Today we’d like to introduce you to Katie Orchard.
Katie, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I’m an artist from New York, and I’ve been living in San Diego for the past six years. The first time I picked up an oil pastel, which is like an oil paint in a crayon form, was on accident. They were lying around in my art room in middle school when I didn’t feel like painting with acrylics or drawing with charcoal. I honestly can’t remember when I got my first set of oil pastels either, it just feels like I’ve always had them.
My family is very artistic and creative, my dad is an industrial designer and likes to paint with water colors. My mom is a quilter and very crafty. My sister is a fashion designer, my brothers are musicians, my grandma was a needle pointer, and so on. There was always this feeling that I was quietly chasing: if I could find my skill in our creative family, that would be my place in my family.
Oil pastels became my escapism when I had a problem that I didn’t know how to solve or for those transitory moments in life when I didn’t know what to do next.
In college, while brainstorming over whether I should transfer out of the physics department and try another major, I painted Yoda scratching a record on a turntable (not my original concept). When I lived in Brooklyn and realized the borough had changed drastically from when I was growing up, I painted tulips and fish and outdoorsy things. And when I moved out to California, I painted everything else from a dirt bike after a ride, Carmen Miranda in La Catrina makeup, bubbles floating past a galaxy, a lion wearing his crown, and of course, Leia and Han Solo.
Throughout the process of creating one of my oil pastels, my brain goes into autopilot similar to a Tesla. It’s not just autopilot, the car is driving and seems to be almost conscious, but I can sit back. I currently work as a Product Manager, developing new internet products internally and externally for an internet marketing company, and I can feel my brain work all day. It’s like I sit down in a vintage car with a manual transmission and no cruise control and start on my 8-hour drive to my paycheck, navigating through cities and backroads, trying to find the best path for our production team to follow in. It can be fun but at the end of the day, it’s work.
When I paint with oil pastels, a quiet, compelling, and refreshing bit of my brain lights up and takes over. It’s what I imagine Ubering in a self-driving Tesla would be like if the destination was created by Tim Burton or Guillermo del Toro in the style of Van Gogh or Cezanne (depending on what the intent of the oil pastel was).
I love painting with oil pastels because it reflects a view of the world, through my own eyes, that I don’t see on a regular basis. It shows me humor and movement and a more saturation future. Oil pastels are both my escapism and my expressionism.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
My art is bright and colorful. A lot of my pieces are gifts given to friends and family which puts really interesting constraints on what I can do.
My dad once told me that giving a gift should be 50% for that person and 50% from you. That way, it avoids anything generic. I took that and ran with it in my art. I find an audience, find something I want to give to them, and figure out how it would be from me, if that makes sense.
As an example, I once dated a guy who loved three things, football, his cars, and his friends. He was an all-American guy. So, what could I give him for Christmas when my usual gift is a custom piece of art (because that’s what you get good at when you don’t have a lot of spending cash)? A portrait of Jerry Rice, his favorite football player.
I created a composite in Photoshop, the way I start all my oil pastels, using two images of Jerry and blended them together until the overall image felt settled. Then I went to work. I laid out a grid on my paper, sketched the image, and started painting.
I did the same thing for my best friend’s birthday. She’s a photographer (Cameron Derby Photography) with a long mane of golden hair. As most best friends do, I am protective and territorial and want only the best for her. So, I gave her a royal portrait of a lion wearing a crown. Obviously.
My favorite reaction is when they see the piece for the first time and laugh. I love seeing them bring the piece close to the face to see all the details. It’s not a piece of art, it’s their piece of art, from me.
Do current events, local or global, affect your work and what you are focused on?
This is a really good question that I think about a lot. I use my art as personal escapism and expressionism but as a whole art is critical to every moment in time.
Art is a non-verbal language that inspires and communicates across time. It can remind us of who we are or show us what isn’t being seen.
Rosie the Riveter helped the American economy during World War II. She reimagined what it meant to not only be an American, but what it meant to be an American Woman. An artist created that.
Scientific American hires artists for every issue to visually express and represent complex ideas to scientists and non-scientists alike. And they’re graphics are AMAZING! They pull you into each article, laying the seeds of inspiration of what’s possible and what people are discovering across scientific fields.
Starting in 1968, Hipgnosis, an English design studio, redefined what music looked like with their album covers for Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Peter Gabriel, and many more. Their experimental techniques at representing the explosive and revolutionary music of the time literally changed the face of music. Not to mention, they were the inception of what “Photoshopping” is today.
So, as it sits at my desk, painting flowers made of steel by the window, view of the 5 highway, a neighbor’s orange tree, and a gas station sign, I do think about what I should be doing that is… more.
I think in an age where the news has become a form of entertainment, constantly trying to keep up with what happened yesterday, art has to remind us of who we were, what life is like outside of that chaotic download of information, and where we can go from here. It has to be both our escapism and direction.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
My art is viewable on my website, www.katieomedia.com.
I would love to collaborate if anyone sees my art and is interested! And if you have an idea for a commissioned piece, hit me up! We can figure out a cool piece even if you just have a few ideas.
I’ll be submitting a piece I’m working on right now to an art show in Bloomingdale, IL (just outside of Chicago) that opens on June 9th at Peace of Art Gallery. The show is called IMPACT: inspire Skate Deck Show and features artists from across North America creating art on skate decks. My piece will be shared on my Instagram (@katieomedia) and on my website (www.katieomedia.com) as soon as the show opens.
I’m also a video editor and graphic designer, so I’d love to collaborate on everything from film to promotions to custom pieces of art. And if you’d like to buy a print of one of my pieces, you can email me at katieomedia@gmail.com. Let me know what piece, how big, and if you’d like it framed or not.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.katieomedia.com
- Email: katieomedia@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katieomedia
Image Credit:
Illustration of Katie Orchard by Cameron Derby
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