We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kate McSpadden a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Kate , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

One of the most meaningful projects I have worked on was building the Enchanted Zoetrope installation for Electric Forest, an annual music festival held in Rothbury, Michigan.

This was actually the second time I have made an installation piece for the festival with the piece Find Your Wings in 2018. After the experience, I wanted to challenge myself to create something more interactive – Something that also teaches people how animation works in its most basic form.

I first wrote and submitted the proposal in 202, but the festival was canceled for two years due to COVID. After returning from living in Los Angeles, I decided to revisit the idea and submit it again – and it was accepted.

What made this project especially meaningful is that it was the first time I lead the entire building process myself. I coordinated planning and communication with the festival team, worked with a friend to help obtain the stump for free to construct the base, and create the animation discs digitally in Adobe Illustrator. My younger brother, who helped me with the previous installation piece, was unavailable this time, so he had to simplify the engineering so I can execute it on my own. This became a project where I had to take full ownership – from concept to execution – which made this incredibly rewarding.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

I earned my Bachelor’s degree in Time Arts from Northern Illinois University, where I created my first animated short film as a senior project. I later trained at Exceptional Minds, developing skills in animation, visual development, motion graphics, and production pipelines, and eventually working in their studio on a range of creative projects.

My work spans concept art, character and environment design, animation development, storytelling, and voice performance. I have served as head concept artist for Tree’s Blood, worked as a background artist on the recently released No Fishing, and participated in the Pokémon Trading Card Game Illustration Contest. I also work as a voice actress for animation and interactive media, including English dubbing for the On the Spectrum.

What sets my work apart is my ability to translate ideas across multiple media and adapt within a changing industry. I’m especially proud of my flexibility as an artist—moving between animation, illustration, and immersive design while staying responsive to industry shifts. The music festival industry reinforces this approach, as it encourages visual experimentation and large-scale creative work that aligns with current trends in animation and visual storytelling. This allows me to reach broad and diverse audiences while continuing to grow creatively.

Ultimately, I work across concept art, animation, storytelling, and voice performance to build fully realized visual worlds. My goal is to create work that is adaptable, immersive, and meaningful across different formats and audiences.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

While I really love creating artwork and animation, I also found that the process can sometimes feel quite isolating. That motivated me to explore a more collaborative and performance-based creative path, which led me to voice acting.

I had been interested in it since watching cartoons on Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon growing up, but shows like The Simpsons, Pokémon, and Yu-Gi-Oh! really stood out to me because of how actors could transform their voices and perform multiple characters within the same show.

That inspired me to take a more serious step into the field. I enrolled in an Adventures in Voice Acting class with Bang Zoom Entertainment, which was taught by Tony Oliver. Through that experience, I met and connected with many voice actors and started building relationships in the industry.

Just recently in May, I also had the opportunity to volunteer with Bang Zoom at Anime Central, helping run their open auditions.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

One thing I think non-creatives sometimes struggle to understand is how technical and structured the creative process really is.

From the outside, animation, visual development, or installation work can look like it’s purely imaginative or spontaneous, but in reality it involves a lot of planning, problem-solving, and iteration. For example, with my Enchanted Zoetrope installation, a large part of the process wasn’t just designing visuals—it was figuring out mechanics, timing, materials, durability, and how people would physically interact with the piece in a real environment (especially since people are intoxicated and under the influence of drugs at the festival).

Another thing that’s often overlooked is how much adaptation is required. Creative work rarely goes exactly as planned. In that project alone, I had to adjust the animation so it would translate properly from screen to print, rethink the engineering for safety, come up with plans in case something breaks or have back ups of things, and simplify the build so it could be executed within real-world constraints.

So I think what people don’t always see is that creative careers are just as much about engineering thinking, collaboration, and problem-solving as they are about artistic expression.

If anything, the creativity is in finding solutions when the original idea doesn’t survive the real-world process.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.artstation.com/kmcspadden
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artbykaemcspadden/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherine-mcspadden/
• Twitter: https://x.com/KaeMcSpadden
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@KaeMcSpadden
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/kaemcspadden
• Other: Personal Art Website: katemcspaddenart.com

Image Credits

Images are mine. Taken My Kate McSpadden, the one of Absol is what I made for the Pokemon card art contest, but the rights to that one belongs to Pokemon.