In the Studio: Kimberlee Rocca

Planning for Kimberlee Rocca's solo exhibition Picking up the Pieces began in February 2020 when she first invited us in about seeing some new ideas. Her aha! moment of discovery, with her experience in foil imaging for the past 30 years, was exciting and fresh and warranted the culmination of a show.

In this blog post, we collected images of what we'll call Phases 1-3 of the process for the exhibit. Also featured is her wonderfully chaotic studio; marks of a playground for a multidisciplinary artist. Messy, bright, and plenty of vertical space to dream big.

Phase 1

Here it is: the Aha! moment (or, at least the less technical part of it). Kimberlee was making tons of small shapes from tests for making colorful earrings and necklaces. She mentioned enjoying those shapes and finding herself making compelling arrangements. So began the fervent joy in making maquettes, rather, in this phase, paper cutouts. This first round of sketches focused on shapes and color combinations.

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Phase 2

After experimenting for years with foil imaging, a printmaking technique developed at the University of Iowa, she discovered a new way to work with the medium. Her early works are primarily on metal and paper supports that are easily heated. This part of the process is necessary for the roll leaf foil to adhere.

The break-through was discovering that masonite boards would accept the foil transfer, but also allow for other mediums to then be incorporated. More sketches are assembled with foil designs with color combinations and collected into binders*.

Maquettes and small works begin to be made.

*we've counted at least 10 binders filled with commission options and future works to show.

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Phase 3

Scaling up and finalizing compositions; selections for paintings to keep as-is versus templates to use for chopping up for wall sculptures. The decision phase. Not featured here is the joyous sifting through several binders worth of sample works to choose for creation.

There may or may not be a peek or two of future plans in the works in the photo above. It's hard to know exactly where the next milestone in discovery will be when your studio is filled with the kind of energy Kimberlee has. Kimberlee is a multidisciplinary artist working in foil imaging and mixed media with a fierce need to create  and a penchant for power tools.