Katie Vernon is an illustrator and author living in the mountains of Flagstaff, Arizona. She has the memory of a large goldfish and loves making art with lots of textures and vibrant colors. Katie is rather fond of her high school sweetheart, their daughter, and their two goofy dogs.
ANY PERSON WHO REALLY HELPED YOU IN YOUR AWESOME ARTISTIC JOURNEY?
My childhood basement was full of crafty junk that I was allowed to make stuff with. My mom was (and is) a great artist and encouraged creativity, tinkering and an overall DIY attitude.
WHERE DO YOUR BEST IDEAS COME FROM? (DREAMS, SHOWER, MUSEUM, TRAIN?)
The ideas that live in the caverns of my mind will crawl out when I'm walking outside by myself with no headphones.
WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE THING TO DRAW AS A CHILD? WHY DID THAT LODGE IN YOUR HEAD?
I loved drawing a turkey leg—especially with a perfect bite taken out of it and the little cartoonish bone nubbin’. Iconic.
ANY ACTIVITIES, EXERCISES OR STRATEGIES TO PULL YOURSELF OUT OF THE OCCASIONAL ARTISTIC RUT?
I love cutting up bits of old work (very therapeutic!) and making collages out of them. For me there's zero pressure to make a collage perfect—so it's very inspiring for coming up with new ideas for shapes, color combos and textures.
DID YOU HAVE A MAGIC MOMENT WHEN YOU KNEW YOU WANTED ART TO BE YOUR LIFE?
I always entered those seasonal grocery store coloring contests as a kid and I kinda always won. I would not call it magical, I just knew art was something I was pretty ok at.