Loving & Letting Go

Art For Sale, Art Journal, creativity, Exhibition, Gallery, inspiration, Installation, process, Residency, Story

I am overjoyed with how the Loving & Letting Go exhibit came together. In the next few posts, I will be reflecting on different aspects of my solo show. Today’s post focuses on the exhibit itself. I absolutely love this view from the outside.

Huge thanks to Mark Woods and Vassilisa Kapila for these beautiful photos.

 

This may be my favorite wall in the show. There’s something about the way these pieces hang together (maybe it’s the blues) that I find so pleasing.

 

These works in the front of the gallery are what most likely come to mind when people think of one of my paintings ~ lots of depth with layered surfaces that are textured, weathered and worn. In these pieces, there’s a tension between opposing forces seeking resolution (motion/stillness, geometric/atmospheric, light/dark, etc) ~ a fitting match for show’s theme of loving and letting go.

 

 

 

I made the large paper piece on the left during my 2022 Chateau Orquevaux artist residency in France. After my morning writing, I headed into my studio and painted some quick works on paper just to loosen up.  At the end of our month, we were invited to exhibit the work we’d created…and I didn’t want to show 30 pieces of paper. So I decided to make a painting out of paper. This is what I came up with.

The 3 smaller pieces on the right are what my quick works on paper evolved into ~ these pages have taken on a life of their own, and are currently exhibiting in my solo show (“Little & Often”) in Chicago.

 

The beauty of this space is that it offered up different rooms that allowed me to showcase various sides of my creative practice. This little nook held more standalone pieces that were still pivotal in my journey.

 

Heading down the hall, I love this peekaboo view into this room. I enjoyed witnessing people’s responses as they stumbled upon this unexpected installation. The walls of the room are lined with 8 years of original journal pages.

Artist Talk

artist talk, creativity, Gallery, inspiration, Installation, process, Speaking, Story

“Following the Narrative Throughline”
Loving & Letting Go (solo show)
July 26, 2025 at 3pm

It was a pleasure to sit down with gallerist Devon Dunham to discuss the narrative thread that weaves through the art, film, and writing in my solo show, Loving & Letting Go.

Gallerist Otto Chan was kind enough to livestream the talk, so people were able to attend both online and in person. What a gift to spend time with you reflecting on the themes and stories that continue to fuel my work.

Enjoy!

00:43 Talk begins

01:08 Devon – intro & story about finding and reaching out to Eli.

04:03 Eli – stretching herself creatively for this show and reflects on the serendipity that made the hut installation possible.

08:20 Eli – her daily writing practice and the installation of her journal pages.

10:43 Devon & Eli – externalizing the internal world, and how the exhibit moves from the hut to the journal pages to the paintings.

14:30 Eli – tracing her creative journey back to the film, and discussing the inspiration behind making the film (the search for identity and belonging.)

17:54 Eli – film screening during the exhibit highlighted how her art picked up where the film left off.

18:55 Eli – this body of work exploring the theme of “Loving & Letting Go” began during her 2022 Chateau Orquevaux residency in France. This theme continues to resonate on multiple levels.

22:22 Devon & Eli – Loving and Letting Go as an act of self-exploration ~ a body of work to more deeply understand “Who Am I?”

24:18 Eli – her daughter’s response to the show.

25:25 Devon – shares visitors’ profoundly personal responses to the Chagga hut and his own reflection on Eli’s body of work.

29:24 [Audience question] Eli & Devon – share their thoughts on the painting behind them ~ “The Offering.”

33:24 [Audience question] Eli – shares creative process, how her work continues to surprise her, and the conversations she has with her work as it’s developing.

35:34 [Walk up the the front.]

36:08 Eli – the paintings in the front gallery (vs the back) and how they invite you to move in closer.

38:57 [Audience question] Eli – including writing in her work.

41:18 [Devon question] Eli – intention behind incorporating text and graphic imagery in her work.

45:06 Devon – asks audience member pick a favorite piece and share how it makes them feel.

47:30 Eli – difference between encaustic and cold wax medium, and how/why she works with oil & cold wax.

50:35 Eli – how she knows when a piece is done.

