Kit Porter Obituary (1983 - 2023) - Beaufort, South Carolina

Kit Porter - mixed media artist, loving mother, and devoted wife, daughter, sister, and friend - died on December 23, 2023 at Friends of Caroline Hospice Center in Ridgeland, South Carolina after a courageous battle with breast cancer. She was 40. A resident of Beaufort, S.C., Katharine Lea Coleman was born on Mar. 21, 1983 in Wilmington, North Carolina. She graduated from the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn. in 2005 with a Bachelor of Arts in painting. She was director of Martin Gallery in Charleston from 2006-2011 and development manager of the Columbia Museum of Art before dedicating herself fully to her prolific career as a fine artist. Painting pieces of marine debris and dissecting flowers and fields into abstraction, Kit fragmented natural forms in her works of art as a metaphor for the fragility of the physical world. Her work was exhibited in solo and group exhibitions nationally, represented by galleries in Atlanta, Houston, Des Moines, and New York, and is held in private collections throughout North America and Europe. She married Tristan James Daniel Porter on Dec. 11, 2010 at St. Michael’s Church in Charleston, S.C. They lived in Charleston and Columbia before moving overseas to Germany and then to Banchory, Scotland, where they welcomed the birth of their two boys. The family lived briefly in Houston and in Charlotte before settling in Beaufort in 2019. A lover of life and an adventurous spirit, Kit saw the world. She spent a summer backpacking across Costa Rica from the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean, and ran a marathon in San Francisco for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. She traveled extensively and made friends wherever she went. She felt deeply connected to the ocean, particularly to Wrightsville Beach, where she was raised. She was a passionate fan of the band Phish, whose music moved her to dance with joyous abandon. And she was a fiercely devoted confidante who made it her life’s mission to love her friends, new and old alike, without reservation. She spent her final days enveloped in the loving presence of her family and dozens of beloved friends. Kit was the embodiment of her art: beautiful, ethereal, and precious beyond description. She knew exactly who she was, deep in her soul, her entire life, and she taught us all by her engaging spirit to surrender to the flow. She is survived by her husband, Tristan Porter; her children, Carver (9) and Briggs (7); parents, Dr. Gordon Coleman and Jeanie Coleman; brothers, Stuart Coleman (Natalie) and Philip Coleman (Sarah); mother-in-law Beverley Porter (Frank Biermann); father-in-law David Porter; brother-in-law Dylan Porter; six nieces and nephews; and an extended family of countless souls who treasured her beyond measure. A celebration of life service is planned on Hunting Island, S.C. for Sun. Jan. 7, 2024 at 2 p.m., where she will be reunited with the sea. The family asks that donations be directed in Kit’s memory to Friends of Caroline Hospice Center, 329 Friends Lane Ridgeland, S.C. 29936, or to the preservation of Hunting Island at the following website: https://www.friendsofhuntingisland.org/memorials.