Monika Kimrey's firm grip on schools and the not-for-profit sector is the defining element in her work. Wearing the 500 hats of Bartholomew Cubbins, Kimrey represents over a decade of local and international arts education, clothing and costume design, puppetry, poetry, and junk collecting. Exploring the tension between layers of meaning and fragments of nostalgia, Kimrey is an established, self-taught Chicago artist combining narrative painting and ceramics with folkloric beadwork, embroidery, and knitting. Kimrey's poetic images recall old photographs, vintage book illustrations, and found objects. Fetish textile figures are amulets and relics of fragments reassembled. All of the pieces have a strong loyalty to the lyric experience of childhood.
I work with students, teachers, parents, and administrators to create a residency that builds community. My dynamic teaching style weaves movement, poetry, and personal narrative into the media arts. As a recognized artist with work in collections throughout the United States, I try to show people that the humanities are alive and relate to everyday experience. The themes in my artwork join the curiosity and openness of childhood with the discipline and texture of adult responsibility. All of my work reminds the viewer that we are poised between the physical and the spiritual world, providing a space to consider the feeling of discovery we delighted in as children. I push away cynicism and remain loyal to the feeling of curiosity and care.