Kim Tateo: "Emerge"
The Artist
Kim Tateo is an artist who paints her feelings into worlds of whimsy. A common theme for her work is interconnectedness—to each other as humans and to the Earth. Her work moves between releasing feelings into abstract expressions and creating magical worlds which are meant to be the unseen spaces where all hearts are connected. Her work is meant to evoke a sense of dreaming, playfulness, peace and gently pull on the heartstrings of whimsy that are in all beings. ♥
Her recent works have been exploring the idea of moving through the “ego” or the “self” and into the collective—the heart space where we are all flooded with love. Moving from somewhere to everywhere, moving from someone to everyone, from something to everything. Kim likes to explore and play in all mediums including paint, glitter, plants, pastels, watercolors and anything that creates color.
She has been part of several group exhibitions in NYC and the Capital Region. Highlighted shows include "What Blooms in Moonlight" which was a solo event held at Taste Collection in 2019 and two jury-selected shows, S010 at Con Artist Gallery in collaboration with Meural and The Sixth Annual Regional Juried Art Show at the Spencertown Academy.
The Mural
I knew I wanted to do something with butterflies. When I was younger, I loved butterflies and painting them, but sort of stopped for many years. It was probably because everyone kept giving me butterfly things and I got a bit overwhelmed by butterflies!
In any case, last fall I took home a caterpillar that I found and raised it into a butterfly. I was lucky enough to witness the actual transformation and emergence from the cocoon into a butterfly! It was amazing! Although, soon after that I went through a very difficult time (as many did) and just went very inward. I barely picked up a paint brush during that time and it was very hard, but things shifted (as they always do) and I felt like painting again. At that point, I found myself absentmindedly painting a lot of forms that turned into butterflies and when I saw the opportunity to paint for the market, I wanted to do something large scale with the hope that it would brighten someone's day or remind someone that even through, in fact, it's especially through the hard times that the most beautiful things emerge.
All said, I suppose this piece is about emergence, letting go and releasing. Here's a link to my IG story about the butterfly.
I was thrilled at the idea of having an opportunity to paint and play! The actual painting was honestly a huge release for me and it just sort of flowed out. I had no real "plan" except that I wanted butterflies. My experience was honestly very healing in a strange way.
Check out Kim’s website at lookalittlecloser.com and follow her on Instagram @lookalittlecloser.
