Whatever it is, tell your story…I tell mine through art. We each have our own experiences that shape our story. That story is powerful, meaningful, and, importantly, worth sharing with the rest of us!
Katharine’s work is primarily contemporary abstract, using acrylic paints and various mediums on canvas and wood panels. Katharine’s art is a physical representation of her voice.
Katharine is a native Houstonian who has lived there most of her life. Beginning in high school, Katharine created doodle drawings for family and friends, which continued to her various workplaces, where she would surprise co-workers with small doodles on notes on their desks. The doodling progressed to dabbling in painting as a way to relax while working in social services and even more so while working in the Texas Legislature.
In the middle of completing her undergraduate studies, Katharine's path to community service began when she volunteered for 18 months at Nuestras Pequenas Rosas in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, a historically locked country into a cycle of poverty. She later continued her studies and obtained a Master of Social Work. Katharine has served communities through the child welfare system as well as advocacy and legislative strategy. She worked for five years with children in foster care. She then transitioned to working around the Texas Capitol for nine years as a staffer and advocate, working on public policy issues related to physical and mental health, substance abuse, and criminal justice. Additionally, she worked for a few years in community development, specifically coordinating Red Cross funds to assist Houstonians to rebuild their homes destroyed by Hurricane Harvey. She has done this all to promote and protect the well-being of oppressed and vulnerable people.
While analyzing systemic barriers to community mental health services and creating legislative opportunities to expand access to these services (left brain activity), Katharine began painting in her living room to tap into her expressive and creative side (right brain activity) to enable her brain to explore unconventional policy and legislative solutions. The more she painted, the more she began to recognize her passion to share her paintings with the world.
When Katharine “retired” from the Texas Legislature, she jumped feet first into building an art career…her hands have been covered in paint ever since. Katharine’s general approach to painting is “Mess Around and Find Out,” meaning she rarely starts a painting with an expectation of the outcome…sometimes it works and sometimes she ends up with a mess, but she really loves the process. Recently, Katharine has been developing a new series of works called WANDER. This series is inspired by the idea of movement without a specific purpose. Katharine was voted Houston’s Gayest & Greatest Female Artist by OutSmart magazine in 2021 and 2022.
Katharine believes we all do better when we all do better…. And the only way to ensure that is to elect candidates that value and fight for equality, equity, and justice. Katharine is a longstanding member of the Houston LGBTQ+ Political Caucus and served on the Board of Directors from 2019 to 2022.
