People find Asheville in lots of different ways. Kerry Bober came to Asheville via a website similar to an online dating site except with cities instead of people: findyourspot.com.

Kerry grew up in Rhode Island, where she got a youth scholarship to an art program at the Rhode Island School of Design. She had a passion for art early on but says she didn’t really know what graphic design was or that a degree could be obtained in it. She started pursuing a meteorology degree before receiving her BFA in graphic design from Plymouth State University in New Hampshire. Her roots were solidly in the Northeast but Kerry felt a bit restless and decided to record her interests and needs for the type of city that would be her match.

Soon thereafter Kerry took a vacation to meet her new suitor, this city of Asheville that she had never heard of just a few months before. She loved it and moved a month later with no job lined up. “I loved the nature, the art, the galleries, the friendly people,” she says. “It just felt right.”

Her career in Asheville’s art world was varied: galleries, freelance work, running an art department, and assisting in the production of fine art garden sculpture. After six years, she felt she had not hit her artistic stride in Asheville, so she decided to give Arizona a try. After nearly three years in Sedona and Flagstaff, she found herself longing for her former love, Asheville, again.

Kerry moved back to Asheville in February of 2011 and relaunched the art and design business she’d begun in Arizona: Peace Love & Art. On the graphic design side she does very practical work: company branding, rack cards, catalogs, posters, brochures, web designs, and social networking. Her fine art is often influenced by graphic art and pop culture.

Her most successful venture to date is the Peace Love & Art design that is now on posters, T-shirts, coffee cups, hats, and more. Kerry says she would love to spin off other graphics and have the kind of success had by the Life Is Good brand. One of her Peace Love & Art posters was featured on a “Made in America” segment for World News with Diane Sawyer.

A portion of the Peace Love & Art profits goes to ChildHelp, which exists to meet the physical, emotional, educational, and spiritual needs of abused, neglected, and at-risk children, and Art for Kids, which is an Arizona-based organization that makes art affordable to children.

Kerry says that art was important in her own childhood and helped her through some very difficult times. She would like to get more involved with teaching art or providing art therapy to kids in the Asheville community. With two licensing deals in the past year and about 800 Peace Love & Art posters sold in the first two months, Kerry hopes she can have a big impact on children’s lives.

“Art is so important at a young age,” she says. “Typically art is one of the first programs to get cut in schools. I want to do what I can to bring art to children and to show the healing power of art.”

The idea for the Peace Love & Art logo came about as a studio name. Kerry says she was simply writing out words for ideas and the three came together. Then she began working on designs. “The initial design had a hand holding a paintbrush for the art symbol,” Kerry says. “I later changed it to the handprint, which just seems so universal, simple, and fun.”

Kerry has started a Kickstarter campaign to raise the funding necessary to buy a run of American Made T-shirts featuring the Peace Love & Art logo. Money raised will also go toward a new marketing campaign and hiring a local fulfillment center to ship out the goods and keep track of inventory. She also has a Play Everyday brand that she wants to develop.

Kerry has been busy with her work and establishing business plans, but she makes herself a priority, too, with meditation, hiking, tae kwon do, yoga, and biking. She recently took some time out to ride go-carts. “I guess I come from the ‘work hard, play hard’ philosophy,” she says.

She finds herself still in love with this city she chose via the Internet. Kerry loves the freedom her current life affords. “I enjoy being able to work late at night or work from a coffee shop,” she says. “It’s great to not be restricted by an office. And I love to meet new people—creative people.” Speaking of those creative people, Kerry says that Asheville is thriving as an art town. “There’s so much talent here,” she says. “People of all ages. And the community really supports the arts scene. It’s just a great place to be right now.”

Kerry Bober’s work can currently be seen at ZaPow, located at 21 Battery Park, Suite 101, in Asheville. You can find out more about Kerry, her art, and her Kickstarter campaign at peaceloveandart.com or kerrybober.com.