Little Red Riding Executive by Caty Bartholomew

Sophomore Concepts and Toy Design faculty member Caty Bartholomew was recently interviewed by the fine folks over at Groovy Careers. Caty talked about teaching, working as a freelance artist, and how awesome toys are.  Here’s a snippet:

You are an artist and a teacher. What’s the grooviest part of your work? What’s the most fun? It’s a great balance. Being an artist is a pretty solitary experience. Teaching is outward and group-oriented.

Illustrating is great. I love making pictures, creating characters and stories, communicating ideas. It’s rewarding to see my image in print, in The New York Times, or some other magazine or newspaper, knowing how many people will come across it.

How did you get into teaching?

I was feeling very fulfilled in my freelance illustration career, when a teaching job kind of fell in my lap. I agreed to do it because I have a knee-jerk response of “yes!” to almost any career opportunity that comes my way. I was truly surprised to discover how creative teaching can be. Art school is a rich and stimulating environment. The student work is inspiring and I often invite guest artists to come in and talk about their work. I also enjoy creating a curriculum and crafting the exercises and assignments to support my teaching goals.

Last year we made people-size marionettes of some of the characters in Pinocchio and dangled them out of the eighth floor window to the street. We had a great time and bystanders seemed to enjoy the show.

Here’s the link to our class blog: toyconceptsparsons.wordpress.com

Make sure you read the rest of her interview here.  Stay groovy, Caty!