I’ve been an artist from the very beginning.
Having a crafty kindergarten teacher as a mom, who valued and highly encouraged all forms of play, art making and exploring the natural world, and a dad who in his spare time built wooden furniture, toys and cooked everyday, meant that I grew up in a home where creativity and art-making knew no bounds. Surrounded by art, I painted, drew, cooked, knitted, played in the mud, worked with clay and grew a garden…I tried it all.
After studying at a specialty art highschool in Ottawa, I decided to continue my education in fine arts.
I attended The Ontario College of Art and Design, where I studied printmaking, painting, bookmaking, ceramics, papermaking, photography and surface design.
Upon graduation, I combined my art interests with my passion for food design through the Culinary Management Program at George Brown College. Work in the Public Relations Office at the college Hospitality Centre lead to a position in the busy pastry department at the CN Tower’s 360° Restaurant. In 1995, I co-created, launched and established CHOCOLATTO Patisserie & Chocolaterie, a fine dessert manufacturer and purveyor in Toronto’s Rosedale neighbourhood. Over the next five years I honed my business skills, co-created lines of packaged fancy food products, and worked as an assistant pastry chef developing, testing, and producing artisanal breads, pastries, chocolates, and other desserts sold locally through our retail store and nationwide.
Entrepreneurship opened my eyes to the world of business and in 2000, I returned to art making of a different kind. A new way of working emerged. Ernst and Young LLP started up an innovative Accelerated Solutions Environment, where small teams of leaders from dynamic Global enterprises, together with consultants worked to create fast paced iterations of potential solutions. I was engaged as a real-time visual note-taker and illustrator and thus began my 20 year career as a Graphic Facilitator.
Graphic Facilitation or Graphic Recording is the real-time translation of conversations or presentations into text and pictures. It gives meeting and conference attendees an opportunity to see and understand information on a visual level. I do three things simultaneously: listen for key ideas, synthesize the content, and then draw and illustrate what I hear in real-time, on giant white walls, huge foam core walls, or digitally using graphics software and an Ipad.
My clients include Deloitte, Ernst and Young, Accenture, PwC, The Royal Bank of Canada, Scotiabank, TD Bank, Canadian Tire, Sunlife, Rogers, Bell Media, TDSB, The Federal Government, University of Toronto, Humber College, University of Guelph, Google, York University…
With this collection, I have returned to painting to combine all of my interests and background as a fine artist once again.
My latest work combines elements from all of these pursuits. Illustration, collage, printmaking, food and nature. My work is informed by both the world of business and the natural world. I use collage, eclectic design, vibrant colour, photography, illustration, comic style and humour in my work.
Kathryn’s work is represented in boardrooms and corporate head offices across Canada and the US,
private collections in Canada, and the National Library Archives.
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I live and work in Toronto where I share a house and studio with a designer husband, two artistic teenagers and two fluffy white cats who walk on my paintings, chew my paint brushes at 4:30 am and nibble on my important art notes that I endlessly leave scattered about… I love them all.
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