We’re back with a Community Spotlight and this month it’s shining on artist and Take Two student, K.C. Chilton. ✨
After an incredible career as a USAF pilot and high school Mathematics teacher, K.C. found a whole new sense of joy and purpose through creativity. What began as an exploration of traditional mediums soon grew into something much deeper — a way to tell stories, express emotion, and find joy in the process.
In K.C.’s own words below, you’ll read how they grew as an artist, demonstrating that it’s never too late to explore what lights you up. 🌿
I didn’t really call myself an artist until recently. I started my artistic journey about ten years ago after retiring from teaching high school Mathematics and earlier as an USAF Pilot, to Florida. I started with traditional mediums with some success but didn’t feel my work had ‘soul’. A clay sculpture teacher asked me ‘why’ I was making the piece I was working on and from then on a narrative became important to my work. It made creating a lot more fun and meaningful. Ideas flooded in! It was therapeutic and cathartic to put my feelings and beliefs into my pieces. I could actually ‘talk’ like an artist.
Then I discovered Lorna Crane’s class, Perfectly Imperfect, and it opened a whole new world to me. I could paint on fabric, stich on paper, collage on vessels and find inspiration in little found treasures. I could understand her little squeals of delight when a mark turned out just right from an ‘accident’. What fun!
I always considered myself lucky to have an artistic eye and find beauty in mundane or discarded things. When I was processing my foraged natural basketry finds for Harriet Goodall’s Form to Freedom class, a neighbor came by and said she didn’t understand what I was going to do with all that ‘stuff’. All I saw was beauty and potential! Harriet’s class showed me once again I could take a traditional practice like basket making to a whole new level, sculpture. I loved Harriet’s generosity and passion and appreciated getting feedback from the Facebook group, seeing past exhibitions and having the chance to even exhibit my work in a beautifully crafted exhibition catalog.
Before Harriet’s class was even over, I was tempted by Debbie Lyydon’s Sensing Place. I can’t help myself from going through the modules quickly, while making cordage for one of Hariet’s modules, to see what’s in store. Debbie has given me permission to slow down and experience what’s around me to find inspiration in closely looking, touching and even, to my surprise, hearing. I look forward to returning to each module to experiment! So many possibilities!!
As I approach my seventh decade this year, I am intrigued by decay and the beauty of it. Roadkill is a culmination of all three classes. Picking up treasures from the side of a road , inspired by touch in Debbie’s class and using them in a basket form from Harriet’s class. Lorna would say, ”Perfectly, Imperfect”. I’ve also made a series called Warrior Breastplates, examining different stories told by breast cancer survivors integrating my new found techniques and ways of seeing.
In the future, I plan to examine my physical and mental decay, while I still have time and mortality. I’m intrigued by artifacts left by past cultures and what will our artifacts be after we are gone. I envision making my own treasures displayed in museum cases, where on first glance, you’ll see a small goddess amulet but after looking closer you’ll see she’s holding a cell phone. What fun I have to look forward to!!
October 2025