Love at first print

Kimberly Lavon finds her niche, opens East Lansing gallery space

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Printmaker Kimberly Lavon, featured on this week’s cover, is presenting an all-female exhibition at her gallery Friday for this month’s Arts Night Out event.
Courtesy Photo
Art has been part of Kimberly Lavon’s life from the moment she was born — well, even before that, actually.

“My parents met in art class,” she said. “I remember learning art just like learning English.”

Lavon, this week’s cover artist, owns and runs her own gallery/ workspace, Kimberly Lavon INK, in East Lansing. Friday, Lavon’s gallery hosts “#Fem2,” a group exhibition featuring seven female artists. The exhibit is part of Arts Night Out, the Arts Council of Greater Lansing’s traveling monthly art event.

“Some of these artists haven’t exhibited in years,” Lavon said. “I’m proud to offer a space for them to share their work.”

Lavon, 35, works primarily in fine art prints, but she didn’t pick up printmaking until college. Before that, she tried her hand at drawing and painting and even worked as an apprentice at a tattoo shop.

“Other artists told me that my art looked like printmaking,” she said. “I didn’t even know what that meant.”

She enrolled in a printmaking class at Kendall College of Art and Design and soon fell in love with the process.

“From the second I did it, from when I pulled my first print, I haven’t done anything else,” she said.

Even after years of printmaking, Lavon is still exploring new processes and methods.

“You can do things that are phenomenal,” she said. “It will never be boring to me.”

Some of Lavon’s most striking works, which feature skulls and skeletons, are inspired by Mexico’s Dia de los Muertos holiday. She is working on a series of prints that deal with social issues like the recent presidential election, the Dakota Access Pipeline and gun violence.

“If you shoot or stab someone, they can heal, and you can say you’re sorry, but they’ll never forget what happened,” she said. “People need to think about their actions.”

Arts Night Out

5 p.m. Friday, Dec. 2 FREE Downtown East Lansing (Call or see web for participating locations) (517) 372-4636, myartsnightout.com

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