The In-Between Abstract Mixed Media painting on canvas Kim Depa Studio Southwest Michigan

This is where I write about the in-between the living through, the circling back the moments that don't have a clean name yet.

You're Not Lost. You're in the Middle of Something.

Most of life doesn't happen at the beginning or the end. It happens in the middle. In the part where you're not sure yet. Where you've left something behind but haven't arrived anywhere new. Where you're growing in a direction you can't quite see.

That's the in-between. And it's where I live — in my studio, in my work, in my life.

I paint intuitively. I don't start with a plan. I start with paint, and I react to what shows up. Layer by layer, something reveals itself that I couldn't have designed from the outside. That's not just a process — it's a philosophy. You can't force the real thing. You can only stay present and keep going.

This space is where I share what I'm learning while I'm still in the middle of learning it. Studio stories. The thinking behind the work. What it means to live with layers — in a painting and in a life.

No gallery-speak. No perfectly polished answers. Just honest dispatches from someone who is always, gratefully, somewhere in the middle of becoming.

The in-between isn't a waiting room. It's where the real work happens.

WHAT YOU'LL FIND HERE

Stories from the studio — the paintings, the process, the moments that started it all.

The thinking behind the four series — Fire,Within, Belonging, Bloom — and what it means to live inside each one.

Honest writing about the life in between: the hard seasons, the expansion, the circling back, and what art has to do with all of it.

Get the In-Between in your inbox- studio dispatches, new work, and honest writing about the layers we're all living through.

On Being in the Within Layer
The Within series is the one I struggle with most. Not because I don't understand it — I live here more than anywhere else. But because what lives in this... Read more...
What the Rain Sounds Like in the Studio
There are two kinds of rain days in the studio. The savage ones that call for oil sticks and urgent color. And the mist days that ask for tea, patience,... Read more...
What I've Learned from Living with My Own Paintings
The paintings keep changing. Not on the canvas — in me, and in the light, and in what I bring to them on any given day. Living with my own... Read more...
What I Actually Do When I Walk Into the Studio With Nothing
You don't see the canvas I stared at for twenty minutes before I touched it. You don't see the layer I hated so much I painted over it completely and... Read more...
The Difference Between Decorating and Collecting (And Why It Matters)
There's a piece of art in a lot of homes that nobody actually looks at anymore. It went up because the wall needed something, the colors worked, and it was... Read more...
Why I left marketing to paint
I had a marketing agency. I had built it. And somewhere along the way I started dreading the walk up to my office every morning. This is the honest story... Read more...
Coming Apart, Coming Together How this Painting Taught Me to Let Go
Coming Apart, Coming Together how it all started.  It started with texture. Not a vision. Not a feeling I was chasing. Just a question: what happens when ink pools and... Read more...
The Mad Scientist Version of Making Art Nobody Shows You
The Version of Art nobody talks about.  Let me tell you what you don't see on Instagram. You don't see the canvas I stared at for twenty minutes before I... Read more...