About

Biography

Kate is a mixed media and glass artist who has lived in Salt Lake City's west side since 2016. In 2021 she started Together Arts, a free community art studio for her neighbors. With a BA in Art Education, her favorite thing to do is teach, as well as working on her own artworks and commissions in between. Currently she serves as a teaching artist, and worked as an AmeriCorps VISTA for Clever Octopus, administrator for her local Buy Nothing group, and representative for District 1 on the Salt Lake City Arts Council. She's inspired by her husband, Brendan (who makes her art practice possible); her silly house rabbit and pet goldfish; the kindness of her neighbors; her journey with pregnancy loss and infertility; and the satisfying challenge of sustainable, compassionate living.

Artist Statement

My artistic practice centers on the exploration of interconnectedness through mixed media. I gather inspiration and materials from mundane interactions with people and the environment, then allow the ideas to gestate until they demand to be born, oftentimes unexpectedly. The broken and reassembled materials such as glass, wood, paper, and foraged items that I collect invoke the formation of greater wholes from fragmented parts. With these disparate materials I create recognizable forms, such as humans, plants, animals, and reliquaries, touched with abstract expressions of connection, fear, brokenness, healing, and the embodied sacred. The contemplative poetry of Thich Nhat Hanh, the sacred geometric glasswork of Andrew Kosorok, and the living community ecosystem inspire my practice.

I work to bridge class barriers in art, blending representational aesthetics familiar to lower-class viewers with post-modern processes appreciated by upper-class audiences. This occurs in both my personal studio practice and her community education practice as she teaches all visual disciplines for free. I do not distinguish art from craft, as historically doing so divided creative people rather than heal them. Through a delicate balance of visual ethereality and down-to-earth rawness, I embrace viewers with a sense of interconnectedness, ultimately promoting community health and healing. My art invokes feelings of lightness, peace, and earthiness, infused with the safe and the sacred. This work breaks down societal barriers visible and invisible, and fosters dialogue across the human-planet organism.

Curriculum Vitae

Education

2015 BA, Art Education K-12, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah

2025 Debora Coombs-Criddle, Trace and Texture, Readsboro, Vermont

2024 Lifetime Arts, Creative Aging Course, Online

2024 Salt Lake City Arts Council, Making It Public, Online

2024 Duke University, ART of the MOOC: Public Art and Pedagogy, Online

2023 City of Seattle Office of Arts and Culture, Public Art Bootcamp, Online

Exhibitions

2025 Alfred Lambourne Program Sorenson Community Center, Salt Lake City, Utah

2024 35x35 Zillenial Edition Finch Lane Gallery, Salt Lake City, Utah

2024 The Noun Show Provo City Library, Provo, Utah

2023 President’s Art Show Salt Lake Community College South City Campus, Salt Lake City, Utah

2022 Spiritual & Religious Art of Utah Springville Museum of Art, Springville, Utah

Public Installations

2025-2026 Lake Effect, temporary sculptural installation, The Gateway Mall, Salt Lake City, Utah

2024-2025 Grow Together, temporary sculptural installation, The Gateway Mall, Salt Lake City, Utah

2024-2025 Grow Two-gether, temporary sculptural installation, Day-Riverside Branch Salt Lake City Public Library, Salt Lake City, Utah

2023-present Rose Park Community Kiosk, bulletin board and sculptural installation, Riverside Park, Salt Lake City, Utah

Commissions

2025 Private Commission, Colors of the Library, stained glass window, private residence, Alyssa Fukuda

2024 Private Commission, Jesus Colors, stained glass window, private residence, Susan Toensing

2023 Private Commission, Nouveau Transom, stained glass window, private residence, Jason Vance

2022 Private Commission, Lavender Rose, stained glass window, private residence, Connie Carey

2021 Private Commission, Art Deco Golf Clubs, stained glass window, private residence, Dale Carey

Sales

2023 Lovely and Lost, $744, mixed media glass sculpture, Planned Parenthood of Utah Annual Gala

2022 Joyeux Noel, $799, stained glass window, City Creek Deseret Book Gallery

2019 God and Sinners Reconciled, $450, mixed media illustration, City Creek Deseret Book Gallery

Grants

2025 Creative Aging Instructor Grant, Utah Division of Arts and Museums

2025 Artist Career Advancement Grant, Utah Division of Arts and Museums

2025 Project Grant, Salt Lake City Arts Council, Medium-Specific Art Classes, funding to teach 6 fine arts courses in Salt Lake City

2024 Project Grant, Salt Lake City Arts Council, Little Free Art Shops, 6 community-painted cabinets across Salt Lake City, Utah

2023 Love Your Block grant, Salt Lake City Mayor’s Office, Rose Park Community Kiosk, community bulletin board with 3-dimensional mosaic artwork, Riverside Park, Salt Lake City

Professional Experience

2025 Consulting Artist, SLC West-East Connections Study, Salt Lake City, Utah

2024-25 Executive Director and Volunteer Artist, Together Arts Community Studio, Salt Lake City, Utah

2022-24 Board of Directors, Salt Lake City Arts Council, District 1, Salt Lake City, Utah

2021-24 Executive Director and Teaching Artist, Clever Cucumber Creative, Salt Lake City, Utah

2021-22 AmeriCorps VISTA, Communications Coordinator, Clever Octopus, Salt Lake City, Utah

2019-20 Teaching Artist, The Art Cottage, West Jordan, Utah

2019-20 Teaching Artist, Kimball Art Center, Park City, Utah

2017-18 Part-time Faculty, Career Path High School, Kaysville, Utah

2016-17 Full-time Faculty, Ascent Academy Middle School, West Jordan, Utah