21 and my oldest is 31, even with the autism, they are pretty self-sufficient. (Except my youngest, which is why he goes with me everywhere I go, even on errands)

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I primarily am a watercolor artist. I began painting in 2005 and am currently exploring other mediums as well as combining them. The style that I have developed over the years combines the use of watercolor and Indian ink. Initially, I primarily painted endangered species with the goal to bring attention to the careless way in which we treat our environment rather than celebrate and honor it by taking care of it.

How do you think about luck?
If I were to believe in luck I would have to say it might lean toward the unlucky side of the scale. But there is always someone else that has things just a little worse. I believe that the important thing isn’t what happens or why but what do you do as a result. I don’t think I would have dived into painting had it not been for my dying husband wanting to order art supplies and utilize his newly awarded disability funds to learn and create while he was bedridden, but before things got too bad. That’s not what played out, but what did was a turning point in my life. Art became a staple and way of dealing with his loss and also me trying to find my voice

Contact Info:

• Website: www.waterplusink.com
• Instagram: Waterplusink
• Facebook: Waterplusink2
• Twitter: Waterplusink1
• Youtube: Kim winberry