Kai Tomalin Making A Difference

My formal expression and training in art is recent, but the calling and exposure to create through exploration is lifelong. My father was an explorer. I grew up paddling a canoe, his words instead of wind at my back. We kept count to his stories about the places he’d been, the waters he’d paddled, and the storms he had sparred. He spoke of ancient art, a world sculpted by ice, rain, waves and wind. With carefully selected words he captured moments. My inheritance, he passed them to me. In my 14th year my father passed, but he left me stories and a continued desire to explore. 

I spent my childhood surrounded by raging waters and fantastic beasts, and learned to not only appreciate the world around me, but also my place in the magic of it all. My life has been marked with incredible opportunities to connect with the natural world. I've seen migration on the Mara, bowing to a passing herd of elephants. I’ve welcomed changing seasons in far flung corners of the globe. I've trekked cautiously through panther country and watched quietly as baby sea turtles push their way across moon-kissed sands. In reflection on the magic I’ve been so lucky to witness, I’ve always felt called to commune with the world and then share my experience through art. Art is a tool by which great explorers often share what they have been privileged to witness with those not there to experience it themselves. 

In high school I traveled as a cultural ambassador to St. Petersburg’s Sister City of Takamatsu, Japan. I bathed in ancient forests, practiced martial arts in sacred temples, and learned secrets that ancestors long ago placed in the hearts of my host family. On return, I painted my experiences in a life size mural in the heart of my city - a gift to my neighbors at home so that they too may know the beauty of our neighbors continents away.     

I am an artist explorer. Through art I carry people, oceans, elephants, mountains and more. The gift to capture moments in a way that allows others to experience them as if they were there is a power endowed to artists. The drive to discover and learn is the calling of an explorer. I am both - in my life’s story, no matter the journey, every path leads me to art. I am excited for my next chapter.