We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Katherine Gressel. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Katherine below.
Katherine, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?
I grew up always doing art, especially painting, and always knew I’d be an artist of some kind. In college and grad school, I also developed a love of sharing my art with others, pursuing internships and summer jobs involving teaching and public art, including organizing and painting community murals. I realized I enjoy making art with and for other people in public more than making art by myself in a studio. I have since then always sought out jobs and projects that explore art’s role in community-building and social change.
In 2008, I first discovered live event painting as another way to share the excitement of painting with the public. A bride found my work online and approached me about painting her wedding, and after that I was hooked and have been doing it full-time since 2014. I also still work part-time for nonprofit organizations organizing participatory and site-specific art exhibits and programs. I also love connecting other artists with the public.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
My career path is a bit unusual in that I make a full time living as a visual artist, and pursue freelance nonprofit arts administration and curatorial work as my additional creative and professional outlet (as I am still very passionate about this type of work). In 2014, after successfully building my eventpaintingbykatherine.com live painting business, I left my full-time job of four years as Smack Mellon gallery’s program manager to focus more energy on painting weddings and other events. By that time I was booking between 70-100 events per year and have maintained that busy painting schedule over the past 10 years.
Through my live event painting business, I travel worldwide to weddings, bar/bat mitzvahs, birthday parties, family reunions, and corporate events, and capture the action in a live painting. Each painting serves as both entertainment for guests and a lasting memento of a special day. My paintings strive to capture the energy and emotion of a live event in a dynamic, impressionistic composition. I usually spotlight a special moment–a dance, vow exchange, embrace, speech, etc–between two or more key people while preserving the looseness and freshness of live action painting in the background and/or supporting characters. I collaborate closely with my clients to understand their vision and incorporate the colors, decor details, and special guests that make their events unique, while also infusing my own artistic sensibility. I also like to give back by donating live paintings several times a year to nonprofit organizations whose missions I support; often my paintings are part of fundraising auctions where the highest bidder is added to the painting.
My curatorial and nonprofit work focuses on socially-engaged, public and participatory art. As the founder and director of the contemporary art program at Brooklyn’s Old Stone House & Washington Park (OSH) historic site since 2016, I oversee artists and guest curators realizing ambitious solo projects and thematic group shows relating OSH’s history and environment to contemporary issues. I have also curated and produced projects for such organizations as the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, NARS Foundation Gallery, FIGMENT, No Longer Empty, St. Francis College, and Brooklyn Historical Society. I am currently working on a series of exhibitions focusing on issues relating to parenting, caregiving and fertility (as a member of the Mother Creatrix Collective of fellow artist mothers). You can follow my curatorial work on instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/katherinegressel_curator/
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
1. Honing my craft! My years of formal art (i.e. figure drawing, plein-art painting), art history and arts administration training in college and grad school, and hours spent in the studio, have all contributed to my success as both a live painter and contemporary art curator. Make sure you can deliver a good product before focusing too much on networking and promoting yourself! When I was just starting out as a live painter, I also donated event paintings to a few friends/family members in order to build my portfolio and gain confidence, before formally advertising my services.
2. Networking and community building! My most reliable source of new event bookings is still through word of mouth, i.e. from past event clients and event planners and venues. Maintaining good professional relationships with people who might refer me in the future is very important. I also attend networking events, art openings, and professional development workshops and set up one on one informational meetings with professionals in my field which has led to a variety of opportunities including curatorial and speaking/writing engagements. Social media has definitely played a role in my success especially in the early years of promoting myself on Instagram as an event painter, but I’ve never actually gone “viral” and have found it challenging to stay on top of the changing algorithms these days and get as much engagement on my posts. So I still find that direct personal connections are often the most fruitful and reliable in obtaining and maintaining new business. Finally, it’s been great to build virtual and in-person communities of other professionals in my field for accountability, informational exchange and support! For example, I take part in several facebook and chat groups with other live painters (especially helpful as we all weathered the pandemic together). We like to prioritize community over competition. My Mother Creatrix Collective group of fellow artist/curator moms has opened up new opportunities to for me to collaborate on exhibitions and art projects I might not have had time to pursue individually.
3. Persistence and professionalism! This includes finding tools to stay organized especially when managing multiple clients and projects, setting goals (including financial goals), and importantly, learning to say no sometimes to things that might cause burnout or don’t provide adequate compensation or exposure, or to clients /opportunities that are not the right fit.
To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?
I was lucky to have parents who were both in creative (and academic) fields, and encouraged me to pursue my dreams as an artist, including majoring in art in college. I was also fortunate that they chose to raise me in New York City where I had access to a wealth of cultural institutions and art classes. My parents instilled in me at a young age a love of going to museums and enrolled me in art after-school programs and summer camps. My mom was also a wonderful role model of how to balance living a creative life with raising children and giving back to her community–she is a professional classical music composer who also taught at the university and high school level most of her life and touched the lives of many students as well as her own two children.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.eventpaintingbykatherine.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eventpaintingbykatherine/, https://www.instagram.com/katherinegressel_curator/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EventPaintingByKatherine/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherine-gressel-031a9560/
Image Credits
Image 1: Event Painting by Katherine action shot at a wedding. Image credit: Brian Dorsey Photo.
Images 2-7: Sample wedding paintings by Event Painting by Katherine, photos by Katherine Gressel
Image 8: DRF 50th anniversary fundraiser event painting by Event Painting by Katherine, photo by Katherine Gressel
Image 9: Sample curatorial project: installation view of “Artistic Developments: Artists and the Language of Real Estate” at NARS Foundation Gallery, Brooklyn (2016 curatorial open call winner)
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
