Reinventing Yourself at 68 with Artist, Illustrator, and Designer, Kimberly McSparran

Seated on her living room couch with two of the six dogs she’s rescued in her lifetime, Southampton based artist, Kimberly McSparran, chronicled her life for me– and what a life it’s been. While the sun worked its way inside her home and nestled in with us, McSparran began her story in Augsberg, Germany where she was born and her father was stationed as a captain in the Army Air Force. At the age of three they moved to America and McSparran spent most of her childhood in the hills of Pennsylvania, and attended highschool in Allentown, PA. She went on to study fashion at the University of Vermont but her creative life began far earlier than college. She recalled visiting Southampton for the first time at the age of 7, where she wore a bathing suit that she made for herself to enjoy the dunes and watersedge of Lake Agawam.

Eventually, after being encouraged by her professors at UVM to attend a more advanced arts program, McSparran transferred to Syracuse University where she was able to study at the St. Martins College of Art in London, England through a study abroad program. In London she spent time studying textile designer William Morris and painter Sir Edward Burne-Jones. Burne-Jones and Morris remain the catalyst for her evolution as an artist.

Moving back to New York and finishing her degree, McSparran was determined to be a children’s book illustrator. Fate will have it that in trying to become an illustrator, she would become one of five international designers chosen to work for Yamazaki, one of the largest leading flatware brands in the world. McSparran’s designs would become a bestseller on bridal registries across the country and thus catapulting her into the hands of the tableware moguls.  I laughed when McSparran had said during our interview, “I fell into the tabletop industry,” for it was clear to me, just as it was to her university professors, that McSparran’s artistic talent spanned across a multitude of mediums– something that isn’t common and set McSparran and her work apart from the very beginning. Working for most of her career at various international flatware companies, as well as, Spiegelau, one of the top crystal manufacturers in the world, she learned glass production and spent her career learning new techniques. In 2008, the tabletop industry took a hit, like most industries did, and during the Covid-19 Pandemic, the industry changed completely. McSparran took the opportunity to pivot and is spending her time re-introducing herself into the arts community on the east end. McSparran said frankly, “I’m reinventing myself at 68!”

Kimberly McSparran purchased her home here in Southampton in 1991 and considers her whole home to be her studio. McSparran was kind enough to show me her painting room, a quaint sun filled study on the second story, with dog beds lining the floors. At the center of the room sits her drafting table and paint brushes, strewn with the beginnings of textile designs and portraits. Right now, McSparran is focusing her energy on portraits of dogs done in oil paint and surface pattern designs for textile and wall coverings. Her website, KimberlyMcSparran.com, showcases many bodies of work including her study on five of the Hamptons’ most historic golf courses. Her toile golf course designs are something I believe to be so quintessentially “the Hamptons” and how I originally found McSparran.

In addressing the universal feelings commonly coined as Imposter Syndrome during our interview, McSparran said, “I don’t particularly think that an illustrator is anything less than a fine artist. I think that an artist is an artist, whether you make your money commercially or you sell to collectors.” That statement remained poignant for me throughout our time together as a paramount reminder for all people, artist or otherwise, to stand in constant pursuit of your dreams regardless of what stage of life you find yourself in.

McSparran will begin teaching painting classes at the Southampton Arts Center this April. Her work can be viewed online and details on commissioning paintings or custom wall coverings and fabrics is available through her website.