Public Art Therapy
This April, we were able to hear local artist Wendy Hailey Kim’s story at A Night of Storytelling, Vol. 7, and as her recent Ned exhibit “Wetlands” comes to a close next Wednesday, October 30, we wanted to share her words from our spring event so that you can get a look into her process and what has made Jackson home for her.
I received a BFA in painting from Memphis College of Art, and I do murals now, but my real passion is water. That may sound kind of strange since I grew up in West Tennessee—this landlocked place—but I spent a lot of my time in my childhood on the Tennessee River swimming and camping. I kind of feel like water’s just in my blood.
I began my underwater series my third year at Memphis College of Art. I have moved into a new apartment with my best friend Cody, and it had a pool, and I spent all my time in the water. I remember looking at the way the light would come through the water refracting on my skin and wondering how I could paint that and how I could share my love of water with other people.
I got an underwater camera, and back then it was film (not digital), so it took a lot of exploring and experimenting. I did a lot of underwater photography, and I used this as references to make paintings.
After Memphis College of Art, I had to get a job in the real world, and I began working in production studios making a lot of money for other people. I developed skills that I could use—that everyone could appreciate, not just the elite or people with money.
I kind of wanted more out of life, so Cody and I got married and moved to St. Augustine, Florida. It was this beautiful place where I could live out my water fantasy every day for real. I woke up every morning and went surfing, and I got to live in this paradise.
But paradise is expensive.
We were young, and we didn’t have a lot of resources, so after a couple years, we realized it was not the most sustainable place for us to spend our time. I was pretty relieved when I was offered a gig back home in Memphis.
The place I was hired at was Art Impact, Inc., which was a design firm that made public art and murals in Memphis. I spent about five years as a project manager, mostly doing murals at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
This was the highlight of my career, and it was the most rewarding experience.
So here I was at the top of my career, and my husband Cody was at the bottom. He had fell into a depression and was pretty miserable with his life, and I didn’t know what to do to help him. His sister had gotten a job as an art therapist at a hospital in Kansas, so I thought he would just go there and come back and everything would be okay. But he had a different plan, and he had already made up his mind.
After Cody lost his battle with depression, I was completely devastated. I was a widow at twenty-five years old, and I had lost my person, so the grief was enormous. I felt like the only thing I could do was go back to St. Jude, where I felt like I couldn’t complain. I felt like there I could keep perspective and I couldn’t feel sorry for myself. Everyone one else there was also suffering, and there were these families that were going through crisis, and they chose to stay positive and to live in the moment because that’s all we really have. And I knew when I was there that I was exactly where I was supposed to be.
My family was also very supportive during this time and did everything they could to distract me. I went on a lot of cruises with my mom and her friends, and we got to do really cool stuff. We swam with the cenotes in Mexico with my sister. I got to explore the rainforest in St. Juan. I went diving in coral reefs. I did a lot with my underwater photography, and it really helped me with my love of water.
More recently, I got to do some work in our own community. I did some murals at the Love & Truth Church—at their north and south campuses and their Sunday School rooms. It was really thrilling to use my skills in my own hometown for once, and I hope to do more that.
I also spent some time with my friend Jodi Heavner, who was working on a rural arts project called Artz Underground. It’s a program that exposed children to the arts in Milan, Tennessee. I’d always kind of resisted teaching, and here I was—teaching—and I was starting to enjoy it.
I was very close to taking a full-time position at a homeschool place when I met this guy. I had been talking to him on the phone for a couple years. He was all the way in D.C., but I went there and met him, and we fell in love.
We were in Maryland for about a year when we found out we were going to be parents for the first time, and now we have Benico Sunray (we call him Benny), and he’s three years old. Being a mom and an artist can be a really tough balance, but it’s so worth it. We’ve been to the sea now and out to the family farm, and you can find us most days at our studio at the Ned. I teach private lessons there, and I volunteer at the library for doing large classes for beginners. I just finished my third solo show, “Wetlands,” which you can catch at the Ned through October 30.
I’m always looking for new projects, and if anyone has any ideas, I would love to hear them.
The Ned’s second-story gallery is open Monday through Friday from 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. To learn more about Wendy, visit her RAW Artists webpage.
