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Kate and her father moved to San Jose to be with the rest of their family. In Virginia Kate was an artist, friend and daughter. Here in California it’s a balancing act. In addition to her role as artist, she balances her life as a daughter, sister, mother and grandmother of four within her twelve-member family. She loves being part of the family again, with its joys, celebrations and its tensions, but family life is a challenge, which sometimes makes it difficult for her make a creative life while balancing all these roles.

Kate graduated from Catholic University in Washington DC in 1957 with a degree in drama. She still truly loves the theatre. She recalls that her artistic impulse came from her high school years, which she spent in New York City. She fondly remembers that she saw 120 plays as a teenager, usually alone. She also remembers going to galleries, museums and art exhibitions during that time period, the era of abstract impressionism during the late 1940s and early ‘50s.

She is no stranger to balancing acts. She was married right out of college and had four children. Between taking care of children and making a home, she went back to American University, part time as an art student between 1964 to 1971, taking courses in painting, drawing, printmaking and art history.

Clever Magazine (CM): I'd like to begin our interview by asking you to tell me something about yourself. As a starting point, why don’t you choose five adjectives that describe yourself.

Kate Curry (KC): I’ll start with these words: creative, passionate, caring, perceptive and spiritual.

CM: I can see why you begin with creative. That's obvious by simply looking around this room. And from your description of your family life I can understand where caring comes from. That leaves passionate, perceptive and spiritual, so let's concentrate on those.

KC: Well, those three adjectives describe my work, as well as who I am, and what I need to say as an artist. My work focuses on the natural world and my connection to it. I paint from nature but I'm not a landscape painter in the traditional sense. My primary focus is not to recreate the facts of the scene; instead I seek to illuminate some deeper truth that is often hidden in nature.

CM: Perhaps you could explain that idea by telling us about your painting "Perilous Path." (See the painting behind KC in the photo that accompanies this article.)

KC: Okay. This was one of the first paintings I did when I came to California. I was so impressed with nature in California. I saw different shapes that I didn't see in Virginia. Take, for example, the dead tree in the foreground of "Perilous Path." It reminds me of the live oaks that I saw on the hillsides. They seem dead, but juxtaposed against the active sky, I can evoke the feeling of life, even in this dead tree. I will never be the same after seeing those live oaks. They have made a lasting impact on me, and this is part of what I want to share in this painting.

CM: And that's the spiritual part?

KC: Yes. Remember that the original creation begins in a garden. Perhaps that is one way a person can interpret the painting. However, I see it as a way of understanding and pondering the mystery of life and death.

CM: You mentioned that familiar shapes take on different meanings for you here in California. Tell me more about that.

KC: Okay. Take the agave plant, for example. You know, those huge green spiky plants with the red flower that spouts from their centers. Those plants don't grow in Virginia. I usually associate beauty with rounded shapes that are pretty and unchallenging, a kind of illustrative way of thinking about beauty. But the agave exhibits a paradox. It's spiky. Its hidden truth is that beauty can come forth in a very prickly and challenging way. That's what I mean by looking beyond familiar shapes. And that's one thing I’m saying in visual terms.

CM: I know you are an art teacher as well as an artist. Sometimes you take your students to look at art in galleries and museums. How do you begin to look at a painting or drawing?

KC: First, look at the work and allow yourself to respond to it. Ask yourself what memory or experience could relate to it in some way. How do you react to the shapes, colors and the content of the work? Everybody brings unique experience to a work. You cannot get completely into the mind of the artist, but you should remember that art is more than factual information about the recognizable image. Facts don't tell you everything there is to know about a subject. I don’t want a painting to simply confirm what I already know; I want it to take me someplace I have not been. Works of art seek to show you a deeper and more hidden truth.