All posts by Kim Novak

“I never dreamed of becoming an actress or a movie star. As a young girl I won two scholarships to the prestigious Chicago Art Institute where I hoped one day to become a great artist. Working as a model during junior college, I traveled to Hollywood on summer vacation where I was discovered by an agent and signed to Columbia Pictures. In 1956 I became the No. 1 box office star in the world for three years, starring opposite actors such as Jimmy Stewart, William Holden and Frank Sinatra, and working with Directors like Alfred Hitchcock. My most famous film was Hitchcock’s “Vertigo,” which is considered by many to be the greatest movie ever made. “Picnic” and “Bell, Book and Candle” were two of my favorites. It is so rewarding to know that my film work is receiving more acclaim with the passage of time. Although I have never received an Oscar, I was given a Golden Globe and have been honored with the prestigious Golden Bear Award for Lifetime Achievement. In 2003 I was presented with the Eastman Kodak Archives Award for my contribution to film – preceded by honorees Greta Garbo, Jimmy Stewart, Audrey Hepburn, Martin Scorsese and Meryl Streep. At the height of my film career I decided to walk away from Hollywood – not wanting to fall prey to the tragic endings that often result when stars and sex symbols get lost in an identity crisis. I turned my back on a successful and lucrative career to define who I was and what I really wanted to give and get out of life. I moved to a cliffside dwelling along the wild coast of Big Sur, California with the purpose of creating a lifestyle in harmony with nature while combining it with my love of painting and writing poetry. I remember how pleased I was when one of my poems was made into a song and recorded by the Kingston Trio and Harry Belafonte. I married twice, first to a Shakespearean actor from England after we fell in love while filming “The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders,” and then again to my soul mate, equine veterinarian Robert Malloy. We now live with our dogs and horses in Southern Oregon. When not off riding in the hills and valleys, I am off painting the hills and valleys. My first dream has never changed. I feel so grateful for the perspective I gained while experiencing the art of “make believe” in Hollywood, and then returning to my first goal to refine my talent and paint my feeling. Over these years I have had the opportunity to study with many fine artists. I have been particularly blessed to receive the wisdom and influence of my two great and irreplaceable mentors, Harley Brown and Richard McKinley. Now I feel ready to share some of the results of these past years. My only limitations are the boundaries of my imagination. I hope always to be able to stretch my mind as I exercise my body so that I will can keep growing my dreams and expressing my fantasies. I’ve lived a long rich life, and the wonders of Nature have allowed my eyes to retain their innocence to experience things for the first time. There is so much of life that still touches me profoundly, and if I can touch someone else along the way, in my own way, I can’t imagine any better reward!”

Meltdown on Wall Street

Meltdown on Wall Street, Original Oil on Canvas, Painting by Kim Novak
Meltdown on Wall Street

 

Oil on Canvas

“I was born during the ‘Great Depression,’ which followed the biggest meltdown that Wall Street has ever known. It was the inspiration for my painting of a more recent meltdown on America’s Wall Street.

Many of my bittersweet memories begin with fantasies starting in a cast iron frying pan. I remember my mother sobbing as if our world was coming to an end – then I started sobbing because she was sobbing.  All our tears disappeared when my father appeared to turn a bowl of beer batter into jumping horses and dancing girls kicking up their heels in the sizzling pan of bubbling oil.  Besides his hotcakes, he would enrapture my sister and me with a magic show of coloring eggs. Dad would dip hard boiled eggs into an oil mixture of brilliant colors; swirling them up and down and round and round into a kaleidoscope of images that tickled my imagination. That’s how it all began – a bittersweet introduction to the wonderland of ART – it was the key that opened a door to the magical world of make believe, where I learned to see the light beyond the dark cloud hovering over our country’s ‘Great Depression’… it helped me to cope with my own form of dark cloud depression.”

~ Kim NovaK, Artist

 

Transformation – Nelson Mandela

"Transformation - Nelson Mandela" original painting of Nelson Mandela in pastel over watercolor by artist Kim Novak. Copyright 2014 Kim Novak. All rights reserved.
Transformation – Nelson Mandela

 

Pastel over Watercolor

The world has been amazed by Nelson Mandela’s power to bring people together, so when he died I wanted to create a painting to honor him. I tried showing his spirit transformed into a butterfly, with wings made up of his dream to form a Rainbow Coalition that included all races and all nations coming together in peace and harmony. I wanted the drips in my watercolor underpainting to represent the sweat and tears that were endured by himself and his people for their freedom.

I decided to add some miscellaneous creatures to accompany him on his journey as a gesture of his all-encompassing nature. He is about to lift off on a joyous adventure with his choir of voices singing in harmony as one!”

~ Kim NovaK, Artist