About Kim Keelor
"My intention is to compel the mind and enliven the spirit
while supporting planet health and constructive mindsets."
Kim Keelor, Carolina Artworks
Artist Statement
My overarching goal as a multi-disciplinary visual artist is to compel the mind and enliven the spirit through work serving as meditations on nature, common journeys, and uncommon sights, while supporting planet health, constructive mindsets, and other creatives.
My artwork can be flat like a painting, 3-D, or it can be presented as a combination of forms arranged as an installation. My pieces are fiber-centric and are often created through the ancient process of wet felt making. By incorporating techniques like sculpting, random weaving, needle punching, and even found objects, I transform the fiber bases into unique assemblages that better express the atmosphere, idea, or moment I want to convey.
The scope and size of my work is expanding, as exemplified by a large-scale, climate emergency installation that is close to completion in my studio. It is created from foraged materials, industrial waste wool, and post-consumer plastic and represents our Center’s first large, collaborative installation.
My studio, Carolina Artworks, is in a small, non-profit facility called the Cowee School Arts and History Center located in the Appalachian mountain-town of Franklin, North Carolina which is where I reside. It is a supportive atmosphere where we work collaboratively to serve the largely low-income, rural community as one of the only arts-related venues. I serve as an instructor there, and in other locations in the Carolinas. I provide classes at other locations and for special or private events upon request.
Resume
Kim Keelor creates dynamic fiber and textile artwork that fuses ancient artistic techniques with modern innovations. Her creative process is deeply rooted in a commitment to stimulating thought and uplifting the spirit, while promoting environmental sustainability and encouraging positive mindsets.
Based in Franklin, North Carolina, Keelor serves as a resident and instructor at the Cowee School Arts & Heritage Center. She continues to teach and create in Charleston, South Carolina, where she previously lived. Since launching her professional career in 2020, Keelor’s work has appeared in more than twenty juried exhibitions. Her most recent achievements include Best of Show awards at the 2025 Cashiers-Highland Summer Colors Fine Arts juried show and the 2024 Palmetto Hands Fine Craft Annual Juried Exhibition. Her pieces have been exhibited or sold at The Bascom, Uptown Gallery, and the Fine Arts League of Cary gallery in North Carolina, as well as the Middleton Place Museum Shop, Charleston Artist Guild, and Preservation Society of Charleston in South Carolina. She has also shown work in Georgia.
Keelor is presently leading a collaborative, large-scale climate crisis art installation involving 13 western North Carolina and South Carolina artists. The installation is scheduled to debut on February 7, 2026, in Rabun Gap, Georgia.
Primarily self-taught and with a long-standing interest in painting, Keelor’s artistic practice became more deliberate in 2018. She expanded her skills across multiple mediums under the guidance of instructors at the John C. Campbell Folk School, Taos Art School, Redux Art Center, Gibbes Museum of Art, and the Southeastern Fiber Fair. The effort culminated in her transition to professional artist in 2022, with a distinct focus on multimedia fibers and the use of salvaged materials.
Keelor holds a Bachelor of Arts in journalism from Western Kentucky University and a Master of Science in Leadership Studies from The Citadel, where she also served as senior director of communications. She is a member of the Bascom, the Macon County Art Association, and the Art League of Highlands-Cashiers.
Exhibitions, grants, residencies
2025
– Best of Show award. Land, Water, Wind: Isle of Skye. Art League of Cashiers-Highlands Summer Colors Annual Fine Arts Exhibition, Sapphire, NC
– Artist Support Grant, NC Arts Council, 500
–Dry Falls V. Fiber Art: Embracing the Craft, Core Art Space, Denver
– Cooking is no profession for a woman: a tribute to Chef Nathalie Dupree. Cowee School Arts & Heritage Center, Franklin, NC (installation)
–Various works, Artist Instructor Show, The Bascom
2024
– Tawney, Bourgeois, O'Keeffe and the Hats of the Master Potter, The Bascom (installation)
– Best of Show award. Becoming Iron: Josephine and Betty, South Carolina Palmetto Hands Fine Craft Annual Juried Exhibition, North Charleston, SC
2023
– Land, Water, Wind: Isle of Skye, The Bascom Annual Member Show, juried, Highlands, NC
– Convergence: Land, Water Wind, Isle of Skye, South Carolina Palmetto Hands Fine Craft Annual Juried Exhibition, North Charleston, SC
– Land, Water, Wind: Isle of Skye, Palmetto Hands Fine Craft Annual Juried Exhibition, North Charleston, SC
– Grant, Artist Support Grant, NC Arts Council, 1,000
– Land, Water, Wind: Isle of Skye. Arts League of Cary Annual Juried Exhibition, Cary, NC
– Dr. Brown Knows, Summerville South Carolina Public Works Center Fiber Exhibition, Summerville, SC
– Resident Artist invitation and acceptance, Cowee School Arts & Heritage Center, Franklin, NC
2022
– First Place in category. Victory Garden Renewal, Southeast Animal Fiber Fair, Asheville, NC
– Victory Garden Renewal, Chattahoochee Weavers Guild annual juried exhibition juried, Dunwoody, GA
– Common Journeys, Charleston Artist Guild Exhibition, juried, Charleston, SC
2021
– Shem Creek Shrimper, Corkhouse Gallery, Small Works exhibition, juried, Savannah, GA
– Miniature Rainbow Row, Corkhouse Gallery, Small Works exhibition, juried, Savannah, GA
– Dr. Brown Knows, South Carolina Palmetto Hands Fine Craft Annual Juried Exhibition, North Charleston SC
– Abstruse Spaces, Redux Contemporary Art Exhibition, juried, Charleston, SC
– Carolina Reverb, Anderson Arts Center Fiber Exhibition, Juried, Anderson, SC
– Carolina Reverb, North Charleston Artist Guild Pop Up Juried Exhibition, North Charleston, SC
–Carolina Reverb, Anderson Arts Center, Anderson, SC
2020
– Window Box Colors, Blue Ridge Arts Center Annual Juried Exhibition, Seneca, SC
– Leveling the Bubbles, Redux Art Center Juried Exhibition, Charleston, SC
– Honorable Mention, Reaching up on Church Street, South Carolina Palmetto Fine Craft Art Annual Juried Exhibition
– Traveling Exhibition Award, Reaching up on Church Street, South Carolina Palmetto Fine Craft Annual Juried Exhibition
– Shem Creek Swinger, South Carolina Palmetto Fine Craft Annual Juried Exhibition
– Leveling the Bubbles, SIY Gallery, San Francisco, online/juried
– Mama K’s Table, Pickens County Museum of Art, and History Annual Juried Exhibition
