Press Release April 5, 2006

It’s not unusual for a working adult to take classes at a community college after 10-plus years in the working adult, career-oriented environment.

What is unusual is when a student finds herself on a totally unrelated new career path, on her way to a Master in Fine Arts program upon completion of her certificate program. But Evergreen Valley College student Kira Williams will do just that this fall, embarking on yet another career when she begins the three-year jewelry/metal arts program at San Diego State University, one of the top ten metalsmithing and jewelry design programs in the United States.

“This is the first time I’ve heard of a student going right into a master’s program after attending a community college,” says Jack da Silva, professor of 3-D Arts at Evergreen Valley College, and one of Kira’s biggest admirers. “And to think Kira will be starting that program with no upper division art classes in her background is extraordinary and says a great deal about her talent and focus.”

Kira doesn’t exactly look the part of a person who wields hammers and blowtorches for a living. But the petite redhead with a quick smile is as comfortable with the tools and machinery in the 3-D Arts lab as most people are around a kitchen. She confidently explains what each apparatus is in the room, at ease in demonstrating how to use the sand blaster, saws and blowtorches as if she were showing how to use a pizza cutter. She points out a wall of needle-nosed pliers and other metalworking tools and explains what each is and in what situations one would use each tool.

She is a natural teacher, and that’s what she will be doing at SDSU and after she earns her MFA. SDSU saw so much promise in Kira’s application and portfolio that she is receiving both tuition assistance and a teaching stipend to help her concentrate on her studies.

n another twist, where did all of that ability get Kira? Into a high-tech career, first with Applied Materials and later, Adobe Systems. Looking back now, while the money was great, Kira describes it as “soul-sucking work.” While at Adobe, Kira took art classes at night, and eventually found herself in the 3-D Art lab at EVC in August 2004.

She had found herself again—she was hooked on the challenges and rewards of metal art, and started taking as many classes as she possibly could at EVC. While in the metal fabrications class, Kira has been told she would make a wonderful teacher, and that set her on a course to her true job calling. While many artists want to own a gallery or supply pieces to a gallery for their own show (which is something Kira is already doing as an invited artist at the Maccchiarini Creative Design & Metalworks Gallery at 1453 Grant Avenue in San Francisco), Kira wants to teach metalworking and jewelry arts to a whole new generation, and to people who just want to rediscover the artist within each of us. “It’s so inspirational when you help a student find something special in an area that you already love,” says Kira.

Kira will be a very busy person once she begins her coursework at SDSU. In her first year of the program, she will take some upper-division studio art classes that are missing from her educational background. This will include all types of art—painting, drawing, and other 3-D arts. She will also function as a graduate assistant, managing a group of undergraduate teaching assistants.

In her second year, Kira will begin to teach all types of studio art classes, and this is the beginning of her student teaching component. She will also have her own coursework to handle.

Finally, in her third year, Kira will be able to teach her beloved metal arts classes.

So what is Kira’s work all about? It’s best if she explains it in her own words, from her graduate school application:

“Coming from a background in Psychology and Sociology, I am fascinated by the inner workings of the mind. Within my art, I try to expose and manifest images that beg questions and yearn for answers. I breathe life into my artwork, with an idea for materials and a rough sketch of the concept; the art then takes on a life of its own. The process, for me, is a subconscious and cathartic journey.

“Mundane objects and their place in our lives have always provided me with an inquisitive pleasure. I often use found or obscure objects (screws, teeth, hair, lenses, rulers, scrap steel) to magnify an idea, as well as to help ground the art work as a visual unification of our daily experience. What results is a biomechanical feel, blending industrial and organic elements together producing what, to me, is a symbiotic marriage. The elements and techniques of the construction ultimately render a quality of deconstruction.

“I believe we all have an instinctive awareness of the correlation between memory and forgetting, thought and deed, pleasure and contempt. We too are aware, unconsciously or otherwise, that every fragment of life follows a counted measure with a number ascribed to every known element. These ideas and images help to facilitate my art and are depicted repeatedly within my work.”

Kira is a perfect example of the value of the many certificate programs at both San José City and Evergreen Valley Colleges. She used the coursework to discover something that she was detoured from—a career creating stunning metal art and giving back to future generations of artists by coming back to the educational community as a teacher!

Good luck in your future endeavors, Kira. The San José/Evergreen Community College District is proud of you and your accomplishments!