Kathleen McMullen - Artist - Designer - Writer
BACKGROUND
Born in San Jose, CA, Kathleen attended Catholic school, several San Jose high schools and left home at 15 to live on her own; first in Los Gatos and then Berkeley at 17 years old. She attended UC Berkeley where she holds BA degrees in Fine Art and the History of Art. She studied painting with Elmer Bischoff, Joan Brown and David Simpson. Printmaking became a passion while taking a lithography class with George Miyasaki and then later, intaglio printmaking. While at UCB she also studied in the History of Art department under Peter Selz and Herschel Chipp and worked both at the University Art Museum and in the Art History Library at the Bancroft Library and did research for Professor Chipp.
While attending UCB, Kathleen joined a small modern dance company in Sonoma County and sought to be a dancer while still pursuing her art studies. Her love of movement, both through dance and sports has always been a passion. During her college years, Kathleen became fascinated with native American dances after seeing a Pow Wow on the Stewart Reservation near Carson City, Nevada where her family had moved while she was at college. She began visiting various reservations to see ceremonial dances and was fortunate to see the impressive Hopi dances that are closed to the public. Her interests grew to include Native American Art and ceremonies and she sought and did a work-study job at the Hearst Museum of Anthropology (then called Lowry). Visits to both California and the Four Corners area and Native American reservations in Montana and New Mexico cultivated her interest in both land conservation, and earth-based spirituality. She is involved in land conservation efforts to date, especially in the area of water conservation and soil erosion prevention in New Mexico.
Kathleen worked at Crown Point Press while a student at UCB and continued for the year after graduating. She had the opportunity to make intaglio prints with artists such as Claes Oldenbeurg, Richard Diebenkorn, Sol Lewitt, Beth Van Hoesen and Mel Bochner. This experience led her to seek out Nathan Oliveira as a teacher through his work in monotypes.
Oliveira had a profound influence on Kathleen's work and life in the years she spent studying with him as a graduate student at Stanford. Oliveira influenced her use of color and form, and had a transformative influence on her life as an artist and how she saw herself and her dedication to her work. Her years at Stanford were both a foundation for her thinking about art as a spiritual practice and art as a way of being and not just a means to an end. Through her many deep conversations with Oliveira and working with him, he taught Kathleen that making art is a life long process and part of our spiritual and fundamental work in life. She lives this philosophy daily through art, design, social justice and environmental work.
Stints of living in France and extensive time in Europe also informed Kathleen's interest in art, design and architecture. As well, Kathleen thrived on yearly travel to diverse and exotic locations such as the Amazonian rain forest, Fiji, Tahiti, and South East Asia—Java, Bali, Irian Jaya, Thailand and Singapore— as well as China. These journeys were always punctuated by North American travel, especially to remote hot springs, backpacking trips to energy vortex locations such as the Grand Tetons and Sedona Arizona. She spent long stints in Montana, Idaho and Nevada after college. These combination of sensibilities are evident in the way that she works both as an artist and as a designer: everything is alive, all things have an energetic blueprint and every person is impacted by design in the ways that they chose to live.
Kathleen's early work in museums and her abiding interest in art, design and architecture led her on a path where she worked for several major architectural firms, and then later in advertising and branding. Her years spent as an art curator for design clients and later as an interior designer allow her to help her clients create a true sense of deep belonging in their homes. Many of her clients hang her commissioned work. Her firm, Tower Design Studio (named for Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill where she lived for 35 years) combine her love of art with both interior design and as a graphic and product designer.
An adventurer, Kathleen is an avid yogi, mountain biker, hiker, diver, skier and wilderness lover. Her images combine the numinous, environmental and totemic, with the recognition that we are not separate from the earth and the universe at large. She often works in phases using fire, water, earth and air combined with birds, foxes, pumas, whales and other animals as primary forces in her compositions. Her oil paintings are more detailed and generally take over a year to produce while and her acrylics are more immediate and abstract. Each medium lends its voice to her aesthetic.
Kathleen taught Art and Design at the San Francisco Art Academy, UC Berkeley Extension, and FIDM (Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising). Her firm, Tower Design Studio can be viewed here: www.towerdesign.com
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Purchasing Art
Many pieces are for sale here. Kathleen frequently works on commission and her pieces can be purchased as giclees upon request.