Katie was born in 1965 New York City, New York. She went on to receive a degree from University of the Arts in Philadelphia in painting and illustration. She began exhibiting paintings in 1989 on the East Coast of the USA including Boston, Nantucket and New York. Katie is currently a resident of New Zealand where she has lived since 2010. Her work is now exhibited in New Zealand as well as the USA. She taught painting at the Artists Association of Nantucket for many years and continues to teach workshops on Waiheke Island. Working as a painter, she focuses on colour and composition. "My work is a combination of traditional oil painting techniques and contemporary thinking. Layers of paint are placed to create resonance and clarity. My inspiration comes from the small ordinary objects that surround us everyday. The objects often have an anthropomorphic quality. This is not intentional but adds to the character of a piece."