606 State Street Art Gallery
BIOGRAPHY
KAYLYNN S. WILSTER
Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma. In walking through my new gallery home, 606 State Street, Bristol, Tennessee, and reading my fellow artists’ biographies, I realize that it all must have begun there for me. As a young child, this museum was walking distance from our home and my older sister and I went there often. I loved all the beautiful artwork that was on exhibit at the time.
Later, my first camera was my mother’s Brownie Hawkeye, and I began just capturing memories; and so it was for a very long time. When my first child was born I discovered 35mm photography and “never looked back”. I was amazed at the quality, especially compared to my little Instamatics.
I received my first state of the art Canon camera when my family and I left the Dallas Metroplex to move to Jonesborough, Tennessee. The year round beauty and grandeur of Upper Northeast Tennessee, the Appalachian Mountains, and Western North Carolina were and remain almost overwhelming to me.
Around 1984 I joined a photography club and attended classes at the Johnson City Vocational School. In 1986 I was asked to teach the basic and advanced classes. It was at this point that the journey really began. As I prepared to teach, I realized I did not know nearly enough about photography. So I intensified my research and shot lots of film. This led to the realization of what my camera and I could do with my passion for the outdoors—which remains my major subject to this day.
Along the way, I was blessed to become aware of an amazing photographer, Galen Rowell. I attended a workshop in the Smokies with him in April of 1995. His philosophy concerning the honesty of photography and his desire to capture with the camera, not the darkroom and later the computer, influences my work to this day.
Soon I was also teaching private lessons and found myself completely in love with the photographic process.
And now, years later, I find myself at the 606 State Street Gallery, another beautiful place to be!
Accomplishments include:
Exhibit s at Jonesborough Visitors Center, Jonesborough, TN
Three time winner of the People’s Choice Award at the Appalachian Fair (Photography Club Booth) and other awards associated with in-club competitions.
Awards at the Knoxville Fair, Tennessee
First place award in the PSI (software company for veterinarians) Cats Only Class
Publication of one photograph in the Black Mountain Conservancy Magazine
