My career as an artist began with my kindergarten teacher Mrs. Anderson hand delivering a painting I’d done –an aerial view of a bird flying over a fenced yard – to my mother waiting out by the curb of my elementary school. I didn’t know the word “exceptional” then, but suspected it meant that my painting looked pretty much like a bird flying over a fenced yard.
So I’ve kept at it.
There were several opportunities to exhibit work while growing up in LA (I made one exceptionally good three-legged dog for a production of Waiting for Godot) and too many projects to relate since I transplanted myself to northern Californian (an 18 foot tall golden Buddha for the San Francisco Civic Center comes to mind, as do sea-green plumbing insulation costumes constructed for the Oblong Rhonda dancers.)
The great (solo) work of raising my son began in 1989 and for a time threatened to overwhelm all other ventures, but a growing interest in my illustration revived my confidence (Publisher’s Design Studio, Studio Arno, Brooks Cole, Addison Wesley, Morgan Kaufman.) Other projects developed, ultimately leading to the birth of Breaking Egg Studio.
My great painting teacher is Chester Arnold.
My great drawing teacher is Michael Markowitz.
I myself have been an art teacher at Marin Primary & Middle School from 2005 to the present.
Exhibits of my work have been at the College of Marin; Sausalito Art Commission; Maison Re, L.A; Throckmorton Theatre, Mill Valley and Youth in Arts, San Rafael. I recently illustrated by all means for Edward Espe Brown (Missing Links Press, 2014) My artwork is held in private collections in San Francisco, Oregon, New York and Austria.
Birds are often among the subjects of my works, a few of which I hope would meet the standard set by Mrs. Anderson.
—Margot Koch