At the recent Recycled Art Show held in the Stonewall Gallery at Campbell Pottery, I got a chance to speak with a few of the local Artists. I enjoyed this experience so much! It has been so long since I was in such an “Art charged” environment. It brought back memories from college!
Katie LeVan is a bubbly young lady from the Erie area. Her big smile and bight eyes draw you right in.
Katie currently paints birds and has done a lot a pet portraits, mostly oils. Typically she works on canvas.
When asked to submit a piece for the Recycled Art Show she got creative. She told me the bird is actually one of the first birds she painted. It happened to be on a wood panel so she started with that. Then she decided to use paper and went to town with a hole punch.
I asked if she got a cramp from all that punching. She gave me a gracious laugh and admitted she moved on to a three whole punch. 😉
She added some used shiny tissue paper she found at work to give the bird its textured shiny wing. She bird is outlined with copper staples pounded flat. The beautiful sun is fabric. And of course the small twigs were gathered.
She did share with me that she struggled with deciding how to hang it. So at 4:00 am she was out in her yard pulling branches off the tree to make the frame that was then assembled with raffia.
Though different than what she usually does she said, “It was fun.”
Katie even has some canvases in the store behind the register. So I went up and took a look. I love the color! (So sorry about the fuzziness, apparently my camera focused on the mirror.)
If you’re interested in learning more about Katie or looking at more of her work, you can find her online at www.katielevan.com or on etsy at www.katielevan.etsy.com.
I certainly enjoyed hearing about Katie’s process. I hope you did too!
