Katie Kimberling – artist and snarkist
I am a proud, fifth-generation Oklahoman (actually descended from a true, gun-toting, cannon-jumping Sooner) who loves to help high school and college students navigate the rocky waters and roiling waves of academia mixed with adolescence.
I grew up in Oklahoma City, was a “lifer” at Casady School, and attended Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine and the University of Oklahoma. I holds a BS in Zoology (which my mother says qualifies me to clean up after elephants at the zoo…I don’t) and an MPH in Biostatistics and Epidemiology (which my mother thinks has something to do with skin diseases…it doesn’t) from OU.
My art journey is much like my golf game – long moments of boredom interspersed with brief bouts of either sheer horror or ordained miracles. I’ve loved art all my life, and dabbled in drawing, painting, writing and ceramics throughout high school. No brag, but I won first prize in the second grade art show for my critically acclaimed (by my mother) piece “Raindrops on Window” (which was really just a happy accident of having minimal motor control over water in watercolor class).
Sometime around 2014 I discovered the Firehouse Art Center in Norman. It began with acrylic landscape painting (not for me), which led to several drawing classes with Craig Swan (real naked people! Actually, not as awkward as you might think…), and a pottery class with Dan Harris, where I specialized in wibbly lumps of clay that serve zero purpose, other than perhaps as a chock for an airplane or weighing down a dead body.
I finally stumbled into studio painting with Carol Armstrong, whom I consider my art sensei. Here I was allowed to paint whatever I wanted, in any medium, and was encouraged to try oils, which had formerly terrified me. But the easy and forgiving nature of oils, plus Ms. Armstrong’s tutelage and encouragement, allowed me to explore my inner whimsy and lifelong love of color, animals, and just overall silliness. I’ve had a brush in my hand ever since.
Mostly I paint and gift them to friends and family. All but two of my paintings include an animal of some kind, and I’m currently working on the series of oil paintings “Los Perros de San Miguel,” inspired by the colors, doors, and dogs of San Miguel de Allende in central Mexico.
When I’m not painting really, really whimsical, goofy paintings, I’m tutoring in calculus or statistics, mentoring and coaching high school and college students, writing comedy sketches for my Second City workshop, hanging outside in nature, and planning my next trip to my happy place, San Miguel de Allende, in the mountains of central Mexico.
As my day job, I’m a certified Academic Coach and owner of TutorPUG in Norman, which provides private tutoring in (nearly) every subject. (Calculus, yes. Portuguese, no.) For more information on my tutoring business, click here: https://tutorpug.com/
I live in Norman with my pug, Stevie, whose favorite hobby is barking at…the air, and her best buddy, a rescue named Jinx, whose favorite game is Face Wrestling Mania with Stevie.
- Academic tutor/mentor/coach
- Painter
- Horse nut
- Stained Glass Enthusiast (so much anger release!)
- Writer
- Comedienne
- Creator
- Dreamer
Please contact me for inquiries, details, gallery shows, calculus tutoring (no…really), or purchasing art or calendars.
Half Maverick 