We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kathryn Stedham. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kathryn below.

Hi Kathryn, thanks for joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

This goes way back! As I mentioned, in the early part of my life, I was very inspired by my grandparents, especially my grandfather, TC Stedham. I followed him around, and he was my absolute favorite person on the planet. He was always like a tinkerer and an inspiring artist. He was very fascinated with paint and drawing, and he built furniture in addition to drawing and painting. He would introduce materials to me even before I was even able to handle the materials. He’d say, “This is the number two pencil and the number four pencil,” and make distinctions between them. Most kids play with crayons, I was introduced to paint. At a very young age, I vividly remember him excitedly bringing home a can of gesso. He explained how to layer it on one way, and then layer it on another way in the opposite direction, so you cross-textured it, and that goes under the paint. This moment really stands out in my mind.
All my childhood when we’d have family over, I was always drawing and ignoring everyone. When I was about five years old, I was drawing on this huge piece of paper on the floor, and I remember people asking, “Who’s out a picture of?” And I said, “Well, it’s my granddaddy.” They said, “Oh, aren’t you a good little artist.” I didn’t even know what the word artist meant, but I looked at my paper and thought… if it has anything to do with this – that’s what I’m doing. From then on, the word “artist” stuck with me. Anytime I was asked, “What do you wanna be when you grow up?” I knew I wanted to be an artist.
I never looked back. I did an excellent job of sabotaging every other career opportunity because I kept my eye on the ball. My parents were supportive. I had a commercial studio by the time I was 15 years old. I entered art competitions and took it seriously from a very young age. I had someone who was doing it and encouraging me. I could see it as something I could do because my grandfather had done it so early on in my life, had shown it to me, and took it seriously, which instilled in me the seriousness of it. The art world can be challenging because you know there are critics who say, “Oh, if you’re doing to make a living, you need to do something else. But for him, it was always quite serious; he would say, “Oh, if you do this, you could work for Hallmark. If you do this, she could work for Disney, etc.” So, it was always a viable thing in my mind from a very young age, and I always knew that was what I wanted to do.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Being in the creator field has its ups and downs. The big challenge is – can you make it? There’s a lot of risk involved in doing artwork and doing it for a living or any type of art field. While shaping my career, I moved West and even changed my genre; I was well-known back east, showing in DC as an Abstract artist, and I reinvented myself in multiple ways coming West. Soon after moving West comes the economic crash of 2008. At the time, I had this fantastic studio in the highly desirable sugarhouse region of Salt Lake City. And I was sitting there thinking, “Oh my gosh, how am I gonna do this?” It’s funny because, in hindsight, it reminds me of that complete fear and unknown when Covid happened. So, in 2008, the talk was that artwork wouldn’t sell, galleries would close, etc. Artists were coming to me and asking, “What are you going to do?” Everyone was freaking out and having a hard time. During hard times, what artists tend to do is scale back, so suddenly, there’s a push to scale back and paint small work since it’s more readily accessible. At the time, I didn’t really paint small work. I always painted large paintings – 8, 10-foot paintings. I remember thinking there’s this painting I want to paint, and I want to paint it 8 feet. My friends thought that was crazy! Because I took all of my resources and threw it into one painting rather than dividing myself up into a bunch of tiny little paintings. Over about a month or more, I created this painting, which was 8 feet in height. My friends would come to the studio, and they thought I was an absolute nut.
At this point, I was struggling to keep my studio afloat, paying all my expenses, trying to get by, and I painted this gargantuan painting. They said, “Dear God, why the heck did you do that?!” Fast-forward, there was a call for public art by the city of Salt Lake, and I had an RFP out for the call. I got it and submitted this image as a possible candidate for this project, which was three paintings. I made the final cut with my project proposal and went into a meeting with the architect and the committee. I had some friends bring this huge, heavy painting and put it in the hallway. So when it was my turn, I gave my presentation, and at the end, I said, “Well, just bring in the painting!” They brought in my painting and turned it around, and I remember hearing the architect in the back of the room going, “Well, there it is.” I knew I had a deal. So, not only did they buy that painting on the spot, but they also bought two others. I sold three paintings that were 8 feet, incredibly substantial paintings, and that really propelled my career forward at that point. It got me out of the scary and extraordinary times that we’re living.
Being an artist, that is a part of it people don’t often think of. How do you survive the pit falls of not just your own career but also the economy? How do you stay afloat? Do you take risks? My entire career was and is about taking risks. This was an incredible risk, and it was one of the best decisions I had ever made. Instead of painting smaller when you’re scared – paint bigger.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

It’s pretty interesting to be at this point in my career. I can call myself successful; I’m in major galleries and major museum shows this and that. You think, I finally made it. You’re always working and striving to create better work, and you never feel like you’re quite there, which keeps you hungry. However, the one thing I noticed is that we dream of making it and what that will be like. For me, it was, okay, I’m going to be financially secure so that I can paint even bigger and better paintings because I have resources, but surprisingly, it wasn’t that. That actually caught me off guard. The thing that I find the rewarding part about it is the further I get along in my art career, and the more I’m acknowledged, the more that I just get to be myself. There’s a real freedom in being a creative. It can be challenging to fit a mold early in your career or say the right things. If you’re being interviewed, you must hide your accent, mind your manners or something of the sort. All of that becomes, amazingly enough, transformed the minute you become known. It’s kind of like you’re accepted. Things I would think are flaws about myself or things I was embarrassed about — people find endearing and interesting, and they want more of it! They want even more of you; they want to know – who are you? So, I found a real freedom in being successful; I get to be myself. I get to just speak my mind, but I get to be me, whatever that is. I don’t fit any type of mold. The more I go along, the more I’m just delighted that, wow, there’s such freedom here and I get to just be myself. I never expected that would be the rewarding part. People meet me where I’m at. I really enjoy people, I get an opportunity to tell my stories, and I’m not trying to tell a story that’s to impress anyone or get anywhere anymore – I’m just talking about my life. I imagine it’s that way with any profession or career; the more you go along, there are other pressures, but less pressure that way, so it takes some of the burden off that you get to be yourself.
Surprisingly enough – it’s not the money or the security. I’ve had my own unique journey, and you will, too. It is going to be scary. There’s no doubt about it: you’ll find your courage and your own way of doing things, and you might be surprised by your rewards. It’s not going to be what you think it’s going to be. Maybe some of that will come, but you might find another depth of something even more meaningful.

Image Credits
Mary Neiberg Photography Kristen Oliver