John Killmaster, 91-year-old artist and former professor of art, touches the lives of everyone he meets through his art, his story and his humor.
While Killmaster works with a variety of mediums, enameling is what he is most known for. This September, a large collection of Killmaster’s works are being featured at Idaho Art Gallery for a retrospective exhibition.
“It’s an honor to be exhibiting John Killmaster,” said Nelli Garibyan, owner and curator at Idaho Art Gallery.
Killmaster started his journey at Boise State in August of 1970, but his story began much earlier. At 14, Killmaster began to seriously pursue art after a trip to Thunder Bay inspired him to start watercolor painting. His work has since been exhibited internationally and displayed in places such as Australia, Germany, Japan and in a variety of museums and galleries like the Smithsonian, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Denver Art Museum.
At 35, Killmaster accepted a position at the university before receiving another offer from a university in Colorado.
“I said ‘I just took a job at Boise State,’ and he said ‘the fishing is better there,’” Killmaster recalls. “So that was it — and I packed up my VW bus . . . and drove 2,000 miles from Michigan.”
After making the long trip to Boise, Killmaster made his bed in the back of his Volkswagen bus and started exploring the city.
Killmaster later started Boise State’s illustration program, working with around 1,000 students through mentoring and teaching them in classes like design, printmaking and enameling.
“[Teaching] was the only thing I could really do, the only thing I wanted to do and the only thing I was equipped to do,” Killmaster said. “I am an artist and nothing else.”
The exhibition mainly features abstract works, representational works and enameling.
Killmaster’s exhibition is available to view at Idaho Art Gallery in Meridian until the end of September.
“Talking to people in the community about him is so easy because so many people know who he is,” Garibyan said. “He’s a legend, so everyone wants to hear about it.”
Many paintings in the exhibition feature different nature scenes like the Owyhee Mountains, the Owyhee River and the Sawtooth Mountains.
Killmaster’s nature paintings stem from his interest in preservation and utilize a range of unique techniques.
“I’m interested in pioneering, coming up with new ways of doing things — even with paint. So I use a comb a whole lot to texture the surface,” Killmaster said.
His enamel pieces are the highlight of the exhibition, but he feels excited to show a range of different works that he has created throughout different periods of his life.
“I’m really, really honored to be shown in this nice space … I’m just hoping people will be really excited about me coming again out of obscurity for a while,” Killmaster said.
Grace Page, gallery director at Idaho Art Gallery, moved to Boise after graduating from University of Utah to pursue art where she eventually met Killmaster during the preparation leading up to his exhibition.
“Once I moved here and I started getting immersed in the art world, I heard of this ephemeral being – John Killmaster, and he really is that.” Page said. “He was funny, and we got along really great. As someone who cares about the arts, I just wanted to learn more about him.”
When Killmaster learned that Page had a background in the arts, he invited her to his studio with eagerness to share his knowledge and art.
“He sat down in a chair and he was like, ‘ask me any question you want,’” Page said. “He was so excited to share and so excited to tell people about what he knows and what he cares about.”
Page has returned weekly since, learning enameling from Killmaster
“When I met John, I didn’t know much about [enameling],” Page said. “But with enameling, it kind of breaks the door open… I love learning from people who know everything and are really passionate about something.”
Alisa Looney, friend and former student of Killmaster, first met him in a freshman drawing class.
“I took him every semester at Boise State,” Looney said. “He was just really kind, and easygoing and funny – it was always a joy to be in his class. The way he taught was really the important part. He really saw something in me, and he really pushed me.”
Years after graduating, Looney reached out to Killmaster in 2009 to ask him to mentor her in enameling.
“I had done enameling in high school … but nothing like the type of industrial approaches he had,” Looney said.
After Killmaster agreed to mentor Looney in enameling, she travelled to Boise and spent a week visiting Killmaster’s property in Middleton every day, learning his unique enameling processes.
Their mentorship eventually grew into a larger project. Looney helped Killmaster create and publish “Killmaster – Art and Soul,” an illustrated biography documenting his career and work.
“I was really honored that he wanted my help,” Looney said.
They worked together on the book remotely between Portland and Middleton.
“We would spend hours on the phone. He would be looking at his camera, looking at the images. And I would look on the computer and I would take notes. He would tell me all about how he made [the art], where he was … and who has the piece now,” Looney said. “And I felt so lucky to get to listen to all that.”
The project involved reviewing roughly 8,000 pieces of art to incorporate into the biography. Looney did book design and curation while Killmaster and Christopher R. Schnoor worked together on writing the book that was eventually published on Nov. 14, 2017.
Looney was elated to visit Boise to see Killmaster’s exhibition at Idaho Art Gallery.
“I’ve been to other exhibitions of his and every time it’s magical because it has both his paintings and his enameling. He’s proficient and just so talented in everything he touches,” said Looney. “He’s a gem, and he is absolutely one of the most talented artists I’ve ever known . . . and the most influential [artist] in my life. I feel so blessed to have been in his orbit.”
