Local Artist Set To Host

Gallery Opening At Hydrangea Blue

Kim Hossler has been busy planning a gallery show to display her recent drawings and paintings at Hydrangea Blue, on South Main Street in Newtown.  Hydrangea Blue is becoming well known for their children’s birthday parties, classes, and evening events. Now it will also be hosting gallery level art exhibitions.

Ms Hossler’s intricate drawing and painting style results in images that are interesting at first glance, and are fantastically detailed and layered upon further study.  Her careers as a graphic designer, artist and art teacher bring together diverse but synergistic talents. The owner of Hydrangea Blue, Wendy Cole, became immediately interested in Kim’s artwork while planning Kim’s daughter’s birthday party.  The two began to plan a gallery show to exhibit Ms Hossler’s artwork, which will also promote Hydrangea Blue’s unique event space.

An opening reception will be hosted at Hydrangea Blue, at 115 South Main Street, from 7 to 10 pm. The exhibit will remain on display until September 14.

Kim Hossler has been an artist as long as she can remember. She spent countless hours as a child drawing at the kitchen table, which led to taking art classes from a neighborhood artist.

Ms Hossler continued her drawing and painting, and she found an outlet for her creativity by studying for a career in graphic design at Penn State University. After graduation, her graphic design career began mostly with corporate communication, designing annual reports for Fortune 500 companies like Reebok, Bausch & Lomb, and Champion Paper. She continued to work with well-known and interesting clients in designing books for MTV and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

After several years in the business world, Ms Hossler decided to return to school to become an art teacher. She worked for several years in the Wilton public schools teaching art to elementary and middle school classes. With the birth of her daughter, Ms Hossler scaled back her teaching to part-time in the classroom, and full-time as a mom. As she read to her daughter the favorite books from her childhood and some of the best current selections, Ms Hossler began drawing pictures inspired by the words and art in these stories.

What started out as presents for her daughter and decorations for her room has grown into a business that Ms Hossler and her husband Michael have developed. Their business, Homegrown Arts, has begun marketing Ms Hossler’s artwork as prints, educational toys and books. Their first product was a set of alliterative alphabet cards that include witty, alliterative phrases with creative illustrations. She has sold a number of her prints to decorate children’s rooms and even some local businesses.  Mocha in Sandy Hook recently commissioned Ms Hossler to create the frog prints currently adorning the walls of the Glen Road coffee shop.

The gallery show at Hydrangea Blue will display much of Ms Hossler’s recent drawings and paintings. Highlights will include children’s room decorative prints including artwork inspired by Alice in Wonderland, antique toys, frogs, cats, and original animal characters.