Kathi DePasse

Kathleen (Kathi) DePasse has always lived and worked in the Pittsburgh area. She attended Carnegie Mellon University and graduated in 1978 with a BFA in drawing. After a dozen years of working as an artist and having several in person exhibits as well as being in group exhibits with PSA and Associated Artists of Pittsburgh (AAP), Kathi returned to Chatham College to become certified in elementary education. She then taught in Pittsburgh Public Schools until 2007. She also received an MLS degree from Duquesne University in 2004.

Kathi has now enthusiastically returned to her plein air roots, painting and drawing the streets of Mt. Lebanon as well as scenes from the Benezette area. Kathi says "The 4 directions my art typically takes now includes life studies of the body; self-portraits when I don't have a model; family when they'll sit for a bit or and the stuff of my household; then the woods, whether in Elk County or the trees and plants in the city. I always work through to completion and rarely work in the studio or from a photo." Kathi is an artist who likes the flexibility of working in acrylic paint on paper or canvas and drawing with ink and acrylic washes. Kathi enjoys working in 2D media depicting the world around her and the relationships she sees there, whether between people or objects. 

She works from life exclusively now in an attempt to capture the energy of each moment in her artwork. Kathi is also a potter. Her ceramic artwork is created in both her studio in Elk County and in her home studio in Mt. Lebanon. She hand-builds as well as works on the wheel. Kathi has also begun creating raku and barrel fired pieces. She loves the surprises of the medium and the physicality of the firing processes. She sells functional stoneware pottery, jewelry, drawings and paintings at Nuthatch Studio along with her talented husband and son who are the woodworkers at their family shop. Nuthatch Studio is located just outside the beautiful mountainside village of Benezette. 

Kathi DePasse is a past member and president of the Pittsburgh Society of Artists, Gallery Director of Birmingham Lofts, member of Eastside Gallery Co-op. She is presently a member of the Pittsburgh 10+, the Pittsburgh Group and gallery owner of Nuthatch Studio. She has been an exhibiting artist since 1978.