As I was conducting an interview for the art edition, I noticed a young woman painting in the corner of her mother's enclosed porch. "Another artist in the family?" I asked. The answer was, "Yes. This is Kate. Kate paints."

A 2000 graduate of BRHS, Kate Oberreich is a senior at Ball State University currently working on an Honors College Fellowship. She will graduate in July with a major in fine art with an emphasis in painting.

As the only child of two artists, she has the genetic predisposition of artistic expression, "I love making art. I don't know any better way to express myself," she says. Her mother is Sandi Finney, Hole Pottery, also in this issue of the Gazette.

For a young woman, this artist already has experience. Kate remembers, "I started hanging around the Art Center with my mom where she took classes when I was about 9 or 10 (then it was the Indianapolis Art League). I was friends with other kids of students and instructors in the ceramics department. We spent a lot of time playing in the old building and down by the White River and going into the village to hang out and visit the shops. I enjoyed the small town in a big city feeling of the Village." She is concerned that the small businesses, coffee shops, and the quietness of the neighborhood will be lost with the increasing presence of condos and chains.

Kate took advantage of art classes during her childhood and adolescence. She took classes at the Art Center, participated in the Visual Arts Magnet Program at Broad Ripple High School, and in the summer of 1998 she studied at the California College of Arts and Crafts (now the California College of the Arts).

Painting is her favorite medium. In order to ensure that her ideas don't vanish, she keeps a sketchbook. Thoughts, postcards, articles, photos, songs and quotes go into to the notebook and are likely to emerge as a painting.

Kate tries to convey ideas that are both personal and universal. She recently has been working with the idea of journeys and the sense of home and place; the subject of her senior thesis is journeys. To find out how she included a map in her work, check out her show at the Atrium Gallery at Ball State this summer.

Kate's plans after graduation are uncertain. She is considering graduate school, but has an ultimate dream. "I would like to be a full-time artist, but that's nearly impossible in Indianapolis. My hope is that this won't always be the case." She's not sure if the focus on the arts in the city is growing fast enough for her to stay.

This young painter's work is bold, and she has already exhibited work in the Basile Gift Shop at the Indianapolis Art Center. She has also received commissions and created murals for private residences.

For now, Kate will paint as much as possible and show her art when opportunities arise. Let's hope that she can make her career in Indianapolis, the city that she loves.