Welcome to Sunshine Sisters, an interview segment featuring the women making an impact in St. Petersburg today. I'm Karen Carmichael. My guest today is Kim Doman. Kim is the CEO of Creative Clay, an art center advocating and supporting artists with disabilities. Kim, how are you today? I'm great. Thank you.

Thank you for having me. So tell us a little bit about where you grew up. Well, I spent the first six years of my life and every summer of my childhood in beautiful Tarpon Springs. , and from first to third grade I lived in Charleston, South Carolina, also a beautiful, beautiful city, and then to Austin, Minnesota After that, um, it's about two hours south of the Twin Cities.

And, , each summer, , when I'd fly back to Tarpon Springs, I remember the joy of looking down over the Tampa Bay. And remember, it always moved me so much returning home to this place I love so much. And it's really all about. Big water. I think. Um, we had a, when we moved to Minnesota, we, we lived on the Red Cedar River and that first winter I learned to ice skate on our frozen river behind us.

But guess what? That was not anything compared to the water of our area here. So, well, what inspired you to get involved in St. Petersburg? Well, as a kid, we'd take trips to the Dali and great explorations and sunken gardens, go down to the pier. And I had all these fond memories of childhood, St.

Petersburg. I always thought it was a beautiful city, but one of the reasons I returned was because of the blossoming art scene here. , my wife, Barbara, and I moved here in 2007. And, , she got a visitorship to Stetson, , to, , teach law there. And I, I just remember driving down Central Avenue thinking, wow, you know, this is great.

This is, this is exactly the kind of town we wanna be in. And of course, I knew St. Pete from my childhood, but it had already started to really transform into, into something really wonderful. And, as an artist, this being an arts town is, is so important to me. In fact, the, when we first moved here, like two weeks after we moved here, I was driving down Central Avenue and I found Creative Clay and I said, oh, wonder what that is?

So, walked in and, , just fell in love with the place and decided, I was, I was gonna volunteer. You know, as you said, , creative Clay , is an art center for people with developmental disabilities and, the folk art that's on the walls was just like, really, really moved me. And, shortly after I started volunteering, I, , I asked for a job and they were like, come on board.

So I've been there ever since I was 18 years ago. And, . I really, really love my work, so, wow. So 18 years, that's some tenure , in one place. You don't hear, you don't hear that often, right? Right. Yeah. You stay someplace for that long. So as the CEO now of Creative Clay, what does a typical day look like for you?

Well, that's one thing that I really love being an artist, is maybe a little bit of a DHD going on. There is never a day that looks the same, and I can honestly say in 18 years, I don't think one day. Has ever looked the same. And that's exciting to me. , I might be, giving a tour or, having a meeting, working on a development plan, and even get to do a little bit of marketing and design work, which, you know, isn't the typical thing for A CEO.

But it's really something that, , brings me joy , and I like doing it. So I feel like when you work with a nonprofit though, you wear a lot of different hats regardless of what your title is. Isn't that true? It is. It is. And over the years it's like, oh, this person leaves and oh, well, who's gonna do that job and take their hats?

And so everybody passes, okay, I'll take this hat, I'll take this hat. You know? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And, and over time, sometimes those hats kind of get tall and, , you have to be smart, you know, and about. The things that you need to keep like that. That's been my kind of thing as I've gotten older, is which hats am I not going to be able to let go of and mm-hmm.

Some of that design work has been, has been one of the things, but I, I'm working on letting go of some of that too, because I think, I think it's important for growth that, you know, we get a little new fresh look once in a while, you know? So 18 years is a long time to, you know, to know about St. Petersburg.

Right. What do you see as the biggest challenge for 2025 and moving forward? I guess, I think for me, even, you know, I did live in St. Petersburg in 96, 97, right downtown. Um, and I remember the feel of it then, and I remember the feel of it when we moved here in 2007. And I guess my only thing that I see now, and Barbara and I talk about this, is the, the loss of, well, the beginning of the loss of that real small town feel.

, I still love St. Pete. Um, we won't talk about the traffic, but, um, yeah, I, I think maybe traffic is really my answer. The traffic is the biggest challenge because just getting to anywhere I wanna be now , is so different. It's a different experience. And uh, I agree with you on that completely. I was actually just thinking it used to take me absolutely no time to get downtown.

Exactly. Now I live downtown and it probably takes me as long to get across from one end of downtown to the other as it used to take me to get here from 38th Avenue North. I believe that. I absolutely believe that. Yeah. Tell us about an accomplishment that you're proud of.

Well, I don't know if I can come up with one accomplishment, but I will say that I, I'm very proud of the work that I've done and continue to do with Creative Clay. Um, providing a community arts space that supports artists with disabilities and, and connects with the broader community is, is just a wonderful.

A wonderful thing. And so pretty much the work that you do with creative play Yeah, I, I would say that. Mm-hmm. So tell us about one person that you feel really has, embraced the whole mission of what you're doing and. And, uh, has blossomed as a result of being a part of , your organization?

Oh, an artist that we, yes. Mm-hmm. Oh, ab. Mm-hmm. Oh, gosh. There's many stories, but the one that comes to mind, , right now is a, an artist, Marquis Russ. He's, I remember when he started, I believe it was in 2010, and. He, he was very shy and drew these magnificent winged characters, , that were just all of his own creation and every, and, and then the colors that he chose and the, just the way that he would, you know, take these characters in his compositions and the titles he gave him, like the Winged Man.

