An Artist Inside Everyone

Bob Ross, the fluffy-haired, bearded, soft-spoken television painter said that “anyone can put a masterpiece on canvas with a little practice”. His PBS TV show, The Joy of Painting, ran for 11 years, and inspired many viewers, including Katie Mallory. 

“Really, my foray into art started with drawing as soon as I could hold a crayon,” she relates. “I would draw horses and trees mostly. I constantly checked out the book Draw Horses with Sam Savitt from the library. He was an amazing artist.” Savitt is regarded as the most accomplished equine artist of his generation. 

“Bob Ross made art look so easy, and he had such positive energy. My parents bought me a set of his oil paints and brushes, and I would stink up the house with paint thinner.” Katie began painting with oils in her teens and learned the basics of watercolor and acrylic in her high school art class. 

She has taken a couple classes and follows artists on social media for inspiration and to study their techniques. Despite being a wife, mother and working full-time as Communications Director for the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets, Katie stepped out at the beginning of this year to sell on Etsy and have a booth at craft fairs. Her art is for sale at Southwest Virginia Cultural Center in Abingdon, Gardner’s Grill in Christiansburg and Blacksburg True Value at First & Main. 

 

Coming to the New River Valley

 

Katie came to a cadet-run drill meet at Virginia Tech as a member of her high school drill team. She was impressed with everything and intended to pursue a military career, so Virginia Tech became her top choice. “My dad is a retired Marine, my brother is a Marine. My cousin is a Marine, an aunt and uncles have served in the Marine Corps. I was the first Navy officer, though,” she states.

She left her hometown of Jonesborough, Tenn., for Virginia Tech and the Corps of Cadets in 1999. “The landscape here is much like where I grew up, and this area has that same small-town feel.” She majored in communications (class of 2004), then served four years in the U.S. Navy on the USS Carney and USS Theodore Roosevelt, seeing 11 countries new to her.  “My goal was to serve as a public affairs officer, but because attrition from surface warfare at the time was so high, no one was allowed a lateral transfer into different fields. Once I learned that, I decided the Navy would not be my career.”

After her service, Katie and her husband, Ken, who met at Virginia Tech, lived, worked and started their family in eastern Virginia. “When the chance to work at Virginia Tech came up, I jumped at it.  Moving back here five years ago has been the best thing for our young family. Ken also works with the Corps of Cadets. Our middle-school daughter, Abby, is a far better artist than I was at her age.”

The family has two dogs, loves to hike around the New River Valley and play card games. They also enjoy trivia at Iron Tree Brewing. “I often bring my paints because I am not the trivia powerhouse in the family,” she concedes. 

 

Back at the Easel

 

Though she has filled the basement with craft and art supplies, Katie credits her gracious husband with turning a blind eye to her painting in the dining room, or the back porch and outside in good weather. “Painting on the back porch with a cup of coffee in the morning is sheer heaven,” she says. 

Katie is hesitant to cite a favorite medium. “They all have special traits. I love the vibrancy and consistency of oils and how forgiving oils and acrylics are. I’m still learning watercolor and what draws me is the fluid nature of the art – dropping color onto damp paper and watching it bloom on its own. It’s almost poetic.” As for subjects, she could fall back easily into landscapes and, recently, loose flowers. “I love to draw horses in water-soluble ink and drop water onto the ink to see it move in the water across the paper.”

I’d love to give a shout-out to New River Art and Fiber in downtown Blacksburg. The store in itself is wonderful, and the people who work there always share in my enthusiasm for whatever I’m working on. As a newer watercolor artist, I tend to have questions about products, and they always take time answering my questions, sharing ideas, and being really kind people. – Katie Mallory

This lady artist, Navy veteran, quilter and photographer echoes Bob Ross’s observation about anyone being an artist.

 

 

“Sometimes, people at shows look at my work (or someone else’s work) and say: ‘I could never do that. I’m not artistic at all.’ And that’s not true. I think all of us have an artistic spark, some creative space inside our souls. It may not be something everyone can put on canvas or paper. It might lie in another medium. Maybe it’s music. Maybe it’s writing or sculpture or design. The tighter we define art, the more people we push away from being artistic.” 

So, perhaps it’s your turn to drop into New River Art & Fiber for a few paints, canvases and brushes, watch reruns of Bob Ross in The Joy of Painting and check out Draw Horses with Sam Savitt, which happens to be in the Montgomery-Floyd Regional Library.