KATIE PELL
all she had to say
In this slender collection of quotes, Katie Pell (1965 – 2019) gives us affirmation, inspiration, humor, love, reality, and a sense of urgency—words we all need to hear. Pulled together by friend and neighbor Angela Martinez and projected at Pell’s memorial, these quotes come from artworks, conversations with friends, interviews, and lectures.
Proceeds from this publication benefit Bygoe Zubiate, daughter of Pell and her late husband Peter Zubiate. Proceeds also benefit a future monograph to be published on the artwork of Katie Pell.
As Jenny Browne states in her introduction, "How lucky we were to hear all she had to say."
I want to be a strong citizen of love. —Artist statement
Be self-reliant, bold, risky, conniving, ambitious, and most of all, curious. —”Questions for Katie Pell” by Gary Sweeney, San Antonio Current, July 2, 2013
It’s none of your business what people think of you. —Told to Anne Wolfe
I hope that you can get that feeling that I’m trying to impart, that we’re all really worthy of celebration. —Something’s Happening: The Big Art of Katie Pell, Exhibition and lecture, Columbia Museum of Art, August 17, 2018
All of you have something amazing to give each other, and something amazing to give yourselves… I hope that you will pay special attention to the people next to you. —Memorial for Peter Zubiate, January 13, 2018
About the Artist
Katie Pell was born in Wilmington, Delaware and lived and worked as an artist and art professor in San Antonio, Texas. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island in 1987 and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 2010. Pell passed away in December 2019 surrounded by the art community of San Antonio.
She worked with glass, ceramic, video and recycled materials of all sorts; however, her true love was drawing. “I am inspired by the boardwalk, and congregating teenagers in general; operatic and dramatic music, like early Bruce Springsteen, and Polyphonic Spree, David Bowie... I want to know where genuine living and role-playing intersect. Some of us build our own mythology out of our environment, our desires and our own furious defiance at our genetic mediocrity. I hope my work can ignite or describe the excitement of our pointless and forgettable lives, and reaffirm the value of our gorgeous desperation.” -Katie Pell
She had solo exhibitions at Artpace, San Antonio, TX; Lawndale Center for the Arts, Houston, TX; McKinney Center for the Arts, Dallas, TX; Women & Their Work, Austin, TX and most recently at the Columbia Museum of Art in South Carolina.
Special thanks to Angela Martinez for starting the project, Ethel Shipton for instigating the publication, Andréa Caillouet for bringing this publication to life through design, Jenny Browne for articulating such a beautiful reflection in the book’s introduction, and all the friends who shared and confirmed these words from the singular Katie Pell.
Project made possible by the Sarah E. Harte and John S. Gutzler Fund of the San Antonio Area Foundation.
F&M looks forward to releasing a monograph on Katie Pell’s work. For more information contact celeste@frenchandmichigan.com.
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Top image: Katie Pell, As it turns out, it was the end of the world, This to That Series, 2010-19, collage on paper. Courtesy of Bygoe Cruz Zubiate and Ruiz-Healy Art.
