Based in Maine, Kate Cleaves is a trained artist who's art work she says expresses an obsession "with creating a synthesis between all things, as well as the notion that before forms are forms, they are: thoughts, dreams, ideas, etc." If you go to www.katecleaves.com you'll definitely agree that Kate's tapping into some pretty surreal stuff. Working primarily with acrylic and oil paint (but also some mixed media like fabric, glitter, yarn) she's establishing her name in her home town of Portland and beyond.

Plateau: Where did you start as an artist?
 
Kate Cleaves: I started as an artist in Maine, where I grew up, and live today, but I always remember my mother telling me how I have been drawing and painting since the time I was old enough to hold a crayon – so for me it doesn’t really feel like I ever “started” being an artist. The passion to constantly be creating is just something that seems to be inextricably part of me. Sometimes I think “It would have been so much easier to make a living if I had gone to school to become a doctor,” or something like that - but there is this weird, unexplainable feeling, like a force inside me, that’s always telling me that I am meant to be an artist, and that I really have no choice in the matter.

P: So who or what other artist where you inspired by?

BB: I could list a million!  I've always loved artists that can do something really simple, but still make something special, like Keith Haring and Schultz (Charlie Brown is easily to best character ever designed), so even though when I illustrate a landscape it's got a lot of stuff going on, I still try and keep characters pretty simple.  I love what Takeshi Murakami does, conceptually and creatively.  I saw him doing a talk in Tokyo a couple of years ago; he has such a great spirit, very influential on me.  My wife and I are also huge fans of early 80s graffiti, mostly from NYC, because those guys really dedicated themselves to their art, and did something so fresh, and they really knew a thing or two about colour.  When I was a kid my buddy gave me the 'Subway Art' book and it blew me away, I copied those pieces forever, trying to just get close to the vibrant colour schemes they had.

P: So you have some really special pieces and I was wondering what are you thinking about when creating them? Where does each piece of work start at?

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