Kim Stringfellow

Biography

Stringfellow received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Academy of Art College in San Francisco in 1988. She graduated with distinction and appreciation.

A collection of her photographs entitled Photographic Constructions, was displayed at the Morphos Gallery in San Francisco in 1994. The collection explored personal narratives and addressed spirituality and feminist issues through art history. In the year 2000, Stringfellow received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

The next year, she became an assistant professor at San Diego State's School of Art, Design, and Art History. In addition, Stringfellow took part in Salmoncity.net, a web-based piece of art commissioned by the Seattle Arts Commission in response to the ESA listing of the Puget Sound Chinook salmon as regionally threatened.

Safe as Mother's Milk is a multimedia project that examines the history of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. It was commissioned by Adrian Van Egmond for the Cornish College of the Arts Art + Activism Visiting Artist series in 2002.

Greetings from the Salton Sea' is a project created by Stringfellow, including photography by her and documenting the history of the Salton Sea, California's largest inland body of water. It consists of a book, exhibition, and website. The artist and the book were both featured on KPBS to commemorate the sea's centennial. The book, Folly and Intervention in the Southern California Landscape, 1905-2005, was first published in 2005 by the Center for American Places. The book's publication was in part funded by a loan from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. The website features photographs, a history of Salton Sea, an artist statement, a list of the artist's resources, and an interactive map of the area around the Salton Sea. It calls attention to the issue of whether or not it is artificial and suggests possible solutions to the ecological and socioeconomic issues surrounding Salton Sea.

invisible-5 is an art project created by Stringfellow, Amy Balkin, and Tim Halbur which uses the methods of a self-guided art gallery tour to provide a self-guided tour of the portion of Interstate 5 between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Balkin and Stringfellow launched it in 2006. On October 13 of that year, NPR's Bay Area affiliate KQED featured invisible-5 on its show The California Report. Its goal is make people who "create a romantic California" by "mentally blotting out" the parts which don't conform to that ideal take the time to see the places they usually ignore.

The following year, Stringfellow rose to become an associate professor with tenure at San Diego State University.

Jackrabbit Homestead is a multimedia project created by Stringfellow. It consists of a book, downloadable audio tour and website. It examines the legacy of the Small Tract Act of 1938 in the Morongo Basin. It was made possible by a grant from the California Council for the Humanities, and was featured in the Desert Sun on August 1, 2009. The book, Jackrabbit Homestead: Tracing the Small Tract Act in the Southern California Landscape, 1938-2008, was published in December 2009 by the Center for American Places. It includes photography and writing by Stringfellow as well as historical illustration. The website includes a brief description of the project, news about the project, and multimedia including Stringfellow's photography and the audio tour.

Stringfellow was part of the art department of University of Nevada Las Vegas' visiting lecturer series in 2009. In October of that same year, Stringfellow spoke about her photography at the Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She also released her second book Jackrabbit Homestead: Tracing the Small Tract Act in the Southern California Landscape, 1938-2008 in December of that year.

Books

Websites

The Charmed Horizon

"The Charmed Horizon" was selected as Best Art-Related Site at the 2nd Annual South by Southwest Interactive Web Competition and was featured as part of the Seventh New York Digital Salon at the School of Visual Arts. During this same year, it was chosen as the Best-Art related site at the 2nd Annual South by Southwest Interactive Web Competition. The project was inspired by excerpts from the 19th century French writer, Lautreamont's Les Chants de Maldoror. The project's purpose was to examine human desire and other emotive issues.