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Nester 2025\u2014Kimberly Gronquist (Cameron Munn) <\/p>\n\u201cWe\u2019re stuff people,\u201d Kimberly Gronquist tells me as I examine her living room\u2019s floor-to-ceiling shelves. The offerings are rabbit holes, spines upon spines of books\u2014fantasy reads, encyclopedias, historical butted against pop fiction, Kiki Man Ray and Book of Earth face forward\u2014alongside old Barbie dolls, a pink curved alligator, a maneki cat, wicker baskets of masks, and a toy banana, too. <\/p>\n
Nester 2025\u2014Kimberly Gronquist (Cameron Munn) <\/p>\n
The shelves are just a small sliver of the 1908 home in Southwest Portland or, more accurately, the creative world inside the walls. These four floors\u2014from the multicolored disco-lit basement with the half-pipe, to the wild unfurling ceramics on the walls, dried eucalyptus wreathed across the door frame, or the airy atrium overlooking the English-style garden\u2014are eclectic and warm. But there\u2019s also a hint of spontaneity, artistry teetering on randomness, in an alluring way. \u201cIt\u2019s totally not thoughtful,\u201d Gronquist says.<\/p>\n
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Nester 2025\u2014Kimberly Gronquist (Cameron Munn) <\/p>\n
Maybe \u201cthoughtful\u201d isn\u2019t the word\u2014but there\u2019s an intuitive feel, a playfulness that\u2019s a throughline of the home\u2019s history and ethos. Gronquist\u2019s husband, Peter Warren Gronquist, 46, grew up in the house, raised by two artists (his father is filmmaker Don Gronquist). Kimberly, also 46, met Peter while the two attended West Sylvan Middle School. Kimberly\u2019s childhood house wasn\u2019t as warm, and Peter\u2019s home became a safe space where she spent her teen years. <\/p>\n
The two later married and spent time living down in California, but returned in 2011 when the house was passed down to them. Since then, the multidisciplinary artist (Peter) and sculptor (Kimberly) have lived in the space with their three kids, Dove, 16, Wolfie, 12, and Cozy, 10. \u201cThis had been my safe place to begin with, and coming back was cathartic,\u201d Kimberly says. <\/p>\n
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Nester 2025\u2014Kimberly Gronquist (Cameron Munn) <\/p>\n
There\u2019s been a remodel or two\u2014gutted bathrooms, a more industrial-chic kitchen with wide white tiles\u2014but the space still holds its century-plus-old charm, with the original wide windows, the three fireplaces scattered throughout. It\u2019s a house for fun\u2014a jukebox in the second living room (it\u2019s broken, but there\u2019s an Alexa tucked inside), fuzzy Star Wars stormtrooper helmets as wallpaper in the bathroom, a game room for the kids with a purple-lit play nook. The pop-culture bits spill from every corner, but the trick to keeping the vibrancy buoyant is to keep it from overflowing. \u201cTrying to balance motherhood and actively trying to work on sculpture, I get buried in the things,\u201d Kimberly says. \u201cThey\u2019re all collectors,\u201d referring to her family. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to keep up with all the things they\u2019re bringing home. I make sure not to become buried in that or I\u2019ll feel heavy.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Nester 2025\u2014Kimberly Gronquist (Cameron Munn) <\/p>\n
While Peter was set to be an artist from a young age (one of his earliest childhood declarations of what he wanted to be as a grown-up hangs on the wall in the office), Kimberly took a different route. She wanted to be an artist, but that desire was repressed and, instead, she became a nurse. After taking time to raise her kids, she slowly began to gravitate back to the creative urge, drawn to ceramic shapes that fall between feminine and oceanic. \u201cI like to call it primal feminism,\u201d she says in her studio, a perched space in the garage behind the house. \u201cI was pounding out trauma from my body; it wasn\u2019t always comfortable, but it was a necessity. It felt frantic.\u201d<\/p>\n
After showing her work at Spartan Shop, things continued to evolve from there. She keeps her focus primarily on ceramics, but beyond that, there aren\u2019t rules, and there\u2019s no endpoint. The art, the house, these are ever-evolving things, spaces to remain curious and playful, to let go. \u201cYou can continue the work,\u201d she says. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t have to stop in the kiln.\u201d<\/p>\n