While some people struggle with the transition from high school to college, Kaitlin Martin is a prime example of how Saint Joseph High School provides students with a good basis for navigating those challenges. Her time at Saint Joe truly impacted her career due to the support she received from Mrs. Coleman and Mr. DePauw in helping her to determine what to pursue   

Part of it stemmed from the freedom to make whatever she wanted, part of it from the ability to take so many art classes. Martin also took the step beyond and dove deeper with encouragement from Coleman and DePauw who suggested Martin enter competitions and apply to a university that could advance her artistry. This guidance proved intsrumental.  As a somewhat timid teen,  the opportunity to try different things and get so much help and feedback put Martin on sure footing once she at college.

“For a lot of people, the transition from high school to college can be hard because in high school you have your entire day pretty much planned out,” but her experiences fostered her independence and made the shift easier.

Martin has fond memories of the extracurriculars: quiz bowl, film club, creative writing club. She throughly enjoyed filming the football games, making shirts or murals, and all the random times she stayed late to use the computers for an art project.  

At the moment, Kaitlin is doing freelance illustration, graphic design and animation along with selling original paintings and drawings.

In terms of accomplishments, Kaitlin Martin graduated from DePaul University in 2015 with a BA in Digital Cinema and a minor in graphic design. Since then she has had short films play at film festivals in the United States and Canada, stills of her films and other art published in magazines, and exhibited paintings and videos in art shows.

Her website http://www.coolcatkmart.com/bio?noredirect contains a wide array of her work: art exhibitions and screenings, magazine publications, and film festival selections such as this short “Cowboy Castle.”

Martin’s short films she is really inspired by silent films, the act of haunting, and the tropes of Gothic fiction. She enjoys medieval imagery juxtaposed with something incongruous like a silly phrase or imaginary creature. She also likes to find humor in big feelings and melodrama.

Her website https://www.etsy.com/shop/coolcatkmart also directs the reader to her Etsy shop where she sells a variety of “coolcatkmart” art! From T-Shirts to canvases hand painted with acrylic, consumers can purchase hand painted canvases that include a variety of designs as well as her books. “Ghosts Who Know People I Know” is an ongoing illustration series where she draws personal ghost stories that people send to her. Martin accepts ghost stories for her book through a google form that can be accessed through her website under “submit a ghost story.”

http://www.coolcatkmart.com/hello.

With the extra push of Mrs. Coleman and Mr. DePauw, Kaitlin Martin pursued her lifelong passion for art and  turned her visual skills into a career. She is very active on the social media platform Instagram where she can be followed at https://www.instagram.com/coolcatkmart/