When thinking of an archivist, one might imagine a bespectacled scholar in a musty basement, carefully rooting through dusty items from the past. But Kim Dixon, a Lexington artist who served as an archivist for the Smithsonian, describes her work with the museum’s Archives of American Art as anything but bland. She recounts with reverence working with important documents and items from the past that will help tell the story of who we are. One of her fondest memories was handling the papers of Leo Castelli, a famous 20th century Italian-American art dealer whose archives featured letters and promotional materials from artists like Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollack.
Dixon moved to Lexington 12 years ago, after her husband took an associate professor job with the University of Kentucky’s biochemistry department, and in recent years she has combined her love for history with other favorite pastimes into a fascinating artistic career, creating mixed media tapestries that echo and explore the painful truths of African American history. This month, four of Dixon’s pieces are on display at the Living Arts & Science Center as part of Reflections: African American Voices on the Past and Present, on display through Feb. 25. The exhibit marks Dixon’s first time showing her work in a gallery setting and was largely inspired by her work, though it also features five additional artists from the region whose work also highlights how both the past and the present shape contemporary African American life.
The subject matter of the exhibit is in line with a general artistic focus Dixon has taken in recent years – one she said stems from a multitude of sources, including her background in early American and African American history; her own family history, which includes ancestors who came to Ohio by way of the Underground Railroad; and a penchant for both visual art and for sewing, both of which she fostered at an early age.
Growing up in Wyoming, Ohio, a small town outside of Cincinnati, Dixon said artistic creation was a central part of her childhood.
“From the time I was physically able to hold a pencil, I created art in some capacity,” she said. As a kid, the hobby helped her stay occupied as an only child with two working parents. Over the years, fueled partially by her father’s love of history and a burgeoning fascination with her own family’s past, Dixon started incorporating historic motifs into her drawings, creating vignettes that captured ideas, emotions and small snippets of stories.
“Technically I was journaling,” she said. “[It was] a way of digesting difficult information.”
But after taking an AP art class in high school, she found herself burned out on visual art, and she stepped away from it for many years.
“It was like a door just closed on one part of my life, because how I defined myself no longer applied,” she said. “After junior year, I [didn’t] pick up a pencil or fill a sketchbook again until decades later in life.”
However, when one door closes, Dixon pointed out, another usually opens. She turned back to a skill that had been passed down through many generations in her family and one that her great-great Aunt Hat (Harriet) had introduced her to when she was much younger: sewing.
“I took a home economics class my senior year, and as one of my projects I made my graduation dress and a small lap quilt,” Dixon said. “I was hooked and never looked back. Through the years I picked up various classes, books and knowledgeable people who helped me develop my skills with needle and thread.”
After obtaining a master’s in American history from Miami University and working as an archivist with the Smithsonian as well as with the company History Associates, Inc., Dixon settled in Lexington with her husband, and their young family, which includes two children (Sebastian, 11, and Wilhemena, 6). Once her children reached school age, she experienced a renewed yearning for an outlet for her “creative mojo.”
She started with various arts and crafts projects, from holiday crafts to handmade baby onesies to a home decor project that included sketching historic vignettes – from an Art Deco-styled Adam and Eve to a drawing of the four little girls who died in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama – on an unfinished stool. That latter project helped crack open a vision for how these two longtime passions – art and history – could become entwined in a new vision, and Dixon started exploring new art forms and styles from there, particularly utilizing textile work.
“This Land Is Made From You and Me,” the work pictured here with artist Kim Dixon, is part of Dixon’s “This is America” series. The hand-sewn and embroidered tapestry show an African American man with welts on his back, bleeding into the colors of the American flag. Photo by Mick Jeffries
Today, as a quilt artist Dixon uses appliqué, piecing and hand embroidery to create colorful, intricate and textured artwork that often carries written messages along with the imagery. Keenly aware the past offers us not only painful lessons and reminders but also opportunities for healing, Dixon’s work illustrates stories about the past and present. Many of her pieces pack a punch, such as “Historiography,” a central piece in the Reflections exhibit. The quilted work shows the image of a white plantation family, standing along the moss oak-lined drive leading to their plantation, with their servants off to the side. The scene, while appearing somewhat calm and serene, is filled with unsettling hints of the turmoil the servants must have felt, while below them, a chaotic scene of brown bodies climb, claw and lift each other toward the surface.
Not only a statement about the terror and chaos on which much of the American South was built, the work also offers commentary on issues and controversies surrounding Black history that the education system faces today. Dixon often uses her work to shine a light on insensitive motifs used to depict the African American culture throughout history, as well her experiences as a Black woman today.
But as she explained, her messages are born with no malice.
“It may hurt – you may feel a sting when you first see it – but I only want to spread knowledge,” she explained. “I believe to examine these things, no matter how uncomfortable, takes away its power.”
“I hope to have a positive impact on people’s thought process and maybe change their perspective,” she added.
Dixon is eager to point out her choice of materials is deliberate.
