Meet Katie + Meg!
Katie Grasso
Co-Owner, CCO (Chief Creative Officer) Katie grew up in a Southern California home filled with art—oil paintings by historic California landscape artists, watercolors by her godfather, and works by sculptors, oil painters and textile artists in her extended family. She traveled Europe to study the Old Masters with an aunt who was an art teacher and accomplished painter. Most importantly, inspired by sculptor Alexander Calder, her father became a prolific mobile and metal sculpture artist.
Surrounded by citrus groves and mountains, she discovered her love of making things with her hands by crafting mud pies in irrigation ditches and watching her father build scale model cars and tinker in the garage. Her mother nurtured her passion for baking, costume making, and encouraged her to study abroad. In 1990, when Katie was nine, Martha Stewart released her first magazine. “I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” Katie said. “That level of craft and decoration felt accessible, even to a child. I remember thinking, ‘I could do all of this—and I will.’” She never stopped believing it.
Today, she loves seasonal crafts like creating elaborate Halloween costumes/props, learning about new art techniques, and painting miniature watercolors for friends and family. Her young son is following in her creative path and the two share a ‘not so tidy’ craft room in their house. “It made sense to buy an art supply store! But, I know this one has to stay organized, at least to some degree,” she said.
Katie moved to Annapolis in 2013 with her husband; her greatest champion and a dedicated public servant. They share their home with their young son and a bossy black rabbit named Banksy.
Her favorite artists include Eyvind Earle, Cornelis Botke, Margaret Wise Brown, Molly Brett, Beatrix Potter, Claire Fletcher, her godfather Juancho and ‘auntie’ Tori, her young son, and her late father, Samie Grasso, whose larger mobile installations are displayed in her hometown at the Santa Paula Art Museum. https://www.santapaulaartmuseum.org/
“I love landscapes and cozy little worlds where mice run bakeries and birds delivery the mail.” - KGG
Meg Brennan
Co-Owner, CIO (Chief Imagination Officer)Meg’s passion for art began in elementary school art class. Her love affair with pens, pencils, paint, glue, and papier-mâché has been going strong ever since. She briefly flirted with classical ballet and graphic design, then returned with a vengeance to visual art, managing a federal grant-making program for the National Endowment for the Arts for more than a decade. School loans don’t pay for themselves, y’all! Now you’ll find Meg sorting and sifting through watercolors (her current favorite medium) and drooling over videos about hand-made papermaking.
Meg lives in Annapolis with her daughter and husband.
Her favorite artists are: Ann Hamilton, Theaster Gates, Simone Leigh, and Jenny Holzer.
❊ ART WORDS TO LIVE BY ❊
Consider everything an experiment.
―Corita Kent (1918-1986)
American artist, designer, and educator known for her silkscreens, serigraphy, and photographs.
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When you start working, everybody is in your studio - the past, your friends, enemies, the art world, and above all, your own ideas- all are there. But as you continue painting, they start leaving, one by one, and you are left completely alone. Then, if you are lucky, even you leave.
―John Cage (1912-1992)
American experimental artist and avant-garde composer known for his use of chance operations.
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I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way—things I had no words for.
—Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986)
American modernist painter celebrated for her iconic floral paintings, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes.