Meet Kim Roberts | Artist + Mental Wellness Advocate

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kim Roberts and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kim, is there a quote or affirmation that’s meaningful to you?
I’ve heard this idea over and over but Carlos Santana said it best recently at Red Rocks: It takes courage to be happy. Henry Miller said it in the opposite way, “Anyone can be miserable” But to be happy is a practice. We may get what we want and feel happy about that – we win the prize or get the person we love – but that kind of happiness is conditional. Once we lose the thing that made us happy – and since everything changes, we will eventually lose the thing – then we become unhappy again.

It takes courage to be happy. To me, it’s a reminder to practice keeping my gaze elevated and looking for the good in people or in a situation, rather than looking for what’s wrong. If you look for flaws, you’ll find them! So why not make a practice of keeping your outlook positive by looking for ways to support a happy mindset?

It can be so easy to fall in to victim mentality–there are forces that challenge our ideas of how things should be. We want a different political party, a better way of managing the problems we face as a society, we want this, we don’t want that, and we think our neighbor’s views are wrong. But going down that rabbit hole is just a big waste of time when you start to realize that these types of challenges are never ending. So it comes down to a choice. Do you want to be a victim forever? Or do you want to choose to be courageous, look inside for a source of peace in the moment (the breath always helps) and be happy?

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I started painting seriously while I was living in Paris, after I had a big moment in an art gallery – discovering an artist whose work really inspired me. Making art started as a sort of meditation on emotions, and a way to process whatever I was going through.

I was trained as a mental health professional, but ended up doing an internship at UNESCO in Paris, where I started teaching yoga to the diplomats who worked there. Word got around and I ended up teaching yoga around the world.

Eventually I started looking outward and painting landscapes. I lived in South Asia for the better part of fifteen years, and always had my watercolors and my journal with me. Painting and writing about my surroundings was a way of connecting in a deeper way than snapping a selfie. Often I would find myself surrounded by young children curious about what I was doing, and I’d give them paper and something to draw or paint with, so it would turn into an impromptu meeting of cultures.

When I moved back to Colorado in 2008, I bought a house in a tiny village near the Sangre de Cristo mountains with the intention to devote much of my time to meditation and make art. The mountains were the obvious subject matter that presented itself, so that’s what I paint. I work in lots of different media, and love discovering how different things interact with each other. I love letting go of controlling the outcome, and seeing what happens when I mix things that shouldn’t go together.

People’s responses to my art really encouraged me – I started selling by accident from my Facebook page to friends who followed my new passion. Then I started sketching in ink while I was teaching a retreat in Norway, and someone offered to buy the sketches right after I made them. So I put some energy into a website and social media outreach. Eventually my work was represented by five different Colorado art galleries.

I feel like I wear way too many hats –on top of making the work, artists need to learn the business of marketing, sales, accounting, business admin. To be an artist is to run a small business, and it is an ongoing challenge. But I ran my own freelance business as a yoga teacher, and as a writer, so some of it was already familiar.

I still sketch on the road, but now I bring those sketches back to the studio to make larger works. My hope is that the meditation makes its way into the art so that people can experience that state of deep peace.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I love parks, so I would schedule a picnic at a different park every day.

I love Washington Park especially, and ride my bike there most mornings with my sketchbook and journal. I also love Chautauqua and try to go there every time I go to Boulder. Also while in Boulder I need to stop at my favorite gluten free bakery, Sweet Sisters.

Rocky Mountain park is an obvious day trip, but I also love the little lake and hikes around Evergreen.

Cheesman park is also a favorite, and if you are a local you can get a back-door key to the Botanical Gardens, where you can go get lunch and a delicious frozen fruit drink in the pavilion. I love visiting the galleries of the Botanic Gardens as well, and of course the Denver Art Museum. And we’d ride bikes on the Cherry Creek trail.

I love Fontana for the best sushi and Pablos on 6th for the best coffee in Denver where you can also play chess at their outdoor seating area.

We’d probably go to a few art openings – first Friday or new exhibit openings in the Golden Triangle or on Santa Fe Drive.

I’d also take them to the Molly Brown house for a fascinating glimpse of local history.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My shoutout would have to go all the way to the beginning, to Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, who I met as a graduate student at Naropa University, even though he had been dead for five years when I encountered his teachings. I learned to see in that program and by practicing the meditation he shared with his students. It changed everything about my life.

I also need to dedicate a shout to my husband Steve Austin, because it’s fun to share life with another artist.

Website: https://www.kimrobertsart.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kimrobertsart/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimrobertstoolsforevolution/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KimRobertsArt

Image Credits
images by artist or personal property of artist