Erica and Kay First meeting

So the day came to meet with Kay, and I was excited but nervous. I was curious as to what

kind of interaction would lead to an artist saying their preliminary student match wasn’t

ideal… I suppose I’m a worst case scenario type of thinker sometimes.

I arrived at 13th and Carpenter and gave Kay a call, letting her know I was there. It’s just

around the corner, at Artspace 1241 she said, and she’d be right down. I found the door to

the studios and was warmly greeted by Kay who showed me where I would key in the code

from that point on so I could be buzzed up. She gave me a tour of the building that housed

three floors of artists studios, passing by pieces by various artists that were on display. There

was work by painters, ceramicists, glass artists, and other fiber artists like Kay. She told me

how she enjoyed spaces like this because not only were you in the company of other

creatives, but a lot of times you could share the resources other artists in the building had,

like a kiln or screenprinting exposure unit.

After the tour of the building, we arrived at the studio that Kay shared with her husband Greg,

another Uarts alum who is a full time illustrator (I’ll be writing another post about sharing the

space with him later on), and their sweet dog Eleanor (who I will also be writing about more

later). Kay offered me a cup of tea and we sat to talk, and I tried to not be too terribly

distracted by the beautiful studio space I was sitting in. There were lots of books, plants, and

all sorts of different art supplies laid out, in addition to two sewing machines and the pieces

she was currently working on tacked to the wall-- sketches of plants in massive pots that

were about 6 feet tall.

She started off by telling me about her time in school, she received a BA from Oberlin

College in Art History and her MFA from Uarts in Printmaking and Book Arts. She spent time

as an educator, worked for a time as the director of the Philadelphia Magic Gardens, and just

recently decided to take her practice as an artist full- time. We talked briefly about myself and

the type of work I make and am interested in making, what drives me, and the connections

between us as artists. I was pleasantly surprised that we had a lot in common, especially

when it came to what fueled us as individuals. We talked about our personalities, the crazy

times we find ourselves in the world, our responsibilities as artists, studio practices, our

schedule together over the summer, organization, and finally, paperwork. She helped me fill

out the papers I needed to get things going, and I was on my way.

In the next post I’ll talk about my first day and how the work we did progressed!