From Sketch to Cafe: PSU Muralist Catie Dillon

For Catie Dillon, pursuing a career in art was never a doubt. Growing up in Pittsburgh, she was constantly drawing in a sketch pad. Now a senior at Penn State, the 22-year-old is finishing up a bachelor of fine arts in drawing and painting as well as a degree in advertising. She’s one half of the duo who completed our expansive mural at the brand-new Saxbys Penn State cafe. Let’s learn a bit more about Catie:

When did you find your passion for art?

I’ve been interested in art ever since I was a little kid. I’d always be drawing in my sketchbooks. In high school I got more serious about it and took a lot of art classes. I never really questioned majoring in anything else. It’s always something I wanted to do.

Tell me about some of your current work.

Recently I’ve been interested in depicting layered spaces, combining elements of the built environment and the natural world. So it’s a lot of abstracted landscape paintings. A lot of my paintings are unscripted, abstracted, and they’re indeterminate of time and space. I use a lot of elements that catch my eye in nature. The colors of dark sky, the depth of water, lights through the clouds or memories of places I’ve been to. I’m also really interested in materiality of the paint. I use spray paint, acrylic paint, oil paint — playing with that is one of the most important parts of my practice.

What artists inspire you?

Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse (more specifically his landscapes) and Andy Warhol (I grew up going to the Warhol Museum.) I’m looking at the following contemporary artists. I’m interested in their use of color and their depiction/abstraction of elements in the natural world: Shara Hughes, Carrie Moyer, Emily Noelle Lambert, Trudy Benson, and Amy Lincoln.

How did you get hooked up with Saxbys project?

Lindsey and I have been friends for three years and we share a studio at school together. We’re really good friends, traveled abroad numerous times, and work really well together. Our professor approached us and asked if we’d like to do this collaborative mural for Saxbys. We were really excited about the project. We’ve been preparing for it all summer.

How long did it take to paint the mural?

We started flushing out ideas around June and making mockup drawings. Lindsey would send sketches of the figures and I would collage that with my abstracted forms and landscape shapes. We started painting the mural over first week of school and we were able to finish it within the week.

Are you excited about the exposure it’ll bring?

I’m very excited about it. It’s very cool for our work to be featured outside of the art school where other people can see it. Saxbys has been great guiding us along the way. It was nice to have their input but they let us do our own thing which is great. I hope that’s what it’ll always be like working with a brand — but I know it won’t be.

What are your career aspirations?

I want to make a go of it in art. I would like to get my masters in fine arts within the next few years. And I would love to be in the contemporary art scene in the future.

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