She came up from Cedar Falls in a tiny ‘clown car’ that gave no impression of the wealth of work stashed within it. We immediately set to work hanging the show and organizing the space. It was so great to see her again and see all this work I have been inspired by over the years.

Because this was our first visiting artist exhibition, I had no idea just how much artwork it takes to fill this space. An illustrator like Kate generally works fairly small, because her work is scanned or photographed for reproduction. She brought much of her archives and we were able to fill the service bay walls with her illustration work and place her new prints in the chalet gallery. The place looked great!

In the first hour of the event on both days, we had 12-year-old Jordan Peterson play her alto saxophone from the roof of the building. There were a lot of folks in town this weekend, and this is a great way to let them know something funky is happening here. She loved it–we loved it!

Kate shared her career story with the Friday crowd and gave us some tips on “How to grow an illustrator” that we won’t soon forget.

We had a full house of sincerely nice folks to hear her artist talk (but just like the Lutherans, no one sat in the front row). Thanks to all who joined us!

On Saturday, Kate offered to screen a Furrgo! print onto a t-shirt that visitors brought from home. It was a great success–she printed cats in the morning and dogs in the afternoon.

My dear pal, Michele, helped as Kate’s print assistant all day, pulling, hanging and organizing the t-shirts for folks. They made a great team–thanks to the Divine Ms. M!

We had visitors in a constant stream throughout the event…we estimate maybe we saw about 400 folks throughout the two days. The weather was beautiful; the vibe was lively all around town; it was a great weekend to spend in New London! Thanks to all who stopped by to meet Kate, experience her story, her work and support her terrific talent.

Thank you to Kate, John and Martha (and Biscuit!) for making the long trek up here for the show. It was piles of fun!

And I would be remiss if I did not extend a warm (and hilarious) thank you to Kenzie, who worked so hard throughout the entire week and the event to prepare the space, serve the treats, fix trouble and keep the place running. She is a treat! Thanks, Lil’K!!