From blank glass to Christmas joy, Kuhns reconnects with love of art

Reconnecting with a love she’s always had for art and creativity, Denise Kuhns has taken windows across the area by storm this Christmas season.

Kuhns has a knack for seeing ordinary windows as blank canvases filled with endless possibilities.

“I’m just excited that people are so excited about it. I don’t know if it’s something different or new, or if it’s everything the town has been through,” Kuhns said. “I love being able to go in and be creative. Generally, most people don’t have anything specific they want, but sometimes I’ll base it off how I’ve known their family.”

Though she has managed a couple of fitness centers in recent years and worked as a local barista, Kuhns originally went to college as an art major but “found out very quickly that I didn’t know if I could make it.”

A Nevada native, Kuhns grew up in a household full of teachers and knew one of the most common career paths for art majors was teaching. As a result, she pivoted her studies to biology and occupational therapy.

While spending time in Minnesota over the summer, Kuhns took a sketching class to reconnect with her passion for art. She said those who knew her growing up wouldn’t be surprised by her artistic ability.

“It got me interested again. I didn’t really want to go to college again, and someone suggested the Des Moines Art Center’s adult education classes,” Kuhns said. “I took a drawing class and have been going this fall. It was a good way to get back to connecting my hand to my brain.”

Kuhns initially set a goal of painting 10 windows — a number she has since tripled.

“The fun thing about this is that once your kids leave home, you’re not really an active parent anymore, and you start figuring out you don’t want your identity to be tied to your job,” Kuhns said. “You ask yourself what you like to do. It’s been a big search this past year to find out who I am. I truly feel like this has been a little God push. I don’t know that I’m destined to be a window painter, but putting this out there and dabbling in it, I do think God’s trying to tell me I need to be creative again.”

One takeaway Kuhns hopes viewers of her work grasp is that, as adults, it’s easy to abandon our earliest interests and hobbies.

“I hope people continue to explore who they are and what makes them happy,” Kuhns said. “I feel like everybody is creative in their own little way. It just might not be this kind of creative.”