I have made paintings all my life, but it wasn’t until I graduated from college in my mid-twenties that I decided to study art. I studied at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago, The School of Representational Art in Chicago, The Florence Academy of Art in Italy and had several wonderful private teachers. After all is said, I feel that life is the best teacher.

My subjects are drawn largely from personal experiences, past and present. Every artist who I have admired has influenced me as a painter. I learned by copying the masters and watching more accomplished painters. As I credit these influential forebearers, I believe that each time we create it is fresh and original. I have too many influences to catalog, but the painters I have watched obsessively include Correggio, Balthus, Moreau, the symbolists, Corot, Gauguin and Bonnard. I have also been significantly influenced by mythology, sacred painting and eastern decorative arts.

Making art is as breathing in that it keeps me living. It is the way that I negotiate the demands of
heartbreak and faith. It is the expression of my happiness, hope and wisdom. It is the arena where wars are waged and moral questions are posed. The emotional landscapes that I navigate in my paintings are, in truth, very private and perhaps inexplicable at times, but I hope within them I have successfully portrayed something universal as it is my belief that art's most important purpose is to make us see each other.

To see more of Kathyrn's work, visit www.mordac.org/kathryn.