Hi! My name is Katie Keehner, I come from Bayside, Queens. Growing up in New York City has really helped me open my eyes to the world of art around me. The amount of art galleries, museums, and shows in this city are immeasurable. Visiting as many of these art showings as I can is a goal of mine for 2016. So far, I’ve visited 5 different art museums/galleries; including the MoMa, New Museum, and Museum of Art and Design. The art scene of Downtown New York City is one of my favorite places; there’s always something to do and see. Some of my favorite art mediums to work with are watercolor, ebony pencils (prismacolor), tempera paint, and lead pencils. Lead pencils have been a love of mine for a long time; they’re like pencils but without the hassle of constantly having to sharpen them!

Before high school, I hadn’t thought of art as something I would want to seriously pursue; I had other interests. Since an extremely young age, I have had a passion for horseback riding, and horses in general. Horses have played a huge role in my discovery of another more hidden passion of mine, drawing. When I was about 7 years old, I began tracing photos of horses in a book about horses. I never had the chance to own my own horse (which was a side effect of living in NYC, but the grass is always greener on the other side). At around the same time that I had started attempting to draw horses, I began spending a lot of time over the summers upstate with my grandparents where I started learning how to ride and care for horses on a family friend’s ranch. As I kept retracing the same photos of the horses, I became able to draw most of the horses without tracing. This was the first real interest I showed in art.

When I was a freshman in high school my real passion for art came out in a Studio in Art 1 class. This crazy strict teacher taught the class, and he always seemed to push me harder than the other students. From the second I start a new project I become a perfectionist. This minor characteristic is a flaw and a blessing at the same time. I always want what I make to look how I want it to look, what I want it to symbolize, and in the medium of my choosing. When I first started in the Studio I remember making a caricature (using lead pencil of course) of Beyonce; it took me all of 4 hours. I can’t tell you how many times I made and recreated the same drawing with different stressed facial features until I finally produced the right face. And I still wasn’t fully satisfied with the drawing that I handed in! But that’s just me when it comes to my work. Thanks to my crazy freshman studio art teacher, I am now a sophomore taking an extracurricular Two Dimensional Design class and a Fine Arts class during my school day. And here I am now! As a student going from a very beginner Studio in Art 1class last year, to double art classes this year, was like diving into a whole new side of not only my school, but my abilities.

HFA 24 Basic Life Drawing is the first class I am taking at FIT so far. As soon as I heard about FIT’s Precollege classes, I knew that this is something I want to do to work towards my future for myself. I plan on making the best out of my time spent in FIT’s Precollege classes by not only making as much art as I can but also accepting the creative criticism and help my professor offers. My goals while taking Basic Life Drawing is to become a better artist, and strengthen my skills in drawing and shading. My goal for my entire time in FIT Precollege classes, is to push myself farther than my high school’s small art program can push me. I’m ecstatic to have the opportunity open to me to study art on a real art school campus, in a real studio, with professors to instruct me on how to further better my work.

This opportunity to blog for FIT is a great experience because it provides a chance to write outside of school and outside of the box of the topics I am usually writing and reading about. This blogging is a chance for me to help new incoming students at FIT Precollege classes, as I am a new student; it will also give me a place to journal my progress throughout the 11 weeks of classes. At the end of the semester, I would have something to look back to as a reminder of all I will achieve in my time spent studying Drawing in Life.