About Kathy

I was born in Seattle (1955) but spent my childhood in the Mid-West. My family returned to the Pacific Northwest in 1966 where I went on to complete high school and graduated from the University of Washington with a BFA in Drawing and Painting. I have made Olympia, Washington my home since 1980. I initially worked at designing and creating work in my studio but in 2010, my practice shifted to plein aire painting and I’ve been working outdoors ever since.

In January of 2015, I created my own Artist-in-Residence with the cooperation of The Port of Olympia.  Working with Port officials, longshorepersons, shipping agents, and crews on the ships I found my plein air practice expanding my perceptions about Washington State’s “Industrial Forest”. Ports represent some of our oldest connections to other parts of the world, and the trees of this region are among some of the oldest timber on the West Coast. I worked for two years dockside or up on the bridge of a ship to discover my own relationship to this industry that dominates my town.  

As the pandemic spread in 2020, it initiated another shift in my practice; I started to design installations using fresh flowers to offer spaces for my community members to process our collective losses. Creating these pieces required a large volunteer community engaging each other, learning something new and renewing ourselves through art making. My studio space offered an environment for reconnection while making something larger than ourselves that provided salve to our weary souls. 

As the Covid-19 death toll began to subside, I began a series of paintings, zeroing in on a key contributor to the health of the forest’s ecosystem, the nurse stump. The series was very specific for me: establish a relationship with this nurse stump and select 8 different locations to observe and capture her from. It took over eight months to draw and paint the nurse stump from each location. I learned that my practice was integral for me to strengthen my connections to myself and sooth my emotionally battered spirit. I came to understand that my work with this stump was universal; we were all trying to reestablish relationships in a world where everything has changed.