I was born and raised in Puerto Rico. I moved to Urbana-Champaign in 2006 for my graduate studies and have been living in the area ever since. I've always loved art and my passion is drawing and painting. Two years ago I started focusing in my art again (after finishing graduate school) and it has become my obsession. I've realized this is what makes me happy and I hope my love towards painting comes through my art.sneakers

Kim Kissinger Marino is an artist living and working in Champaign, Illinois.

Her unique and whimsical mixed media paintings explore interpersonal relationships and the simplification of visual communication. Marino’s art practice is devoted to a study of the line in art and the ways in which the most simple of marks can communicate in moving and comical ways. Her practice focuses on The Language of the Line.

For many years Marino worked as a freelance graphic designer focusing on print advertising, marketing material design and outdoor billboard design. She also worked as a computer animator creating animations for television, private and corporate clients.

In 2010, she committed herself to her art practice and began a study that involves the reinvention and exploitation a series of line characters she developed.

Currently she is working on her largest exhibit and project to date. The exhibit and on-site project will be at the indi go gallery in Champaign, Illinois. Beginning on September 18, 2013 she will painting a 3′ X 12′ mural at the gallery. The mural and a one person exhibit of recent works will open on September 28, 2013. This project invites the community to follow the process either in person or through her blog: http://languageoftheline.blogspot.com

In 2012, she completed a large project titled: 150 Paintings: A Community Project: Interactive Mural. This work consisted of 150, 4″x 4″ oil paintings exhibited in such a way that they viewer could create new designs by rearranging the canvases.

Also in 2012, Marino was selected to attended a Professional Development Workshop sponsored by Creative Capital and Chicago Artist Coalition. In addition, she was awarded a 30 day Artist’s Residency for October, 2012 at The Prairie Center of the Arts.

Her works have been shown in one-person and group exhibitions in New York , NY, Chicago, IL, Rochester, NY, Champaign, IL, Urbana, IL. , Carbondale, IL, Peoria, IL, Macomb, IL, Evansville, IN, Paducah, KY,Owensboro KY and Albuquerque, NM.

In addition to being a visual artist Kim has taught classes in her studio to elementary age students. Classes have included clay animation, printmaking, quilt making, basic design and others. She also curated 2 exhibits of her student’s work and assisted with the University of Illinois School of Art and Design on an area High School Art Exhibit. Her love of art education is also expressed in her lecturing to local home school groups on such topics as Animal Symbolism in Medieval Art , The Life of Leonardo DaVinci and Islamic Art and Geometric Design. She also has been a docent at the University of Illinois’s Krannert Museum.

Marino received a BA in Art and Design from Brescia College in Owensboro Kentucky. She also did graduate studies in Fiber Art at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale before moving to Champaign, Illinois.Air Jordan

Richard Benoit, from Kankakee, Illinois, is a self-taught artist with a degree in photography. He works in a full complement of subjects using pastel, charcoal acrylic paint and mixed media. He has been pursuing a career in art as a means of self-expression.
Richard has been exhibiting his artwork, including his photography, for many years. Originally he got into photography when using that medium to take visual notes for his paintings and drawings but now he concentrates almost exclusively on that latter mode of expression. His work has been described as wonderfully intense, powerful and original and is included in the Illinois Institute of Art and Governors State University’s permanent collections, the Bourbonnais and Bradley Public Libraries, Aventis Pharmaceutical, Riverside Medical Center and many private and public collections throughout the U S.
Richard is a Guild member of the Union Street Gallery in Chicago Heights, IL. and is an artist member of Tall Grass Arts Association in Park Forest, IL.
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