Katherine- thank you so much for taking the time to share your work and thoughts with us at ALLSHIPS. I love your work and I’m eager to hear more about it, to begin- can you introduce yourself to our community here? Your name, where you are based and the mediums you work in?

Dave, I really appreciate the time. My name is Katherine Buglione, I grew up in New York and I'm currently living in the Berkshires on the CT/MA border. I work mostly in paint and pen, and I do a little bit of digital drawing and animation.

God I love the Berkshires. But that’s a story for another time! I first came across your work as sketches on restaurant order tickets. I’d love to hear about that aspect of your work, how that came about, and anything else you can share about that style and approach. Then we can zoom out and talk more generally.

The Guest Check series started accidentally - truly out of boredom while I had down time working at a restaurant. I did the first collection in 2022, and each drawing was based on someone I came into contact with there in some capacity. I usually started with a really quick sketch in the moment and then I'd bring the drawing home and flesh it out and add detail and white paint. I was constantly thinking about art while I was working at the restaurant and always kind of frustrated that I wasn't home working on whatever art thing I had swirling in my mind, so once I realized I'd done 20 or 30 of these restaurant drawings and it turned into more of an actual project, I became more emotionally attached to the concept.

I did a second series in 2024, and those were all people I saw in local restaurants and coffee shops, and I wrote descriptions of them on the back of each Guest Check. The truth is that I love drawing and painting people, but the observational part was quite challenging for me. Even though I had some blurry reference photos for many of the subjects... my preference is actually to draw and paint people who are imaginary. Just characters who pass through my mind.

I love that, I often think about how consistent iterations are the key to building out bodies of work... set constraints, create, repeat- before you know it, you have a cohesive collection where the sum is greater than the parts. Also using the sketches as a base, and letting your imagination flesh them out later gives these characters a real looseness, like new characters with roots in reality. I love the context of the canvas here too, the guest checks let the viewer know they were created in that atmosphere. I find them very full of life.

What was your earliest introduction to the world of visual art? When did you realize you enjoyed creating things, and what were some of your early inspirations from the outside world?

My earliest memories of creating things are from age five or six. I liked to draw but I also loved making little sculptures and puppets and stuff out of clay and sticks and string. I remember watching some of the older women on the HGTV craft shows in the late '90s / early 2000s and I actually found some inspiration there as a kid. I still dabble a little with puppet making these days too. There's something really nostalgic about it for me, especially in the context of stop-motion animation.

I got much more into drawing and painting as a teenager. I kept a sketchbook with me in school and would sit on the floor in the hallways drawing with paint markers, and was lucky enough to have a teacher later in high school who really encouraged me to paint. That was also the period of time that I started trying to observe people to draw their faces, and also when I began to really enjoy illustrating or painting faces of people that I made up in my head.

And once I started truly looking at faces and putting marks on paper, I saw how much emotion could be conveyed with a small twist in facial expression or body language. That concept has become more and more interesting to me, because it can pull some mystery and storytelling into a composition.

Such a wonderful origin story. A lot in common with mine too, always doodling, always wanting to render what was in my mind into reality, and also the encouragement of people older than me in pursuing my interests in the visual world. Grateful for those people who push against the flow of society and blow oxygen into the sparks that they see in the younger generation.

Its a complicated time to be an artist, social media, cryptoart, AI- all a double edged sword, cutting both ways. What is your experience, both good and bad, with each of those topics? Feel free to answer any portion of that if its too broad, but I'm curious as to how you think about technology intersecting with your craft.

Social media feels like a necessary evil if you're trying to have your art seen. Stumbling into crypto art in 2021, I had no idea that Twitter was going to play such a big role in my art career. Cryptoart kind of found me as I was starting to dip my toe in the gallery scene, and I made an unexpected pivot and now here I am. I'm still trying to keep myself grounded in whatever is "traditional" too; maybe I especially feel that way as a painter.

In the context of art I don't feel too strongly one way or another about AI because I think it has its place. My thoughts about that might evolve in the next few years, though. In a way I think being involved in the crypto art scene probably exposed me to a wider variety of art than I would have encountered anywhere else.

I’d love to hear more about “the cryptoart scene” as you describe it, can you elaborate on your experience working in this environment? What has it unlocked for you?

Before meeting other people who were selling and buying art with crypto, I actually didn't know many digital artists. I had a few photographer friends. In 2021 most of the painters or illustrators I knew resisted the idea of NFTs pretty hard... I almost felt like I had to keep it a secret. When I meet another painter here it feels like kindred spirits because I don't encounter them as frequently. But crypto art has opened my eyes to some digital art that I don't know if I'd be fortunate enough to get exposed to otherwise.

What advice would you give to an artist who is earlier in their creative path?

I don't know that I'm in a position to give career advice, but I can say that I was once told that you should get a tiny pocket notebook that you carry everywhere, write a plus sign on the front and a minus sign on the back. Start filling that book with things you like and dislike -- down to the smallest things that pop up in your head or as your encounter them. This will help you know yourself better. Your art doesn't have to be about you, but this will help the work genuinely come from the middle of you. I think that's most important.

Maybe the art isn't narrative at all, but it has more authenticity that way. And for me, identifying more of my preferences in life has also helped me detach from them a bit. I think the idea is that we can suffer less if we can do that. I haven't figured it out yet but I'm working on it.

I love that, and I'l surely give it a shot. Katherine, thank you so much for taking the time to share your thoughts with our community today. Its very valuable to hear your perspective and I can't wait to see what more you get up to in the future. I'm certainly a fan! To the reader, connect with Katherine Buglione via her Linktree.