54:25 One final audience comment/question…

New Date for Solo Show!

Art For Sale, creativity, Exhibition, Film, Gallery, Installation, Narrative

I have a BIG update ~ my solo show in Seattle has been moved up two months!

So now, Loving & Letting Go” opens Thurs. July 3rd, 5-8pm at SlipStitch Studios. We have also scheduled a screening of my film and an artist talk later in the month. Then the show closes on August 2.

Of course, you are welcome to visit during gallery hours ~ Wed-Sat 12-5.

Additionally, I am scheduling private tours of the exhibit (on all days). If you’re interested, please DM/text/email me!! I’d love everyone who wants to see this exhibit to get a chance to experience it.

Thank you kindly.

ELIAICHI KIMARO
Loving & Letting Go

SlipStitch Studios
604 2nd Ave, Seattle
Gallery Hours: Wed – Sun, 12-5pm

EXHIBITION EVENTS

OPENING RECEPTION
July 3, 5-8pm
First Thursday Pioneer Sq Art Walk

SCREENING & DISCUSSION
A Lot Like You
July 10, 5-7:30pm
(Doors at 5, film at 5:30)

ARTIST TALK
The Narrative Throughline
July 26, 3-5pm

CLOSING RECEPTION
Sat., Aug 2, 5-8pm

EXHIBITION STATEMENT

Loving & Letting Go is a multidisciplinary body of work by Eliaichi Kimaro that reflects the emotional terrain of a life in transition. In a short span of time, Kimaro’s closest relationships have shifted — her daughter left for college, her husband relocated for work, and her parents are 9,000 miles away.
This body of work explores the emotional dichotomies shaping her life in this moment — presence and absence, intimacy and independence, acceptance and grief. Each piece holds opposing forces in conversation — stillness and motion, geometric and organic, light and dark — reflecting the tension between loving from afar while learning to let go.
Loving & Letting Go is both a personal meditation and a universal invitation to sit with complexity and to find beauty within life’s contradictions.

The Art of Daily Practice – Opening Reception

Art For Sale, Art Journal, CLUSTER, collaboration, creativity, Exhibition, Gallery, inspiration, Installation, process

Lynann Politte at Vashon Center for the Arts has been a joy to collaborate with on my solo show ~ The Art of Daily Practice. My work this past year has been fueled by a vision of what an exhibit of my journal pages could look like. And now, seeing how it all came together, I have to say reality far exceeded my dream!

So much creative collaboration goes into putting on a “solo” show. Many thanks to Lucky Rabbet Framing for doing such a mega job floating & framing 28 journal pages. Thanks also to Lynann and her mentor Paul Martinez who had their work cut out for them with this installation. The placement of every piece has been carefully considered…and the resulting exhibit looks spectacular!!

Coming up
Artist Talk: The Art of Daily Practice
Vashon Center for the Arts
Saturday, Feb. 17 at 2pm.

Thank you to all who came to the opening!! It was lovely to meet so many people new to my art, and to hear their reflections and see the work through their eyes. I was delighted to see old friends from all chapters of my adult life. And Vashon is home to members of my creative team from my film, A Lot Like You. I spent a lot of time on this island in the 8 years it took to make the film, and it was lovely to reunite with Eric Frith (editor), Pete Droge (composer), Elaine Summers (music supervisor) and Jeff Hoyt (voice over coach).

And finally, my gratitude to event photographer Wade Yip, as well as June Sekiguchi, Eric Frith and VCA gallery, for sharing their reception photos. Feel free to click on any image below and scroll through. Enjoy!

 

The Scaled-Down Truth

Exhibition, Installation, Narrative, Residency, Story, Works In Progress

“The Truth Has No Borders” is a multimedia piece that integrates 40 years of writing, photography, music, film, and art into a single cohesive, immersive installation.

It was originally created to exhibit in a shipping container for COCA’s 30-day Storefronts [UN]contained Residency in 2016. Lately, I’ve been feeling the need to revisit this project, and fully realize my vision. But I’ve been struggling with how to convey the impact of this piece in grant/exhibition applications.

