Kim Keats is an accomplished fiber artist whose work explores the beauty and symbolism of natural materials. She holds a BFA from Augusta State University, pursued graduate studies in fibers at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, and earned her MFA from Georgia Southern University. With over two decades as a teaching artist and arts administrator, Kim has been featured on the South Carolina Arts Commission’s Approved Artist Roster and exhibited in renowned institutions like the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, SC. Her work has received several awards in juried exhibitions.

Kim’s process is rooted in a deep respect for nature. Using bark from fallen trees, she salvages this "noble material," manipulating it while wet and binding it with waxed linen thread or palmetto root. Sanded, stained, and shaped, each piece honors the tree as a universal icon of life and sustenance, influenced by indigenous cultures that celebrate bark as a central medium. Her work embodies a shared, timeless heritage and a reverence for nature’s resilience and beauty.