About the Artist
Art always went hand in hand with fashion. Pamela Kirton was interested in design from an early age, enamored with the dresses she saw in journals like Women’s Wear Daily. Illustration became a way for her to express her ideas, and her talent was almost immediately apparent. By the time she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 14, Kirton was already working as an illustrator for local boutiques in Minneapolis, sketching clothes that were on sale.
“This was back in the early ‘70s, before they used photography. It was still a line art and ink wash kind of thing,” she says. “I had taken a commercial art class in high school, and the teachers were professional artists. They put me in touch with big firms like JCPenney, and I suddenly had work in every Sunday paper.”
Kirton entered the fashion design program at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, but she soon realized that while she loved sketching dresses, she was not drawn to the rest of the design process.
“I hated sewing. I was interested in the drawing, and then I was done,” she says. “I really loved working in ink. The sketch-like quality of it, the quickness and fluidity in creating these elongated figures. And anyway ink is what the newspaper work required at the time.”
Kirton switched to general illustration during her junior year, just before she began studying abroad in London. She was still interested in fashion, but it was an interesting time to arrive in England.
“Punk had become the trend,” she says. “We were so busy pursuing elegance, and then we came over and here was this grunge, taking it all apart. It took me a long time to find the fun in that.”
She still visited home while living abroad, and it was during one these return trips that Kirton met Dr. Priscilla Hollander, a researcher with the original Diabetes Control and Complications Trial/Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions and Complications (DCCT/EDIC) study. After chatting about diabetes, Kirton agreed to take part in the study and continues to be an EDIC participant to this day.
Kirton continued to work while she was in London, but her industry was in flux as fashion catalogs made the switch to photography. By the time she got back to Minneapolis, a career in fashion illustration was virtually impossible, so she began looking for other projects.
On the Cover: Pine Grosbeak
During her time in London, Kirton worked with Marion Jones, an illustrator with Singer Sewing Books, produced by the popular sewing machine company. These books included highly detailed, color illustrations of available patterns and the techniques for creating different garments.
“I spent a week with Marion, going through her process,” Kirton says. “It couldn’t have been better for me, to study with someone who was such a master.”
Many years later, back in Minneapolis, Kirton had accumulated her own collection of textiles. She was watching the birds out her window when she thought of the perfect way to put those patterns to use.
“I was back in school, learning the digital side of illustration, and we were in the middle of a very cold, bitter winter,” she says. “Some birds stayed, putting up with the wind and the temperatures below zero. I decided I was going to honor them. To make them really flamboyant and lovely, like they’d hatched from a Fabergé egg.”
Kirton’s birds are sketched in ink, and then she applies embroideries and patterns digitally. From a distance, the birds in these illustrations appear realistic, their unique plumage only evident at second glance. Pine Grosbeak is a part of her first series of 12 birds local to Minnesota.
In addition to her prints, lately Kirton has been experimenting with illustrating directly on clothing. Through a process she calls “Kirtonized,” she aims to create wearable high art.
Kirton’s work has been featured in exhibits, including the Bakken Museum Connections show in Minneapolis, and has won several awards, including the St. Paul Art Collective Fall Media Award. This summer, her work is on display at the Minnesota Zoo as well as the Como Zoo Conservatory in St. Paul. Kirton also does regular pro bono work for organizations like Children’s Cancer Fund, Children’s Minnesota Hospital, and the American Diabetes Association. More samples of her work can be found on her website, pamelakirton.com.
