VIDEO - A Painter With A Passion

Many enjoy art, whether it's crayoning on the walls or fingerpainting, but who knew that purple and blue stained fingers could take anyone so far? This is especially the case with postgraduate Katie Mc- Carthy.McCarthy has always enjoyed art, and started taking it seriously in high school. “I wasn’t planning on taking a lot of art classes, something happened with my schedule and I was able to start.”A glitch in her schedule must have been luck because from there, McCarthy discovered a new passion. “There was a noticeable difference between myself in the art room and other places,” McCarthy explained. McCarthy gradually began to take more classes, and through her experiences, developed as an artist and individual.Tara Misenheimer, head of the art department, has assisted McCarthy with her participation in the art courses here at Exeter and is proud of McCarthy’s accomplishments.“She arrived at Exeter this fall as a post-graduate with tremendous art training and coursework from her previous schooling,” Misenheimer said. “What I'm most impressed with his Katie's total dedication to the art making process and her extremely high standards for skill and quality.”McCarthy has been inspired by impressionist artists such as Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, and Ken Auster. “Auster is a Californian artist and he has a very blocky style,” McCarthy said, “he does what I have always strived to do, which is getting your exact point across while the piece is still very loose.”Auster’s style has influenced McCarthy greatly. “I saw a YouTube video of him painting; it was in- credible. He puts in tiny details in one little flourish of his brush and its amazing. My style has definitely changed to be more like his, but my abilities are still no where near his.”When first starting out, McCarthy focused on creating photo-realistic and detail-oriented paint- ings and drawings. As her techniques advanced, her style developed, holding a looser feel through more creativity with color and brush strokes. This was very difficult for her at first, as it was hard to get away from trying to create perfection, but has become her signature approach.McCarthy’s style was solidified when she tookAP art at her local high school, her junior year. The intensive class consisted of creating two pieces ev- ery week, one at home and one at school.“I wanted to loosen up about junior year and grow stylistically when I was being exposed to different artists. I really started to implement the changes during AP art when I was able to stray from the usual exercises,” McCarthy said. Now that she has loosened up, McCarthy can’t go back to being detail oriented.AP art has been a catalyst for her career as an artist, strengthening her skills and defining her style. “It's exciting and unbelievable to listen to Katie Mc- Carthy's answer when you ask her, "What art courses are you taking this year?" I think it surpasses 6 or 7,” Misenheimer said.McCarthy took Art 444 during the fall term, where she explored a few different themes. Although she started the project painting sailboats, they ended up not meeting her expectations and so she began again, sticking with her nautical idea. She ended up choosing a boat shoe as the object of one of her paintings.“It has character, wrinkles and is well used,” McCarthy said. After attempting the same paint- ing last year, she was fueled by the idea of trying again, improving upon the original. To compliment the shoe painting, McCarthy chose to paint fabrics such a shirts and ties.Her hard work paid off in the final 444 show. “I was sleep deprived, pretty sure I was sleep walking to classes, but whenever I closed my eyes, the paint- ing was burned into my mind like it was haunting me,” McCarthy said.“All of her work, including her 444, displayed her 300 percent dedication and investment in making it cool, fresh and interesting,” Misenheimer said.Although the pace of her Art 444 project was much slower than that of her AP studies, McCarthy eagerly dedicated much of her time to the art build- ing. “Towards the end I would be in the art room for hours of the day, I would be there all afternoon and go to a few classes and dinner and stay there until 10 o’clock check in.”Jonathan Ye/The Exonian Senior Katie McCarthy in the art building, where sheworks on her projects.McCarthy still finds time to balance school work with art work. “I spend so much time in the art building, I live there, I do my homework there,” she said. McCarthy plans on majoring in graphic design while concentrating in photography and minoring in art education, with a five year masters at Endicott College. McCarthy is truly living her dream.“The Exeter art program is very lucky to have her because she contributes so much to our studios,” Misenheimer said.McCarthy has clearly found her passion, and its evident that she will go far. As she continues her studies, she will explore art in new ways while expanding her horizons.