go to Katie's Bio

My current work stylizes intimate daily moments of life - grabs hold of the tactile and visible affection between mother and child.

The new paintings evoke light and texture - playing with how two or more confident figures can fold, bond and tuck together within a whimsical atmosphere of energy and sparkle.

Each painting is crafted with umbers and white over a vivid under-painting. Pure and simple color allows for introspection as well as the finessing of figures and lines. Using a simple combination of dry brushing and layering techniques, color is infused, allowing warm shadows, thick highlights and energetic motion to be woven loosely together amongst the sounds of inspirational musicians such as Johnny Cash, KT Tunstall, Adam Hood, Ana Nalick and Carbon Leaf.

A mostly self-taught painter, I studied design and illustration at Central Washington University and had experimented with a variety of media when developing a mural on my son's wall quickly brought me back to painting. An unquenchable passion for process, progress, creation and discovery requires that I paint daily in my Vancouver, Washington studio, consulting my sketchpad and ipod for inspiration and motivation.

Led by a passion for life, my children, color and music, I paint because I must and it is my desire that another may connect with the images as well.

I'm a mother of two, and my relationship with them is the driving force
behind most of my work. My children drive me crazy sometimes,
but I am fiercely in love with them.

Ever so often I feel the need to tether myself with a raw emotion piece.
When I complete a painting within the emotion-based theme, I feel a rush of
exhilaration, a feeling of release and exposure - as though I am
putting something out there that truly speaks ~
and when a viewer reacts/connects with the piece,
I am further reinforced to keep doing what I'm doing.