“I work with fabric, quilting and embroidery – materials associated with gentleness and comfort,” she said. “They can be a perfect conduit to explore the painful and problematic American history of slavery and oppression as well as today’s continued societal challenges, in a way that promotes dialogue and healing.”
Dixon points out how our history connects us not only to our past but also to one another. Her own philosophy is to look at what divides us as a chance to heal both sides of any divide.
“I welcome it when my work starts a conversation,” she said. “When we talk, that’s when we learn.”
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“Historiography” by Kim Dixon. Photo by Mick Jeffries
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“This Land Is Made From You and Me” by Kim Dixon. Photo by Mick Jeffries
Smiley Pete writer, Celeste Lewis sat down with artist and archivist Kim Dixon to talk about her work.
Tell me about your most recent work and what you want the viewers to understand when they view your work. As I continue to develop as an artist, I’ve come to understand my work is not necessarily about pointing fingers at white Americans and saying, “you did this to me.” What I want people to understand is that we have suffered, Black and white. Not in similar ways, but racism has put a strain on all of us as a country. You have to think of the country as a body – if one segment of the body is not working properly, not reaching its potential, then the whole body suffers. That is what I ultimately want people to come away with when they see my work.
Honestly, I am not really sure where my most recent work came from. I think I thought of the trees of Oak Alley [a tree-lined drive leading to the plantation house on the Mississippi River in Natchez, Mississippi] and the stereotypical family that might have populated and maintained such a property. From there I thought about all the hundreds of people who made that life of leisure possible, and the broken dreams, spilled blood and hidden resentments that populated such a “pretty” picture of gentility. I call it “Historiography,” and it is meant to be a critique on the stories we tell ourselves, the lies we live and the willful delusions we insist on living by in order to preserve ourselves from momentary pain and embarrassment.
What and who are some of your inspirations? I take much of my inspiration from the artist Frida Kahlo. Her use of surrealistic symbolism has opened my eyes to vast possibilities. It fits well with my cartoonist style. I use a lot of symbolism in much of the work, and there is a surrealist element to all of my pieces. I also think artists like Jacob Lawrence had some influence on me as well. The way he constructs his people and how he pulls his images of Black life together has had a great influence on me.
Tell me about being an archivist with the Smithsonian. What did that experience teach you? What is a favorite archivist memory? I consider being an archivist with the Smithsonian as some of the best years in my professional life. As a child, it was my dream to work for the American History museum as a curator or collections manager – just as long as I could work behind the scenes it really didn’t matter what my position entailed. Even though American History was not where I ended up, I could not have asked for better experiences working for the Archives of American Art and the Anacostia Community Museum.
One of my best memories was working with the Leo Castelli Gallery Papers while at Archives of American Art. The entire collection was littered with correspondence, photographs, and promotional materials from some of the most famous artists of the 20th century – artists including Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Roy Raushenberg, Jackson Pollock and Lee Bontecou. To be surrounded by so much influential history was staggering – it truly was a joy to go into work, almost every day.
It sounds like this is a busy time for your family, with young children. How do you balance that with your creative work? As far as juggling home, work and programs with the kids’ schools, I think I face the same problems as any other woman has faced in the modern era. I am sure some would say I could handle things better, but when are any of us not in need of improvement from time to time? I tend to do my artwork in the mornings while I drink coffee and listen to my favorite podcast. If I have errands to run, that happens in the afternoon before I pick up my daughter from school. Sometimes I’m able to squeeze in a little more working time before I have to pick up my son from school. At night, when the kids are asleep, I like to read or work on hobby projects, which also usually involve sewing.
I have been very involved in the past in SBDM [School-Based Decision Making Council] and the PTA [Parent-Teacher Association] but decided to take a hiatus for the year. After COVID and having the kids at home for almost an entire year, it made finding time for work very difficult. I am sure everyone with children experienced the same thing. I knew I was at a critical point in my budding new career that something had to give for a time. It does not mean I will not go back. On the contrary, I have every intention of playing a very active role in my children’s school careers. I’m their parent, and it’s my job to be their advocate.
Kim Dixon’s work “Historiography” depicts the the chaos, terror and complex emotions that existed both under the surface and alongside the seemingly serene and orderly plantation homes during the antebellum years of the American South. Photo by Mick Jeffries
What is a favorite spot in Lexington? That would have to be the city libraries. Not only are they an integral part in the process of me producing my artwork, but before the pandemic they were extremely important to me as a stay-at-home mom – the children’s programs [especially during the summer] were absolutely invaluable to me. Not only did they provide free fun programming for the kids, but it kept their interest, and they would look forward to the next program. In fact, it was not unheard of for us to hit up two to three different branches in a day in order to take advantage of the various programs they offered. It is what I miss most since the pandemic.
What’s next for you in 2022? I want to keep working toward producing more pieces. I have several ideas [some more fleshed out than others], and I hope to continue developing my professional network. I’m very excited about the upcoming exhibition and working with the Living Arts and Science Center through some of their extracurricular school programming. I think it promises to be a very interesting year!