Out of boredom, into art

The Mat-Su Valley couple met while working together on job sites as “scraper” and “taper” for the same general contractor. Kimberly Bustillos, with Sheetrock dust from head to toe, and Frank, with hardly any dust at all, fell in love. Interestingly enough, they were both from LeBaron, Mexico, but first met in Alaska. They now have three children and own their own company, where he contracts and she does the accounting.

Between the business, and daily routine with the three preschoolers, Monica, 5 (the energetic peanut butter sandwich maker) and the 2-year-old twins, a boy and a girl, (who follow big sister around), how could Kimberly Bustillos be bored? “I get bored easily and is really why I started painting,” she said. After trying scrapbooking, then sewing, she says painting has become her “love and obsession,” sometimes captivating her interest until incredibly late hours, knowing she can nap with the kids the next day. “When it is something you want to do, you find the time,” she said.

Currently she is not only painting, but teaching drawing (including silverpoint) at Make-a-Scene, a facility in a huge Quonset hut off Lucas Road in Wasilla. Also, she is organizing other artists to teach. Having three huge rooms to choose from, she has arranged various drawing courses including Life Drawing with her sister, a professional model, as the subject. Kimberly is thrilled at bringing different art opportunities to the community through these classes. 

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Having a routine, or winging it, Bustillos gets in more painting time in the winter, sometimes 10 hours a week, as opposed to summer time when approximately five hours is more realistic. Whenever there is a deadline, she plans ahead by accommodating for the drying time of the oil paint, which can be as much as two weeks. She likes acrylic because it dries faster.

When asked about her palette color choices, she says she thinks of her colors as “rich, not dark,” but confesses that layering with darker shades, adding gels to the acrylic colors, and thinning mediums to the oils, gives a transparency that she loves.

Her children are favorite subjects for her work, while using photographs for reference, and then checking out the details with “skin tone under the eyes or how light reflects” on their features. Portraits and figures are her preferences, but she also does still life.

Doing still life studies “for convenience works out,” however, a friend will be sitting twice a week for about two months, so Kimberly can paint from life. She purported that this would be her first “actual complete painting from life and is looking forward to it.” She wants to “get proportions down forwards and backwards and be proficient with the human anatomy.” Practicing techniques in art “all of the time,” using how-to-books to study anatomy, feeds her yearning to know by rote what now slows her down while struggling with proportion. The two upcoming shows, one at Bagel Alaska for the Valley Fine Arts Association as part of the Valley Second Saturday events, and her Anchorage show later in October in the Arctic Business Plaza, are all Bustillos has scheduled for the rest of the year. “Mainly,” she says, she wants “time to practice and perfect her skills,” and also so she can catch up on commissions which seem to be stacking up. In observation of this very active upcoming artist in the community, there is nothing boring about her ambitions.

Suzanne Bach is an artist and teaches at Mat-Su College.

VALLEY SECOND SATURDAY

Artists’ reception for Kimberly Bustillos and Deb Rebischke is 5 to 6:30 p.m., at Bagels Alaska, 6177 E. Palmer-Wasilla Hwy. The show is titled “People, Places, and Things.” The reception is open to the public.