KATIE STOUT

I love that I get to make things. And I get to make things that most people probably wouldn't make and I get to constantly experiment and explore. Also, I admire the other people in my field, everyone is so inspiring and interesting. I just feel lucky because I figured out what I love doing and now I'm doing it.

 

Ultimately, my mother led me to pursue my career path. She was an artist herself and encouraged me to pursue any creative endeavor.

 

I also have a fixation on environment. Ever since I was big enough to push furniture around, I was rearranging my environments to see what would happen and how it would affect the people functioning within them. This inherent fascination with domestic environment and experience has led me to create objects that people live with and experience on a daily basis. My objective is to create subtly subversive objects that spawn more questions than answers.

 

My favorite memories of ALC include my mother (ALC Alum and former head of the Art Department, the late KATRINA MOROSOFF STOUT)  and the friends I made who I still consider some of my best friends. Summer was a time for my mother and me to be together without me being my angsty school-year self. Granted, I was usually too busy doing activities and making friends for us to really spend time together but it was an environment where we could refresh our relationship and I could see her as a human in addition to a mother.

 

It's so difficult to pinpoint favorite memories. I remember my first outdoors trip to Monroe Island as an 8 year old. I didn't know that peeing outside could be socially acceptable and it revolutionized my idea of fun (and also my perspective on societal expectations.) As an Explorer, my friend and I would climb to the top of the climbing wall and play cards on the platform for hours hoping that we wouldn't drop a card 35 feet to the ground. And AMT! Every moment was amazing, even the not amazing moments where we were wet and tired and had 5 more miles to hike. I still audibly laugh thinking about Bernadette (a fellow Jr. CT) wreaking havoc after she hid the clappers from all of the bells and the two bugles under her bed. And I still get teary eyed thinking about the end of camp whenever I hear Pachelbel's Canon. I remember jumping into the lake when it was overcast and drizzling and jumping into the lake when it was clear skied and sunny. Camp is where I learned how to ride a horse, learned to appreciate the environment, learned what a real friend is and what community means. (AH! I've spent like an hour in a time warp thinking about camp and just can't even begin to describe all of my favorite moments.)

 

Aside from the knots I learned at canoeing and ODE, which I use almost everyday in my studio, camp instilled a lot of life skills in me at young age - compassion, perseverance and appreciation to name a few. Camp gave me enough autonomy to learn about myself as an individual and gain the confidence to be independent, while the structured community aspect taught me the importance and joy of working together. Camp encouraged me to pursue my interests and hone my skills and even though my interests and skills might be different today I use the "I can do anything" mentality every day.