I shot this test video on-site when I only had the first two layers of paper panels up (I wanted to see how the projection & sound worked in the space.) The final installation had 7 layers of paper panels.  But my dream is to FILL the room with floor-to-ceiling encaustic paper panels — a layered paper screen embedded with images of my Mom’s Korean family, that are illuminated by the projected moving imagery of my Dad’s Chagga family on Kilimanjaro.

When I brought this dilemma to Larry Calkins, he suggested building a model of the project to film. Brilliant!!  And so my diorama project begins…(projection and sound to follow).

The Stories We Inherit

Film, Installation, Origin story, Story, Works In Progress

Backstory:  Couple months ago, a friend invited me to create a piece for a project she’s working on about dimensional wax pieces. While most of my encaustic paintings are textured and could be considered “dimensional,” I really wanted to push myself to get off the wood panel and see what I could create in 3D space. She asked for a piece that reflected the themes of cultural inheritance and legacy I explored in my film, A Lot Like You.

This prompt reminded me that in April 2018, I pulled out the transcripts of family stories I collected for my film — and, with no clear end goal in mind, I started cutting up and inking the shredded transcripts…trusting that they would some day find their way into a piece…

4/17/18 – These interviews I transcribed with my family elders on Kilimanjaro were the heart of my film. Even on the page, my Aunts’ stories are arresting. Now these transcripts will form the foundation of my next piece…

 

4/20/18 – As an encaustic artist, it’s rare that I can work on an art piece outside my studio. so I’m relishing being able to ink the shredded paper wherever I please. Especially on a day like today when I’m feeling pretty lousy, I can binge watch Theaster Gates & Andy Goldsworthy docs while reclining on our sofa, wrapped in a cozy blanket and sipping coffee.

 

4/20/18 – End of Day 3…inking each piece by hand is a slow and meditative process. 7 hours straight today. Time to switch gears and walk the dog!

 

FAST FORWARD TO 2019…

2/14/19 – …and now, for something completely different!! Spent the past 2hrs cleaning the studio, getting ready to work with encaustic, paper, wire and fabric. Won’t have anything finished to show for the next few weeks…but i’ll be posting detail shots of this piece in progress. (just for the record, i have Absolutely No Idea where this is going. i’m just committing to experimenting with 3D play.) 🙂

 

 

2/14/19 – The motif of yesterday’s painting of chain links takes root as I finally find a use for the shredded transcripts of family interviews that I inked last year.  While I don’t have much experience constructing dimensional pieces–I do remember making paper chains in grade school…

 

2/15/19 – Spending all day making encaustic paper chains out of shredded family transcripts. 5hrs down, 4hrs to go…

 

2/21/19 – I started the day making strands of orange & red, but then decided to limit my palette to colors of the Tanzanian flag — fitting since these paper chains are made from shredded transcripts of interviews with the Tanzanian side of my family. So now I’m focusing my efforts on blues, greens, yellows. Onward!

 

2/25/19 – All day, today & tomorrow, I’ll be 1) coating transcript strips with encaustic medium on the hot plate to 2) make links, then 3) gluing them into chains. Podcast playlist is packed, headphones are fully charged. Here we go…♡

3/1/19 – Much gratitude and love to my friend Connie for coming over this morning to help me create an alginate mold of my face.

 

3/1/19 – Been obsessively scraping and cleaning up this piece with my pottery & dental tools for 4 hours straight. SO satisfying! But it’s time to step away, and return with fresh eyes tomorrow to check out my handiwork in the light of day…

 

3/4/19 – As I experiment with making an encaustic cast of my face, I’m struck by how much the wax-filled mold looks like an oyster shell…🌊

 

3/5/19 – Turned out, and cleaned up, the encaustic cast of my face. The verdict is still out re: how I feel about it. It’s getting a bit weird (and eerie), having disembodied faces on my work table. Here’s hoping I can turn them into something beautiful!

 

I made this short video about the “source material” for these paper chains – shredded transcripts of the family stories I gathered while filming on Mt. Kilimanjaro in 2003.

 

3/19/19 – Working on the bottom half of my dimensional encaustic piece today — arranging the wax/paper chain in (what I hope will be) an ascending spiral!🤞🏽

 

3/26/19 – Spending the day weaving twigs to form the interior walls of the Chagga hut that will surround the wax mask…♡ Wood up top, paper below.

