For my first blog post, let me introduce myself via an interview with Canvas Rebel, an online magazine that highlights artists and entrepreneurs.
We recently connected with Katty Smith and have shared our conversation below.
Katty, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
It only took me sixty-five years to recognize that I was an artistic person waiting for the aha moment. The signals were there growing up in the small town of Halifax, Virginia, such as always liking to color, draw on the blackboard at school and draw all the first ladies for my older sisters school report. However, there was no exposure to art and I went to my first art gallery when I went away to college.
Along the way I sewed for my family, took up basket weaving, competed in floral arranging, and became a master gardener. Learning something new was always an ongoing endeavor in my life. I entered graduated school at The University of Toledo and got an MBA at age fifty-nine. I remember seeing the art students walking across the quadrangular with their big canvases. Still, nothing prompted me to think I could be studying art.
Living in Savannah, GA, where I volunteered as a master gardener, I learned that if you were sixty-five you could apply to Armstrong Atlantic State University and attend for free. Another learning opportunity so I applied to attend ceramic sculpting classes. Week one in the class with that ball of clay was my aha moment! After two years off study there, then a move to NSB, FL, and three years studying ceramic sculpture at Crealde School of Art, I became an LLC and launched my career as an artist.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I married my high school sweetheart, had two children and we moved twenty-six times in our married life. Unlike my upbringing, as an adult there were many opportunities to be exposed to the arts and form a love of artistic mediums. As far as the arts are concerned, exposure to me is the most important factor in determining someone’s likelihood of becoming an artist.
In retrospect, when going to art museums all over the world, I always gravitated to the sculpture. This ended up being my first artform to study. Five years of studying ceramic sculpture led me to the professional side of being an artist. Buying and moving into a house where I was allowed to have a kiln in my garage made me an official studio artist..
My sculptures were inspired by strong women, mostly those in my family to include my mother. They gravitated from being finished in natural tones to being very colorful and texturized. I mixed my own colors by using Mason Stains and this led to my transitioning to painting, that love of bright, vibrant colors. Sculpting six foot tall women was a passion and three were produced over the years. This preference for working big also transferred to my love of painting big canvases.
My proudest moment as a an artist was not winning a best in show or being accepted into juried exhibits, it was being recognized by Women in the Arts, Inc. “Celebrating the Genius of Women”, This was a validation to me that I was actually an artist! When you have spent the first sixty-five years of your life not identifying as an artist, it is a stretch to be able to say, “I am an artist!”
My transition to an acrylic/mixed media artist has been an opportunity to learn new skills and add a challenge to me personally. No doubt, I have gone from a big frog in a little pond to a little frog in a big pond. However, to grow as an artist I feel it is important to take chances and experiment with other artforms.
This transition began when the Covid pandemic began so my main source of instruction was U-Tube. Many skills transfer from one medium to another, but there is also a vast difference. My paintings are intuitive as I do not look at photos for inspiration. By just applying paint, mark making, etc., creating abstract artwork becomes a journey. Somewhere along the way a story or image evolves and leads you to a destination. I would describe my abstract paintings as colorful and most tell a story. Often images from my parents love letters are incorporated into my paintings which may be covered up along the way, but they are still there.
Many of my artist friends say that my paintings look like my sculptures in two dimensional. This is a compliment because it says that my creative voice appears in my work regardless of the medium used.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is waking up each day and looking forward to getting in your studio to paint! There is a huge satisfaction in creativity and it allows one to escape reality!
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
Art is healing both mentally and emotionally. But like anything else, people need to be educated on the benefits of having art in their lives whether as a viewer or a participant. Art needs to be incorporated into our school systems so all are exposed to it, especially at a young age. Communities need to incorporate art into their environments to promote the positive effects of visual art. By doing this, people will be more open to supporting artists as they will have an appreciation for their work.
