Growing up in Mississippi in a family of storytellers and writers, KathyMcCullen discovered the world of her imagination early in life and hasbeen passionate about art for as long as she can remember. Primarily aself-taught painter, Kathy studied art, literature, and special education atMississippi State University and had a long career as a teacher. Initially,Kathy focused on art as a therapeutic tool for her students withemotional and learning challenges and taught children's art classesprivately and in community schools. Ten years ago, however, Kathybegan concentrating on her own painting and her bold, colorful workcan be seen in private and corporate collections across the United Statesand Europe and featured in national art publications. At heart a colorist, Kathy enjoys experimenting with media andtechniques and has developed a highly original, appealing style of herown. She has focused on subjects as various as: sea, land, harbors, andboats, as well as florals and people, always striking a delicate balancebetween figuration and abstraction. Kathy applies layers of paint with apalette knife and uses oil sticks, ink, graphite, and charcoal to achieveopaque and translucent layers and to create structures from the happyaccidents that occur. In her process compositions build themselves as Kathy allows intuition to guide theevolution of each painting. Kathy says, " Inspiration and essence are as important to me as the end product. Ibecome completely absorbed with my subject, as colors and shapes reveal themselves, in the processcreating, deconstructing, and painting over, until what I have been looking for is finally found."