Where ART Lives Magazine Volume 2 Number 3 | Page 62
Out
Side
The
House
My life’s journey of creating art has been ongoing as long as I can remember. All I’ve ever wanted to
do is create pictures. Being an artist isn’t what I do, it’s what I am. My grandfather on my dad’s side
drew maps for the county plat books in northern Wisconsin and as far as I know, he was the only
relative in my family who was a professional artist. My father was in the Air Force for twenty-one
years, so I was born in Fairbanks, Alaska when he was stationed there. Although we had frequent
transfers to different locations in the west and Midwest that were at times difficult for me to adjust
to, art was a constant that always went with me. When I was young, my favorite medium for a
couple of years was my Etch-A-Sketch – it was magical to see images appear on the screen as I
rotated the dials! In elementary school, I fell in love with drawing horses and that was almost all I
drew all the way through high school.
My formal art training started with only two art classes in high school – I took the hardest courses
plus band in high school, which filled my schedule and at that point, I didn’t know whether I
wanted be an artist professionally or if I wanted to do something else. I always did a lot of drawing
and doodling though, filling the margins of my notebooks with art and I would continue to draw at
home. You’d think that would have given me an epiphany, wouldn’t you? Once I got to college, I
took just one art class at our local community college, filling the bulk of my schedule with
required courses. Did I still draw & paint? Oh, yes, it was something I never stopped doing, and
again, as in high school, my notebooks from college were filled with art along the margins and I did
more artwork in my free time. However, I still didn’t know whether I wanted art as a career.
I received my Associate in Arts degree but didn’t get a Bachelor’s degree as I had initially planned.
Life does have a way of putting little bumps and forks in the road.
Fast forward a few years – I’m ma rried, have a daughter, and I did a LOT of inking, drawing, and
painting on my own, and the opportunity came up to draw professionally as a free-lance artist for
a children’s educational publishing company in a nearby town, Good Apple Publishing. I went in
for an interview with the art director, lugging my various artistic accomplishments with me. Two
months later, my career was finally established and I’ve been working as a professional artist ever
since.
I learned so much about the publishing world working for Good Apple Publishing! I was a freelance artist who worked mostly full time hours for eleven years and was a full time staff artist inhouse for one year, before the company was bought and moved from the area. While I worked
there, we added a son to our family and my roots here in Iowa where I live became deeper than
ever. Once Good Apple was relocated, my fellow employees who got jobs in other publishing
companies stayed in contact with me and their new jobs gave me a wider network, new
employers, and new contacts. I continued to work as a free-lance artist for various children’s
educational publishing companies, turning to UPS, FedEx, and my fax machine to route my work
and receive art directions.
www.kathrynmarlin.com
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