Interview: Kutztown artist, Kathi Ember, talks about Alice in Wonderland mural project, her inspiration and her techniques

February 1st, 2023 |

Written by Kaitlyn Schock for Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites

Since July 2022, Kathi Ember has been hard at work creating a mural inspired by “Alice in Wonderland”. This mural is part of the “From Marbles to Make Believe: Let’s Play!” exhibition located in the Kemerer Museum of Decorative Arts. This mural will be unveiled on February 5 at 1 pm in the museum. The event is free for all guests and includes refreshments, a Paint-Your-Own-Tea Set activity, and a visit from “Alice” herself. Ember will also have more artwork and prints displayed. 

 Kathi Ember is a Kutztown-based artist who primarily specializes in children’s illustration. Ember has been an illustrator for over thirty years and has illustrated many children’s books, including, “Squirrel’s New Year’s Resolution” and “Substitute Groundhog.”

I had the chance to speak with her about how she plans these large murals, what inspires her artstyle and what drew her to children’s illustration. 

Schock: Good Morning! How are you doing? 

Kathi Ember: Hi Kaitlyn. I’m doing well.

So, I have had the opportunity to see the mural. How do you plan and layout a painting like that? Especially one that is so big. 

Well the first thing I did was I reread both books. 

I look at the classic art that’s being created about the story, as well as more modern artists’ kind of way that they illustrate it. 

I first do all the character sketches and how I envision the characters.

About 15 years ago, I found that I love working in Photoshop. I can move things around, you know, change the size and shape of things. 

Once I get a tight drawing that I like, I move it on to a grid and I can reproduce that grid on a wall. 

My original inspiration behind it was actually that black and white tile floor…I wanted to bring the floor up. I thought that would be really cool. 

Yeah looking at your painting, we all know the original Disney cartoon, but you were able to take something classic like that and turn it into your own style. How do you inspire that and how do you mesh the two together? 

Well, I’ve worked as an illustrator for just about my whole life and half of that time I was focused on children’s illustration. 

In that period of time, you find a certain approach and that happens because when you’re looking at things you appreciate you get excited. 

It’s actually funny, when you ask someone about “Alice In Wonderland” they often think about the Disney version, but for me I was more impressed by the early illustrators who did it. 

Does your own artstyle take inspiration from anything specific? 

For me, I’ve always been more impressed by a lot of classic illustrators. 

Right now a lot of children’s illustrations are very graphic and flat, which is cool…but the best compliment I ever got was that my style was timeless. It’s very true that most of the time you can look at a piece and say…oh it’s from this time period…or…but with this style it’s much harder to tell.

Also, my thing has always been more anthropromorphic animals…I love animals, maybe that’s why that is. I really like turning them into little characters and that’s part of why I loved doing this because there’s a lot of characters like that in Alice In Wonderland. 

When you’re painting do you use any specific pants or brushes? Any techniques? 

When I did my first mural, I researched and talked to some other artists I know that are really good muralists. 

The takeaway I got from that was just use freakin’ house paint! (laughs) 

You can get the little jars in…or even the little tubes of acrylic paint. 

And my husband, he does decorative painting and knows a lot about prepping wall surfaces and he said to get Purdy paint brushes…like angled paint brushes and they’re really good. 

The murals I’ve done are more like huge paintings on the wall. So, I get sucked into the detail and the textures you can create on the wall. I am a perfectionist…I could still be in there today painting. (laughs) 

I’m the same way! (laughs) Eventually you just have to turn it in or finish it. 

Yeah…I mean, like with the Cheshire Cat I ended up positioning him differently then I did in the original sketch. 

Sometimes things look great on a smaller scale, but I would paint the stripes and come in the next month and look at it like nah, no (laughs)…I repainted that cat like once or twice. 

You talked a bit earlier about how you like doing children’s drawing and illustration, what initially drew you to that?  

I started out doing editorial illustration. An art director I was with suggested I get an agent…he recommended someone and I sent her my work.

My style made her think my artwork would translate well as a children’s illustrator. At that time, children’s illustrating was one of the places where you could make a living as an illustrator.  

How did you initially get into contact with the Kemerer Museum? Did they reach out to you? 

It’s actually very weird and coincidental. One of the last shows that they had before the toys, was a glass show. 

It just so happened me and my husband knew a lot of the artists and my one friend knew about the upcoming toy show. 

I guess she had talked to Brett Peters about my work and he ended up getting in contact and asked if I would be interested in doing a mural. 

When I first met with Brett…it was that black and white tile floor. Being familiar with classic illustrations, I could just see Alice In Wonderland…and Brett was in total agreement. 

So that was…for me as an artist it’s really nice when you’re doing exactly the way you feel something ought to be and not someone else’s…you know, concept. 

How long, overall, did it take you to finish the painting? 

I actually have it down to…I vaguely track my hours (laughs). 

It’s about 380 hours, which would be about nine and half weeks with 40 hours a week. 

And you know…the number one question people always ask is how long did it take? Most people in their lives…there’s nothing they would do that would take this long to complete. 

They always say, I don’t have the patience or I’m not patient enough. And for me it’s not patience. It’s like, I can’t stop now. Once you start you have to finish it. 

The unveiling for the mural is coming up. How do you feel about that? What is it like to unveil your work to everybody? 

Well, some people have seen it online, but I would say it’s much more impactful in person, just because of the scale of it.

I’ve gotten wonderful compliments online from when I posted it, but yeah it is worth a trip over to the Kemerer to see it in person because it’s huge.  

I’m also going to have a lot of other artwork on display and some of my prints for sale.

Kaitlyn Schock is a student intern from Kutztown University and a contributing writer for Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites.

Share This