Job Title / Profession
Kathy: Artist
Steve: Retired Professor of Visual Arts
How long have you been a member of the AcA?
Kathy: Since the beginning
Steve: Since it opened
What books are you reading right now?
Kathy: Threads of Awakening: an American woman’s journey into Tibet’s sacred textile art.
Tom Robbins’ Jitterbug Perfume
Are you an artist? If so, what mediums do you work in?
Kathy: Yes. Many mediums. Paint and drawing materials and fabric are the primary ones.
Steve: Yes I am an artist and I work in many mediums including acrylic painting, printmaking, gutta serti silk painting, digital imagery combined with many materials, digital 2d programs, process work, and 3d material imagery.
Tell us about some of your creative inspirations.
Kathy: Nature, Eastern thought, Eastern Art, yoga.
Steve: Botanical forms always stimulate my creative processes. The nature of the painting process as it relates to algorithmic art and quantum physics has been at the forefront of my research. My ideas on the difference between an acrylic brushstroke and a scanned acrylic brushstroke is at the heart of my individual paintings and presentations.
Do you have any artistic or creative goals for the upcoming year?
Kathy: A new body of work beginning.
Steve: YES! Create more and more and more. Also to give a presentation at the ACA concerning the painting process, quantum physics, and algorithmic art.
What art forms are you most drawn to (even if you’re not a practicing artist)?
Kathy: Visual arts, dance, music.
Steve: I am drawn to all visual and aural arts.
If you could mentor someone entering your field, what advice would you give?
Kathy: Go to school and study if you can. New worlds will open up to you. Believe in yourself. Don’t be afraid to do something that you don’t think will “sell”.
Steve: Go to a good university and learn what you are taught, then be your own authority. Stay curious about everything.
What industry publications, podcasts, or resources do you follow?
Kathy: Various art periodicals. Fiber Arts Now. Surface Design Journal.
Steve: Art in America, Art Forum, Internet Archive, scientific journals that publish research especially on botanical, quantum physics, archaeology, anthropology, all Asian artforms, etc.
Why did you join AcA, and do you remember your first AcA experience?
Kathy: I was involved with Acadiana Arts Council before it transitioned to ACA.
Steve: The ACA is one of the most impactful institutions in the area and we, Lafayette and Louisiana would be far less without it. An institution is only as good as the people who participate with and in them. MY contact with the ACA has always been very positive and as the premier contemporary art space in the area it has provided the many university art students (quite a few who I have taught) a place to see art, make art, and gain the valuable experience needed to become an artist, a gallery or museum director, a teacher of the young who will perpetuate a living, creative culture into the future.
What excites you most about AcA’s future or our upcoming projects/initiatives?
Kathy: The music Museum in the location of the former Artists’ Alliance.
Steve: What excites me most is knowing that contemporary art thrive in the ACA environment.
What types of programs or events would you love to see more of at AcA?
Kathy: Grant opportunities for developing a body of work rather than a project / performance.
Steve: I would like to a section within ArtSpark grants that allow for artists to be supported for making a body of work that is valued for its creative production and not dependent upon a project.