 

3/28/19 – Yesterday was a “2steps forward/1step back” kind of day. This is the challenge and the thrill of #LearningByDoing . Even tho I had to undo a lot of my work, no effort was lost. Each go-around leaves a trace of story that will be seen and felt in the final piece. Every turn is worth the effort.

 

3/28/2019 – #TBT2004 to filming in my father’s Chagga hut on Mt. Kilimanjaro. Fast forward 15 years, different medium, same story (exploring my cultural inheritance and legacy). Spent today finishing the woodwork that, for me, is reminiscent of the interior of our hut.♡

 

3/29/19 – The Stories We Inherit (72″x 12″x 11″) – Wax, wood, wire, and paper. Calling this piece done…for now…at least in its current iteration. You know how it goes.

 

2018 Artist Trust Fellowship

Activism, Exhibition, family, Film, Installation, Narrative, Story

So excited to share this news with you!!!!

It was just announced that I am one of 16 recipients of the 2018 Artist Trust Fellowship ~ “an unrestricted grant program that awards $7,500 to practicing professional artists of exceptional talent and ability.” (You can read the full press release here.)  I am in awe of all that Artist Trust does to support the arts and artists across Washington state!  And I am grateful to the Jurors for their time and thoughtful deliberation — and for their kind consideration of my application.  Having served on numerous film festival and grant juries, I’m aware what a time and energy commitment it is to review and deliberate over hundreds of submissions…

This news has me Standing Taller and Breathing Deeper.  With this generous Fellowship, I will finally have the time and resources to complete the ambitious project I started during my COCA residency last year.  The Truth Has No Borders is a multi-media installation that integrates 40 years exploring my family narrative through writing, music, film and art.

And finally, a Huge congrats to my fellow Fellows! I am deeply honored to be in the company of so much Excellence.

Screenshot_2018-06-19-19-29-03-1-1

Pictured Left to Right/Top to Bottom:  Tariqa Waters, Barbara Sternberger, Taiji Miyasaka, Christopher Paul Jordan, Ryan Feddersen, Haruko Nishimura, Jade Solomon Curtis, Salome MC, Grace Love, Christopher Icasiano, Eliaichi Kimaro*, Tessa Hulls, Diana Xin, Mattilda B. Sycamore, Laura Da’, and Cathy Linh Che. *A warm thank you to Zorn B Taylor for my beautiful headshot.

 

Residency Day 21

Activism, family, Installation, Narrative, Residency, Story, Works In Progress

With my title banner done, and the first “layer” of paper panels with family image transfers complete, I went to the shipping container today to do a quick install.  I took this short 30 second video with my phone to capture the look and feel of the piece.

I also wanted to test the sound. I will not be playing the audio from my movie.  Instead, I will be playing field recordings I gathered while filming on Mt. Kilimanjaro.  I have 2+ hours of Chagga women elders singing the work songs they would traditionally sing to keep their energy and spirits up.  I have slowed the track down, and added a slight reverb that plays beautifully in the shipping container.

It’s so exciting to see this piece coming together!! I can’t wait to see how this space feels when I add more layers of paper to give a feeling of depth extending all the way to the back of this cavernous shipping container.  The layers of paper panels are not meant to be an actual screen for viewing the film — but rather, a surface to be illuminated with color and light.  The moving images of my family on Mt Kilimanjaro will illuminate the Korean side of my family, extending back generations, embedded in the paper.  I have lots of paper panels awaiting image transfers…but at least the way forward is clear. It’s just work. I know I can do that.

Residency Day 19

Activism, Exhibition, family, Film, Installation, Narrative, Residency, Story, Works In Progress

Going thru so many family photos today, feeling profoundly still and in the flow, cracked wide open, and aware of how intertwined love and grief are for me in this moment. Really feeling the beauty and depth and value that age brings as I reflect on the complexities of our real lived lives. looking deeply into the faces of those who came before, I can see the indelible imprint of their love in Lucia’s being. Been crying on and off all day, feeling so very grateful for these creative openings….