About

Kerry Hirth was born in the Midwest and currently lives and works near Columbia, Missouri. For the past twelve years, her work has explored the translation of music to visual art.
 
Her work has been presented in gallery exhibitions nationally and internationally, as well as closer to home, where she is represented by Hilliard Gallery in Kansas City.  She collaborates with musicians, with some noteworthy past projects such as a live demonstration with the Missouri Symphony Society orchestra; a curated program at Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago on the relationship between improvisational jazz and the visual arts; creating an artwork for the Mugellini Festival in Macerata, Italy; collaboration with new music written by composer James Funkhouser at Baker University, Kansas; creating backdrops for a recital by faculty at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Kerry is a recipient of an artist fellowship from the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center in Nebraska (2012). She was a member artist of ARC Gallery and Educational Foundation-Chicago for six years (2010-2016). 

Kerry's approach to music and visual art has been shaped by her unique academic background – She received a BA in Philosophy with minor in music performance in 1994 from the University of Missouri-Columbia. During that time, she did archaeological illustrations of Mayan artifacts on site in Belize for the University of Texas-Austin and performed at the Aspen Music Festival for two seasons. She received an MA in Philosophy from the University of Colorado-Boulder in 1998, subsequently graduated from law school at the University of Missouri-Columbia, working as an attorney in public interest law for eight years in Missouri and Illinois, She received an AAS in Computer Networking from Moberly Area Community College. Her experiences with professional music performance and the study of analytic philosophy contribute significantly to her approach to time and place in her work. 

In addition to exhibitions and collaborations, Kerry has done numerous private, public, and corporate commissioned artworks. She created a painting for permanent installation in the atrium of the University of Missouri's Bond Life Sciences Center in 2019. 

Kerry works full-time as an artist in her studio "Mount Erebus Workshop" adjacent to her home, where she lives with her husband Andy Hirth and animal companion, Reyna. She participates in her local community of artists including the Columbia Art League and Mid Missouri Arts Alliance. 

Learn About How I Paint Music