Kevin Gilmore ’99 is an instructor in URI’s Department of Art and Art History. He calls this self-portrait “a glimpse into my process—a collage, a stage, a cycle.”

Gilmore says, “The seated figure next to the books (including my URI undergrad art history book) is the thinker, seer, listener, critic. The middle figure is the visual artist and professor—the studio stool is commonly used to teach positive/negative space. The crouched figure is the sound-maker, the performer.”

“My role as a teacher is to help each student discover their own creative voice and find ways to link it to real-world situations.”
—Kevin Gilmore ’99

“My role as a teacher,” Gilmore says, “is to help each student discover their own creative voice and find ways to link it to real-world situations.” At URI, his classes are filled with students from various disciplines, which, he says, “challenges me to learn about each student and change my approach to help each one find their artistic voice.”

Gilmore, who embraces the label of interdisciplinary artist, works in a variety of media, including paint, pencil, camera, and sound. Doing so, he says, allows him to change his medium to best suit his message. While painting has long been his primary medium, he says a paintbrush can also inspire him to tap on the canvas or drop the brush on the floor to explore the brush’s resonant sound, and listen to the colors on the canvas.

“Seeing a brush for just a brush makes me a painter,” Gilmore says. “Finding 100 other ways to use it makes me an artist.” •

—Barbara Caron