meet challenge member: Kathleen Potter

Kathleen Potter

1. Your name, location
Kathleen Potter, Hokitika, New Zealand

by Kathleen Potter

2. Describe your family
I live with my husband and our two sons, aged six and four.  We have a very messy chaotic household and our carpet does not bear close scrutiny.  I often find mouldy apple cores in unusual places, most recently my underwear drawer.

by Kathleen Potter

3. Describe your work
I work three days a week as a GP in a practice just across the road from the house we are renting.

4. What is your career goal?
Ummm.   At 42 years I am still trying to work out what I want to be when I grow up.  I change my mind weekly.   I really enjoy art, but I am not brave enough or talented enough to try to make a living from it.   I also really like science and research.   My goal is to work as little as practicable and to spend as much time as possible doing things that I like.
 

by Kathleen Potter

5. Describe your art background
Very limited.  I loved drawing and painting as a child and did art at school until I was 15, but then got side-tracked into less inspiring academic subjects.   I have always done bits and pieces, made people cards etc, but this year the Challenge has motivated me to create something regularly.

by Kathleen Potter

6. What do you love about the Challenge? What have you learned?
I love the combination of structure and freedom.  I like having a theme to work on and I love seeing how other people interpret it.   I am so grateful for the Challenge.  After I had children, I had a sense of rising panic that time was running out on me.  Art was something I had always wanted to do more of, but I couldn’t seem to find the time or energy to fit it into my life.

The Challenge gave me the motivation to start doing something regularly  - I discovered that I need deadlines and inspiration.  Now I do art for my own pleasure as well as the Challenge pieces.   I have learned to use the digital medium and I don’t know if I could go back to pencils and paper and paint now – I find that I am trying to zoom in on things when I do!

by Kathleen Potter

7. Tell us something that we don’t know about you
I grew up on the Chatham Islands – a small group of islands inhabited by 700 people (and a lot of sheep) about 500 miles east of New Zealand.    My parents were gypsies and I have inherited their wandering tendencies.   I like living in small towns.