Artist Kim Lakin received a BFA from Colorado State University and both MA and MS from the University of Oregon. Studying painting, art history, and historic architecture provides the foundation for her work in textiles.
Lakin enjoys working with the fiber medium for its tactile and sculptural qualities. She describes it as the line between two and three dimensions. The three-dimensional aspects of the quilted stitching line, the natural wrinkling and subtle puckering of the fabric and the near impossibility of making a straight line appeals to her. She is drawn to opposites and contrasts – the soft malleable quality of fabric being in direct contrast to her love of spatial relationships, geometry, and architecture. This dichotomy is expressed in Lakin’s work through the tentative balance between the hard edge and the soft edge, the painterly and the graphic.
Lakin has participated in Portland Open Studios, shown at local galleries such as the Oregon College of Arts and Crafts and the Walters Cultural Arts Center in Hillsboro. Her work has been shown in national juried shows and was featured in State of the Art, a contemporary publication focusing on fiber artists. Lakin teaches Fiber Arts classes in the Continuing Education Program at Pacific Northwest College of Arts.