Kia Duras-Carter is a 46 year old freelance artist and self employed esthetician. Raised by her grandparents in the south side of Stockton she was influenced by her artistic family. She graduated from Franklin High and received an art scholarship from Delta Junior college as well as a scholarship from the Filipino community.

While attending Delta she got her first illustration job from the San Joaquin County Health Department. After Delta she transferred to the Academy of Art University in San Francisco where she majored in illustration and took an illustration class at the CCAC in Oakland. In 1995 she got an internship with San Francisco Studios in the storyboard department during the making of the animated film “James and the Giant Peach”. That lead to a job doing a few animated Nike commercials. She then became interested in mural painting and got a freelance job at Mural Arts Studio in San Francisco. There she worked full-time for 3 years mural painting across the United States.

After she started her family she moved back to Stockton for support and became involved in the thriving art scene. A battle with stage 2 cancer of her lymph nodes slowed her down for a bit but didn’t stop her. After being declared cancer free she did murals for businesses and home owners as well as participating in local art shows and became a part of Stocktons 1850 Collective. At the time she was a single mother of 5 girls juggling work and kids, it was a challenge but the support of her family helped tremendously.

Her most recent mural was done in 2018 in downtown Stockton as a part of Stockton's UBI project. She currently is married, runs her own skin care clinic and does free lance art. Her goal is to be a positive role model to her daughters as well as other young girls so they can see by example that they too can achieve their goals while following their dreams.