Before she settled in Alaska, budding artist Kim Walker was an army brat. She grew up everywhere without any particular place to call home.

These paintings were inspired by the time she spent living in England. They are part of a series of ten paintings Walker is working on based on the varying British magpie rhymes.

Walker tends toward the dark and ironic in her work, emphasizing more macabre elements and creating pieces with dark themes.

She believes that she tends toward gloomy in her art because in life she always has to be happy and friendly. When she paints she gets to experience the freedom of finally being herself.

"Robots are what we make them," Walker said. "We attribute human qualities to them, we project ourselves on to them, we make them more human, more like us."

These robots are very like humans. The male robot depicted is shooting himself in the head, for a girl, while the female robot primps and pretties herself for a boy.

Like many artists, Walkers goal is to get you thinking. In an effort to grab more of the observer's attention she frequently balances opposites on her canvases, often using contrasting painting titles.

"They say the average time someone spends looking at a painting in a galley is 1.7 seconds," Walker said. "I want the full two seconds."

She starts every painting pretty much the same way. Sometimes she does a rough sketch to plan the general layout, but more often then not she begins by just putting paint down on a blank canvas. That means she often ends up with layer upon layer of paint, acrylics allow her to cover mistakes and just keep the parts of the painting she likes.

Walker has gotten much of her inspiration from graphic novelists like Warren Ellis and Frank Miller. Her work tends to be both more graphic and more narrative then most, highlighting the seamy elements of society, exposing stories from the underbelly most artists shy away from.

"I think her pieces have a raw honesty," said friend Alanna McBrayer.