Student Profiles:        BELINDA BRINGHURST email: davidandbelinda@yahoo.com I've been a traveling person all my life. The longest I have ever been in one place was when I lived in American Samoa for 6 years. I thought I'd settle down once I got married but it seems that was not to be. My husband joined the Air Force after college 16 years ago and we have moved every 3 years since. During all this transition I realized that while I had many interests I was master of none. So after contemplating where some people get their "fire" to make all the work worth it, I asked Heavenly Father to help me develop at least one talent before I died. The result has been that I have run into art opportunities during all this moving. This course is challenging to me and I am so glad I can do it while living here in San Antonio. Currently I am 20 years married and have 3 bright and busy children. I am a stay at home mom/property manager and I enjoy art very much and would like to become much better at it. Thanks, Belinda Bringhurst   KATY COWLEY email: katycowley@gmail.com It has been many years since I have studied art. I started by taking a drawing course in junior high. I loved my teacher. Mrs. Bingham instilled a sense of wonder about about the world around us. She helped us begin to see line and shadow. I continued taking art courses in high school and college (pottery, drawing, watercolor). My junior year of college I switched out of my major of Art History to Family Science. I had a goal of becoming an art therapist. I found art to be healing in my life and wanted to share that experience with others. Now I work full-time as a Paralegal on child abuse cases. I single-parent my pre-teen twin daughters. I find that I am in need of art in my life - if only just to experience that healing from what I observe each day with my work. I need to learn to look at the world with new eyes. I look forward to picking up my pencil and brushes again. I have much to learn. Thanks! Katy   Matthew Grant email: matthewgrant@grandecom.net Bio.   KIMBERLY KINCAID email: kimkincaidart@msn.com Art and music have been my first loves since I can remember. Fortunately, I grew up in a school district in California where both were emphasized as much as math or language. Early on, I was encouraged to draw and express my creative nature. By the time I reached high school, I had decided on a career in art and receiving the weekend scholarship at the Art Center College of Design during my senior year solidified my dreams of majoring in art after graduation. And then, two things happened to alter my course. First, I experienced a religious and spiritual conversion in my life and two, I unexpectedly fell in love. Artistic dreams were put on hold and I married at 20. 35 years and 6 children later, I find myself eager and ready to pick up where I left off and realize my dream of becoming a professional artist/illustrator. Though most of my skills are rusty, I do bring life's experiences to the canvas this time that have deepened and enriched my need to communicate my artistic voice. For me, time is the enemy, but also the whip that drives me to fulfill my dream this time. It's either now or never. I love the human face and have been commissioned to draw a few portraits. I'm confident with the pencil, but long to learn paint, particularly oils. I am pulled toward fantasy art, partly because that is the genre I read and partly because I feel there's a need in our world to believe in the unseen and the magical. I know I have much to learn and look forward to all I can glean from you other students and of course, from Kirk.   JENNIFER PRINCE email: jpdavinci@gmail.com For as long as I can remember I have been drawing, or doing something creative. I home schooled through grade school and high school, and that gave me more flexibility to work on my art. I have taken several art classes from numerous local artists, and have won awards at some smaller art competitions. When I was sixteen I went to Europe for a month, and was able to see and study many great works of art. I am now attending a small private, classical liberal arts college (no, I'm not liberal)... that has no art program. That may seem odd for an artist to go to a school with no art program; but this college allows me to study deeper into the classics, not textbooks, and shape my education to my own personal goals in life. They are also making me their art "guinea pig", to see where I go with a classical education and art. I also believe (and know from experience) that the more educated an artist becomes in history, philosophy, and sciences etc... the more ability the artist has to create beautiful and meaningful works of art, or in other words, their art is able to reflect true principles and influence for good. Finally, with this academy I have a set curriculum to work with in my art, and a more disciplined way of improving my artistic skills.   GINGER LIVINGSTON email: fourchinagirl@gmail.com Ginger Livingston was born in the little town of Montpelier, Idaho and she still loves the simple and beautiful things one finds in small towns. Among her many favorite things: gardening, decorating, teaching, photography, making jewelry, the Oregon coast, playing with Caleb and Ellie, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and chocolate. A mother of four children, Ginger is just starting her formal artistic career and is honored to be among those being taught by Kirk. With her appreciation for art comes an equally strong desire to express her self creatively. She especially loves figurative art with spiritual themes as well as images that convey whimsy, fantasy, and the beauties of the natural world. A former theater major at Brigham Young University, she has performed in many plays in her acting career and now looks forward to learning how to “perform” as a painter.   AMY TOLK RICHARDS email: amy@amytolkrichards.com I've loved drawing all of my life. I studied History (BA major) and English (minor) at BYU but took art classes for fun. I was blessed growing up with numerous trips to Europe and saw many masterpieces that both inspired and frustrated me (because my abilities were so inferior). Not until I met Kirk (nine years ago) were my natural artistic skills made more controlled and accurate. With three kids now, I'm excited about this art study program that is flexible around my busy schedule. I have been drawing portraits (slowly but surely) over the past nine years (amytolkrichards.com), and I am very dependent upon copying figures. My goals in this program are to continue learning accuracy and technique with oil and acrylic paint while also being able to let loose on the details some times where appropriate to make things beautiful. I also want to come up with original compositions that don't consist of simply copying something.