Michigan State - Resilience Story

My name is Kathryn Bailey, I am an Abstract Impressionist striving to Reimagine Nature, who specializes in large canvas oil paintings. 

I graduated with my Bachelor's of Fine Arts in Painting and Graphic Design from Michigan State University in December of 2018!

Since then, my work has been featured in three issues of British Vogue, and I have participated in two group shows in lower Manhattan, NYC!

Throughout my life I have found comfort in the woods. The secrets that are held within,

and the quiet strength of the mighty pine tree. It is everything that I wish to be: it can be burnt

down to ashes and come back even stronger, withstand the most powerful winds, and through

it all, it stays firmly rooted in place.

I have been told many times that because I was born with no hands, I would be unable

to achieve certain things in my life, however, I have found that to be completely false. Painting

is a way of revealing to myself that to have strength, I must first experience pain.

The landscape itself may not be seen as having much value, just as I have been judged.

Those opinions do not define who I am. It’s ok to be different, in fact, I encourage it.

My influences have ranged from Van Gogh to Thomas Kinkade until finally settling back on my first influence: Claude Monet. I have always been fascinated by the Impressionist movement - the way they can take pretty much anything and make you feel such intense emotions while only giving just enough information. I think it walks a beautiful line between too much and too little. I strive to take inspiration from the Impressionists while putting my own contemporary twist on my influencers from long ago.