Where are you from?“I grew up in NJ and when I married in my late 20’s my new hubby and I moved to the UK for about 2 years. He’s British and we thought we would have a little adventure over there for a while. So we quit our jobs, packed our bags, and flew to the UK. We both managed to find jobs after about four months. Neither of us was particularly tied to our work, which for me at this point was pure administrative stuff, so when a chance came to work in Saudi Arabia, we took it. We lived and worked in Riyadh SA for four years, traveling and saving as much money as we could. From there we moved to New Zealand, then Luxembourg, and finally back here to the USA. All during these years, despite working “normal” secretarial type jobs (which were the only ones I could get as a foreigner), I worked on my art on the side. When we finally came back to the USA we found we no longer ‘fit’ into the NJ suburban culture. After a few years of hemming and hawing we finally found the courage to once again quit our jobs, sell the house, and move out to Colorado to start a new way of life. This included ART, something we had both worked on all our lives, but never professionally. We spent the first year in CO hand building an art studio, and once that was completed we began to paint in 2005 full time. By the way, my college degree is in Landscape Architecture, the field I worked in prior to marrying and moving overseas.”
What type of work do you do?
“My work is oil on canvas, primarily but not exclusively painting animals. I work in heavy textures, layers of oil paint, applied with a palette knife. I thought that living in CO would push me in the direction of landscapes, but that has not been the case. There are so many horses, and wildlife here that I’ve been drawn to try and capture their beauty and spirits. I love animals and love to show their spirits on the canvas.”
Why do you do what you do?
“I create art because I have to. I’ve been creating artwork since I was about five or six years old. But it has only been in the five years that I’ve taken the plunge to be a professional artist. I seem to go a little mad and get irritable if I go too long without expressing myself in the studio.”
What inspires you?
“Everything about our life here in rural Pagosa Springs Colorado inspires me. The people, the landscapes, the air, the sky, and most especially the animals. We live with three dogs and three cats and have many friends with horses. We see wild deer, bear, lynx, bobcat, snakes, hawks, eagles, crows, songbirds, and geckos here all the time. Their spirits and beauty are always an inspiration to me.”
Galleries Kathy has been featured in:
“My work can be see at Wild Spirit Gallery in Pagosa Springs, CO, www.wildspiritgallery.com, plus at the Blackbird Gallery in Albuquerque, NM, www.blackbirdgallery.biz. I’m aiming to expand my gallery exposure to Denver and Jackson Hole in 2010 and 2011.”
“Over the next five years my goal is to be showing on both coasts, in up to six galleries, as well as an invited participant at some major national art shows like Prix de West.
Your last question, what shows have I participated in, wow, tons. Right now a piece is showing at DIA in Denver, as part of the Colorado Council for the Arts program. I also just won Best-in-Show at the national juried show, “Fur, Feathers, & Fins National Juried Show”, Parklane Gallery, Kirkland, WA (the image “Trio I” attached was the winning painting). Earlier this year I participated in the invitational juried show Western Spirit Art Show & Sale, Old West Museum, Cheyenne, WY. In 2008 I was a part of the Colorado Governor’s Invitational Art Show, Loveland Museum, Loveland, CO. There are many, many others but these are a few of the larger shows.
