What's been going on in your world and circles lately?

I work as a librarian in teen services. I focus my work life on social, educational, and financial equity for teens. I am surrounded by people who dedicate their lives to helping others rise to be their best selves, and I feel so privileged to know so many great people right now. I try to squeeze in time to work with other artists and read.

Anything in particular you've been working on?

I've been working on a big grant to bring art classes to teens and young adults in critical living situations like shelters and foster care. Fingers crossed

Tips, Tricks, Techniques?

My only tip is when working with underglazes, I like to fire the outline of my illustrations onto greenware during the bisque firing so my lines stay sharp when the work goes through the glaze kiln.

Other projects you see happening around that are cool?

My good friend Lauren Panichelli is always up to something interesting. I highly recommend following them at snakeeugenics on Instagram. Darci Lenker is doing amazing things with fiber arts. Follow her at darcilenkerart on Instagram. I am absolutely loving the tattoo art of Melise Hill. Follow her at melisehilltattoo on Instagram. We have amazing programs at the library that are always free. If you are interested in learning more techniques and mediums, please check out the calendar for upcoming programs.

Any stories you want to share?

During the height of the pandemic, many people took up backyard chickens, gardens, or sourdough. Being the swim against the stream type that I am, we took up raising quail instead. I do this. I take up hobbies in the Spring and by the middle of Summer, I'm over it. So my partner has a lot of hobbies that he did not start and does not enjoy. The quail were one of these "hobbies". We started with 17 and ended with 5. This was perhaps the largest hobby failure I have ever had. Quail are not like chickens, they lay an egg each and every day. The eggs are tiny, it takes 5 to make one large chicken egg. I grew wary of cracking 35 quail eggs to feed the family. Long story short, I do not recommend taking up hobbies in the Spring, and if you do, please spare the quail and your partner and take up sourdough.

Future thing you are looking forward to?

I struggle with severe RA and often can't use my hands well enough to work on my ceramics. I am looking forward to a new body of work that works with elements I can make even when I am in the most extreme pain, and creating abstract sculptures from them.

Favorite bands / albums lately?

Oh lord, I love music more than any other art form.
Many lyrics from music I listen to have made it to the bottom of cups in Pretty Vulgar. My current faves are all a little angry. I think it fits how I feel about the world right now. So here it goes, my band recommendations:

Most Recent-
Sprints
Wet Leg
Mannequin Pussy
Lambrini Girls
Amigo the Devil
Murder by Death
Lou Doillon

Oldies but Essentials-
Jenny Lewis
Sharon Van Etten
Cat Power
Pussy Riot
Sudan Archives
Florence and the Machine
Kendrick Lamar
Childish Gambino

I could go on and on.

Poem?
I am reading Joan Didion's Slouching Toward Bethlehem, and her inspirational poem at the beginning of the book has my whole heart right now.

The Second Coming

Turning and Turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all convictions, while the worst
are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand;
The second coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in the sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

W. B. Yeats

Visual artists (or whatever people) you've been digging lately?

I will always love Helen Frankenthaler, Eva Hesse, Louise Bourgeois, and Ruth Asawa.
But I am currently inspired by mostly ceramicists and tattoo artists. I am following my friend from undergrad, Juan Barroso. I have a long-time fondness for the work of Sue Tirrell. I mentioned Melise Hill. I recently purchased some mass-produced prints from Anthony Hurd and Alex Grant. I have also purchased some amazing pieces recently from Michael J Hildebrand and Jamie Bates.

Anything else?
Be kind to each other out there. Pain and suffering is invisible more often than not, and we are all going through so much right now. Be patient and be kind.

Katie Pendley’s Hot to Trot Quail design is currently available for preorder on a light yellow tank top of light blue t-shirt until Wednesday August 6th.

Place your order here: https://oscillator-art.com/katie-pendley

Katie Pendley

Erika Barker