Senior art education major Kate Callahan has been making art ever since she was a toddler. With early access to art supplies, making art has always been something she enjoyed doing in her free time, even as a child.
“We always had art supplies in our house,” Callahan said, “so it was just something else that we would play with, just like playing outside, for example.
“And then my mom had gone to art school, and I also had a lot of other creative people in my family. I was just kind of in an environment that was very creative and artsy. I had a lot of art supplies and tools that were accessible to me.”
After graduation, Callahan has plans to become an art teacher. While she graduates in May, the artist has already been scouting out her job options and will be K-12 certified this May.
Callahan completed an internship at Richmond Drive Elementary School last semester and is currently interning at Fort Mill Middle School this semester.
“I actually thought that I also [would] not enjoy middle school, [but] I’m actually in a middle school internship right now and loving it, she said. “I think I’d actually love to work with that age group.”
As far as how she has developed her art, Callahan said that she always “got lucky with getting in art classes K-12” instead of getting put in electives such as PE or band.
“When I was, like, really little, like in elementary school, this is kind of nerdy, but instead of doing something fun, I was doing what was fun for me, which was scrapbooking,” Callahan said. “I would do a lot of scrapbooking in elementary school and in middle school. I would work on drawing a lot, especially faces and characters from movies.”
Nowadays, Callahan has developed her art experience through a variety of art forms here at Winthrop in studio classes such as printmaking, ceramics, drawing and 3D design.
“As far as at Winthrop with my studio classes,” said Callahan, “I guess my specialty…would be printmaking because I’ve taken the most studios in that area. I’ve taken relief, screen, intaglio, and then I also have printmaking experience from 2D design… and then I also have a little printmaking experience from high school.
“So, that’s the area where I’m the most well-rounded for something specific like that, and then, of course, I can do a little bit of everything else too.”
Taking into consideration accessibility, safety and practicality, Callahan uses what Winthrop has provided her within her different studio classes that she has taken while also drawing inspiration from apps like Instagram, TikTok and Pinterest.
“I kind of have to think of other ways to branch out in other materials to try because what I learned in my studios is really cool, but a lot of the techniques and materials wouldn’t transfer directly as far as to K-12 teaching,” Callahan said. “I have to think of what I’ve learned in my studios and how I can make that safe or how I can make that affordable to students. That’s been a bit of an adjustment.”
Before starting her business, Girl Glow Earrings, Kate spent about 2-3 months on serious research. She would look up articles and YouTube videos and search Instagram and Pinterest to figure out how other people were doing this. That research involved figuring out how to condition the clay properly, how long to bake clay, what the clay should feel like when it’s done baking, the tools that she should buy and with which brands she should work.
“I started doing a lot of experimenting,” said Callahan. “I bought a little bit of clay and played around with it, and I was awful. The first stuff I made was so bad. I got too excited with the supplies.
“I had bought maybe like around 50 dollars worth of supplies. And I tried baking them in the kitchen at my house, like the clay, and I pulled them out of the oven, and my mom and I stood there and looked at each other, and both just felt defeated, like, ‘This is not good. We wasted money. This didn’t turn out good.’ But I kept working.”
“I’ve been getting crazy lately, too,” Callahan said. “Like, no rules. I’ve been using glitter and glue and all sorts of stuff that’s just really wild. But it’s really fun. I also have to package them too. I’ll have different packaging supplies that I’ll have to use. And then if I sell stuff in person at a vendor market where I’m able to sit at a table and sell my earrings, then I’ll have cute little paper baggies with a business card and hand them to people.”
If you would like to continue following Callahan’s journey, make sure to follow her business social media accounts, @girlglowearrings, on Instagram, TikTok and Etsy, and her other Instagram @kateearttt, where she showcases her students’ artwork as well as her own.
Photo courtesy to Kate Callahan
