A bright-eyed five-year-old stares excitedly at a messy watercolor painting she has just finished.

Covered from head to toe in paint, she rubs her paint-covered hand over the paper one final time to complete her work of art. Her mother attempts to interject with, "No Katie, you don’t use watercolors with your hands…" but the girl pays no attention to her mother and happily continues painting. Thirteen years later and Katie Morton, chief illustrator at Verde magazine and one of Paly’s top artists, is still painting. As she did when she was five, Morton still refuses to conform to the "rules" of art.

Morton displayed her artwork in the Norseman Gallery for two weeks before Winter Break. Her exhibit, titled "Colors," contained a variety of different art mediums, from sculpture to oil paints. The majority of the pieces were portraitures, but Morton also included some of her other pieces such as landscapes.

"I never thought art was going to be my thing at all," Morton said. During her freshman year, Morton was faced with a choice between electives. She had too many classes and was forced to choose between taking art or band. "I ended up not taking French my freshman year to fit in my electives, but it was totally worth it," Morton said.

Coming into art freshman year, Morton was not quite clear of what to expect. The first thing required of the students was to begin a portfolio. Morton was taken aback, for she had no portfolio. But by the end of sophomore year, art had taken over Morton’s life. "It’s a way of looking at life for me," Morton said.
Morton has had to deal with many critics in her years as an artist, but her toughest critic has always been herself. "I’m so harsh on myself," Morton said. "I could look at any painting I’ve done and find 100 things wrong with each one."

"I had this one art teacher who told us to just ‘do a piece’, so I did a self-portrait," Morton said. "There was green around the mouth and curls in the corner, I was kind of messing with it." The teacher apparently did not like Morton’s style and told her that her painting made no sense. She threatened to give Morton a lower grade if she did not change her painting. Morton was willing to compromise with the teacher, but the incident angered her because Morton believes that "art is in the eye of the beholder."

However, Morton believes that not all criticisms are negative. "A question of my art work can often lead to a discussion of my work," Morton said. Morton finds this constructive criticism helpful, though some people can get nitpicky. "My mother sometimes watches me paint and every so often comments on what I’m doing like, ‘Don’t you think that’s too dark there?’ or ‘Are you sure you want to put that there?’ which can get pretty annoying," Morton said. "But she always ends up liking the final results despite her criticisms."

While painting portraits, many artists try to minimize the subject’s bad features while placing the emphasis on good features. "When most people look at a face they see a nose, a mouth, blah, blah, but I look at faces on a whole different level," Morton said. Morton tries not to show just what is nice and pristine in a person, but what is interesting about a face and what makes it unique. "I drew a portrait of a girl and I put a lot of emphasis on her unibrow, something our society considers a fault, and I beautified it," Morton said.

Over the summer Morton attended the Rhode Island School of Design, where the students were given the opportunity to experiment with color. They were assigned to paint a picture from a magazine and mix each individual color from the three primary colors, red, blue, and yellow. "It was actually a lot of fun and now when I’m bored, I’ll look at something and try to calculate how much of each color it would take to perfectly match the hue of the object," Morton said.

Morton is currently working at an intern at a local gallery, Art 21 in downtown Palo Alto, which she finds to be very informative. At the gallery, Morton is given the opportunity to learn about how to give gallery shows and how to mount pictures. She is also taking AP Studio Art at Paly, which ties computer graphics and pictures together. "I’ve been so busy with everything recently that I have had barely any time to work on my portfolio," Morton said.

Between painting and interning at Art 21, Morton also has to find time to fill out college applications. Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore is her top choice to attend, but she is also looking into the Rhode Island School of Design, Brown, NYU, Wellesley, Pratt, and the Chicago Institute of Art. Morton has won many awards for her art, including one at Art 21, and several Verde contests, including an award from NFPW (National Federation of Press Woman) in graphics called "Social Phobia."

An assumption that many people make about artists is that people can’t be intellectual and be an artistic at the same time, but Morton has proved this theory wrong. "Art encompasses everything," Morton said. "Right now I’m studying the psychology behind children’s art, and there is actually a lot behind the symbols that kids draw."