I've always loved his work, in. Over the years, I remember, , with the encouragement of some of the teaching artists at Creative Clay, , one of the rules of the professional artists that work at Creative Clay is to push, push a little bit. As mentors, we're not trying to, uh, teach somebody how to make our, we really want them to find their own authentic voice.

But I know that he was pushed , to work bigger, and I remember. Seeing the evolution of his work as it got bigger and bigger and how wonderful it was. And coincidentally, he also seemed to also get bigger and bigger in his confidence in being in the world. And that's a, that's one of the most beautiful things.

In fact, he had a piece in the Florida Craft Art Member show last year and got second place. Wow. And he's so proud of that. And, , years after he was at Creative Clay. I remember him, one of the girls was giggling 'cause he's a handsome man and saying, uh, uh, you love, you love Marquis. And I remember Marquis, I said, Marquis, did you hear that?

She said she, that she loves you. And he said. Well, doesn't everybody, and I was like, you have come a long way since you walked in the doors with this shy, hardly talking to anybody kind of personality. And now , he's just really doing so well. And so I think helping somebody find their voice and find their purpose Yeah.

I think is so rewarding. For anybody that works in this kind of , an environment, think, I think you hit it right there with purpose because I feel like. Th that's the thing, you know, when you think about anybody in in the world, I mean, what do we want? We wanna be loved. We want acceptance and.

We want purpose. , no one's gonna be content, , sitting around and, you know, on the couch all day watching tv. , it just won't be content. I don't care who you are. And I think there's a false belief that maybe if you have, , this intellectual disability or whatever, that that same thing doesn't apply and it's just false.

Mm-hmm. And , the people we serve. , in the arts, they have purpose and maybe the purpose is, you know, get through something ex, you know, using the, the arts as a, as a tool for expression. , maybe it's that they want a career in the arts and they wanna pursue exhibits outside of creative clay, which we, we absolutely encourage, but absolutely everyone needs a purpose and I think.

What a joy to be able to help somebody along the road to find kind of what that might be. I mean, so there's that, and then it's also a confidence builder. Absolutely. Like that. Confidence as you just were saying, transfers into other areas of your life. It does. Absolutely. Absolutely. So sometimes you're a mentor yourself, ?

But do have you had a mentor or more than one? I've had. I've had, yeah, definitely. I mean, my mom, um. She, she's a writer and worked as a nurse for over 40 years. Um, her humor and intelligence and passion for life have always been an inspiration to me. Uh, she, she's about to have her first book published, , it's called Shared Enemy, so stay tuned for that.

Wow. I am looking forward to that. Um, my dad, uh. He's, he's also an artist. He worked for the telephone company for 40 years. He , lived in Tarpon Springs his whole life. In fact, he's fourth generation Tarpon Springs. And, , I remember one of my greatest pleasures as a kid was to sit and watch my dad draw and he'd play guitar.

, he's just a really gentle soul. Um, he had a, you know, real love of helping people and volunteerism served on Tarpon Spring City Commission and, uh. And I also say my stepdad, he was this, he was an anesthesiologist, mathematician, but also concert pianist. So he had this extraordinary mind and, , the balance of this science, creative lover of arts kind of brain, you know?

Mm-hmm. And I just, I love that.. And, you know, all, it's a dream, I think , for most artists to kind of, oh yeah, I'm gonna make my living at that. Mm-hmm. I'm not gonna mop floors or, you know, clean rooms at the Holiday Inn, which I've done. Um, I, I'm gonna make it. And, you know, I think, I think having the mentors that I did mm-hmm.

Uh, all of them having some kind of arts piece to them, , showed me how to be able to have a career and then. Make sure that I nurture that art soul part of me, and that it's okay that I don't have to go, oh, well, I'm a failure. I didn't make it as an artist. Mm-hmm. And I'm not making money hand over fist to be able to support myself and my rent and whatever.

, I love it when I hear stories about people who can do that. . But, , I also admire people who can do both, you know? Mm-hmm. Um, so. But it sounds like you landed in the right space. I did. I think that created play, right? 'cause you still get a chance to be exposed to it and probably dabble a little bit if you want to.

Absolutely. Absolutely. So before we wrap things up, , I like to ask people if they can recommend a book or a podcast or a movie to our listeners, what have you. Absolutely. What have you got? Got the telepathy tapes. Wow. Okay. This, this is, this explores how there, they've found that there are many people with autism who can access.

Sort of a share a consciousness with people who are really close with them. So is this a podcast or is this It's a podcast. Okay. And, , it's fascinating. . I definitely would recommend people listen to the telepathy tapes. And, I have a zillion favorite authors and musicians and things. I was, it would be tortured to try to try to pick, to just narrow it down to one.

Huh. But, uh, yeah. I would just, I'd say telepathy tapes is a good, good place to start. Okay, great. Well, thanks for joining me today, Kim. You've been listening to Kim Doman. She is the CEO of Creative Clay, which is an art center advocating and supporting artists with disabilities. This was Sunshine Sisters.

And I'm Karen Carmichael.