Katie Gilmartin, Printmaker

I valiantly attempted to embody the anguished suffering artist, but chronic waffling and backsliding forced me to resign myself to a life of delight, abundance, and gusto. I now devote myself to the proliferation of art as play; my work aims to remind us of the redemptive power of pleasure. I create images that celebrate mirth, comfort, ease, fecundity, exuberance, bliss, and lust. These are our birthright and, in a just and therefore peaceful world, would be available to every one of us in abundance.

My checkered past includes stints as a miserable graduate student, buoyant union organizer, fastidious copyeditor, fabulous faux drag queen, unremitting sex goddess, and deeply engaged college professor. I began printmaking at an early age, with sheer delight in the simplicity and productivity of the lowly potato stamp. While still in grade school I participated in the creation of my first mural: an immense and outlandish dragon whose vast mouth was the entrance to the school library. Failing to recognize this as a cautionary premonition, I abandoned all such frivolousness to become a serious student upon my entry to Oberlin College and, later, Yale Graduate School.

My adult venture into printmaking began shortly after receiving my doctorate, with an urgent attempt to relocate pleasure. This led me to InkClan, print studio of the voluptuous Debora Iyall, located in the fabulously funky south of market cultural center known as SomArts. I attended a linocut class on the third Wednesday of September, 1997, and returned every Wednesday for the next three years. Interning with Iyall, I studied printmaking to the perpetual rhythm of Afro Cuban dance music pulsating from the dance studio located directly upstairs; I attribute my obsessive devotion to patterns in part to the repetitious drills of Roberto Borell's Wednesday night salsa classes. When Iyall moved to the high desert of southern California I assumed care of the beloved InkClan, where I now create my prints and teach an array of classes.

I co-own and co-operate City Art Cooperative Gallery, devoted to emerging artists and emerging collectors to the idea that it is far better to shell out $150 for vibrant original art by a local artist than to pay $98.99 for a reproduction of a reproduction of a Picasso print at Bed Bath & Beyond. At City Art I am surrounded by an inspired and convivial community of artists and art lovers who never fail to renew my faith in the power of community. I exhibit my work at various other sites around the Bay Area and at the Perrins Gallery in London.

My talents extend to the world of bubbling: I am capable of creating bubbles as large as your average seven year old child, and of persuading seven year old children to pop only every other one. I can frequently be found at the top of the hill in Dolores Park on Sunday mornings, worshiping the sky with bubble offerings unless it is windy, in which case I sleep in. My favorite color is chartreuse, my favorite scent lemon verbena, and my favorite word, "plush." I also have a favorite dictionary the paperback Random House Dictionary and would welcome a new copy as the current one is in six pieces and missing pages 256 and 257 ("dissuade" to "divider").