From a very young age, Katie has had a passion for the arts. From singing, dancing, and performance arts to writing, crafting, drawing and painting.. even the culinary arts.. Katie has always loved being involved in creating.

When she reached her forties, Katie’s mental health and physical well-being had taken a hard downturn. The pandemic and several traumatic events over the course of her life had drastically changed who Katie was. Despite having a husband and children to care for, the isolation of the pandemic led Katie to turn inward. Over the course of the next two years, Katie reached her lowest point.

She turned to art for solace and began experimenting with mixed mediums and leaned hard into painting. Through art, Katie was able to rebuild her life and start over. A long fight to regain her health, a divorce, and a move closer to family set Katie on a path to lean into her skills and build on her passion. Hiking had become a very healing and pivotal activity for rebuilding Katie’s health. On her journeys, she would see beauty in nature’s surroundings and began to notice how light played through the forest and in the water. Katie began to observe the smaller details of color, shape, and design that flowed freely in nature. As well, she noted the many bridges and crossways over-encumbered with driftwood and logs from flooding. Slowly, Katie began foraging the drift wood to make sun catchers for her friends.

Katie has long-held a love for the works of Dale Chihuly. She had the pleasure of meeting him while working a Gala event at Palm Springs Art Museum in Palm Springs, CA where one of his works is on permanent exhibit. His use of soft curves and lines with bright colors, punctuated with sharp edges and angular shapes captured Katie’s imagination. His engagement with nature at the Chihuly Garden and Glass in Seattle, WA (which she finally got to see in person in 2023) served as a great inspiration as well.

These two life experiences inspired Katie’s love for nature and glass art. Katie began creating bright, whimsical sun catchers, jewelry, and paintings and it has been life-saving for her. Her primary mediums for crafting are colored glass, driftwood, and bronze. The same is true of her jewelry. Katie’s paintings are acrylic on high-quality mat board. She is currently broadening her scope with oil pastels and paint. While her paintings are no longer available for sale, Winded Root Creations will be releasing several of her paintings in print form in 2024.

Katie is so grateful for the enrichment art has provided her and for the ability to share her art with those whom will appreciate her gift.