Columbus has its own Michelangelo. While she will never paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, she has painted murals for several local residents.
Kelly Brumm, an Ohio State University graduate student working toward her masters in art education, also runs a part-time business called K* Designs. It is a one-woman operation in which Brumm does custom art work for homeowners, businesses and just about anyone in need of artistic talent.
“I will do whatever people want,” Brumm said. “But I specialize in acrylic painting, either on canvas or large scale murals.”
While her business is only in its second year of operation, painting is something she has been practicing for a long time.
“I have been doing it free for my friends and family for years,” Brumm said. “I decided when I was really poor, during student teaching, I should just start charging people for my artistic talent.”
Most of her business comes by word of mouth. Brumm has established a program to drum up more work.
“I started this, what I call, art-on-loan program,” she said. “I will paint custom paintings for businesses to hang up for free. Then what I ask them to do is to hand out my business card if anyone likes them. They have to say, ‘An artist did these for us. Here is her card if you are interested.'”
In addition to graduate school and painting, Brumm is also a substitute teacher for the Columbus public schools and works as a server in the Ticketmaster.com Lounge, a restaurant located behind the Bluejackets’ penalty box in Nationwide Arena.
As a hockey fan, Brumm has incorporated the sport into some of her projects. A mural Brumm painted in the basement of Monica Simpson’s home personifies both her zeal for hockey and artistic ability.
“She did a huge mural on all the walls,” Simpson said. “She did a Blue Jackets theme, so when you are down in the basement it looks like you are standing on the ice. Everyone that comes downstairs to see it is just blown away. They are like, ‘Oh my gosh! Who did this?’ ”
After becoming a full-time art teacher, Brumm plans to continue her business.
“I think it is really important for an art teacher to be an artist, to be a practicing artist and to be able to show students you can make something of yourself by doing art,” Brumm said. “Even if I am not making money, I have made it a personal goal to hold one exhibition a year. I want to be able to tell my students, at least once a year, that there is a place they can go to see my art.”
Brumm spends many of her days substituting at Avondale Elementary, where Margaret Taylor, the school’s principal, is impressed with her work.
“She has done a great job here,” Taylor said. “She has a way of getting even the smallest of child to sit there and work on a project. We have some wonderful art displays that she has done with the students.”
Part of Brumm’s classroom success can be attributed to her previous experience with children.
“I have had her nanny for me,” Simpson said. “She watches my two children, and is constantly doing projects with them to see how they would work out in the classroom.”
Brumm’s mother, Susan, recalls that even as a child she was passionate about art.
“It is definitely a gift,” said Susan Brumm. “She has been in love with it probably before she could talk. From the time she could pick up a pencil or crayon she would always try to draw.”
If a picture is equivalent to a thousand words, Brumm obviously had trouble staying quiet as a child. As early as age three, it was evident she possessed artistic talent.
“We had just been to Florida, and she drew Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, and you could tell exactly who they were,” her mother said. “When we would go out to dinner, she would always like to draw the waiter or waitress a little picture.”
As a 1998 graduate of Upper Arlington High School and the recipient of a bachelor’s in art education degree from OSU, Brumm has always called Columbus home. Her mother credits the art program at Upper Arlington for nurturing Brumm’s development, but said Brumm was not immediately sold on OSU.
“When she was thinking about going to school, I think OSU was not really even one of her choices, because it was basically in our backyard,” she said. “She was offered a scholarship from the University of Cincinnati, but at the last minute she applied at OSU.”
Brumm painted an eight-panel mural, which hangs in the Tremont elementary school auditorium. The project kick-started her confidence in doing work for others.
While free time is a rarity for Brumm, she said many are surprised at how quickly she can do a project.
“A lot of people assume that it takes all night to do a painting,” she said. “But once I have the idea, it usually does not take me too long to represent it.”
Simpson was amazed at how quickly she did her basement.
“She can really whip things out quickly, and they look fantastic,” Simpson said.
With Brumm’s increasing success, her mother knows she can’t afford to wait to hire her daughter.
“I need to have her do something here before she gets out of my price range,” she said.
