Rising Stars: Meet Toni Kirk

Today we’d like to introduce you to Toni Kirk.

Hi Toni, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I have always loved creating! Taking something that alone demonstrates very little but with imagination and a few supplies comes together as a one-of-a-kind masterpiece! In my professional career as an RN since 1991, I found great reward in the field of Oncology for over 25 years. The last eight years of my career, I worked as a case manager in hospice. Although the love and blessing outweighed the hurt and stress, I knew my heart needed a break. In 2017 I painted my first chair and the rest, as they say, is history!

I fell in love with taking a worn out, discarded, outdated piece of furniture and bringing it new life! Since that time, I have never looked back! I have upcycled many types and styles of furniture. If you can imagine it, I can make it happen! I currently have a space at Serendipity in the historic KC West Bottoms. I love what I am so blessed to be able to do now!

I also have a great love of music and saving precious pianos and organs that carry decades of generational memories by repurposing them into wall art, desks, bars, coffee tables, etc. I partner with All Keyed Up Piano Shop also in the West Bottoms and we work with our clients to preserve their memories and love from their own instruments or from instruments from the shop. It’s a wonderful feeling to help a family carry on that love and save these beautiful gems from the landfill!

Along this journey, I began to see videos coming across my FB feed showing creations made by pouring paint on canvases. Again I fell in love!! I watched video after video and after many failed attempts, I learned to do Acrylic Pour Art! Unlike many art forms, I found this one very easy once you get the hang of it! So in an attempt to help others learn something simple that did not require a great deal of artistic talent, I began offering classes in Acrylic Pour Art. I have taught 100’s of people 3-93 years of age in several locations in the greater Kansas City area. It is a true joy to teach people who say “I can’t do that” and to watch them leave with something that they take great pride in. Unfortunately, the classes have been on hold since Covid hit. We hope to bring them back sometime in the future.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Nothing that matters to you is easy all of the time, am I right?! Starting something new takes a great deal of time, energy, patience and the ability to learn something new. Social media is a godsend for the small business owner. But if you’re over 30, it can be a challenge! I have learned a little about marketing, promoting, events, etc. Enough for now!

Of course, your vision is not always everyone else’s vision. Some pieces I have created that I dearly loved are sometimes the ones that take the longest to sell. It just takes the “right customer with the perfect spot” for pieces such as those. Again, patience. But you just keep creating.

Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
First thing to do for personal learning….join EVERY FB page that you can find in your area of creativity! The knowledge you can gain from listening to others that did something as wrong as you did and others who accomplished a certain task and can explain it to the very last detail is beyond valuable! Then find a local person that doesn’t mind sharing some of their trade secrets and loves helping. For me, that person is Kathy Shriver who owns The Painted Branch in Belton. Kathy is always happy to talk about products or a new technique with me. She has a great wealth of knowledge and I am so thankful she is more than willing to share!

Then there’s always YouTube!! If you can’t learn it there, it doesn’t exist!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.trendytransformationsbytoni.com
• Instagram: @trendy.transformations
• Facebook: Trendy Transformations by Toni and Encore Repurposing