Considering the mix of childhood imagination and adult realities that inspire her work, it’s no surprise that Kathleen Lolley has been thinking like an artist since she was able to hold a crayon. “That’s how I liked to communicate with people, rather than talk with them,” she says, “I still do. I have to draw every day — for me, being artistic is like breathing.”
The 29-year-old Louisville native, who spent some of her childhood in Pittsburgh, uses a variety of media for her self-expression. An early interest in film led her to the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, Calif., for a degree in experimental animation. While her resume, with big names like Nickelodeon Studios and Warner Brothers, proves her talent in that area, she decided her true love lies elsewhere. “I didn’t really like Hollywood,” she says, “and in college all you think about is creating. You don’t think about the environment you will /files/storyimages/up working in.” As she began to phase out film and animation, her focus changed to her ink drawings, where she flourished. Her works have been exhibited in galleries across America and on album covers, including the latest release, Z, by native sons My Morning Jacket.
Lolley’s return to Louisville in 2004 brought a serendipitous meeting with Priscilla Cash, co-owner of the funky Bardstown Road gallery and gift shop Kopilot. “I was like a stray cat,” Lolley laughs. “I wandered in there one day and she took me in and gave me space to be creative.” The store features Lolley’s art, some of it translated onto T-shirts or available as plush animal dolls she calls “Lolley Pals.” Her work is littered with critters — owls commonly make an appearance — that come from a child-like fascination with folk and fairy tales. The innocents are pitted against a sinister city or shown holding bottles of booze — examples of realities from the adult world that have infiltrated the fantasy. “Fairy tales are really gruesome and dark, which you realize as you get older,” she explains. “I like that to be a subtle and underlying truth that appears in my work.”
This year could bring some breakthroughs for the young artist, who already has a major show lined up for April in Seattle, where she has never exhibited but is being allowed to fill an entire gallery. She approaches this exciting step with careful consideration and an eye on quality, not necessarily quantity. “I’m just trying not to spread myself out too much,” says Lolley.
The artist’s work is available locally at Kopilot, 1414 Bardstown Road, www.kopilot.net, and through Lolley’s website, www.kathleenlolley.com.
