My name is Katie Whittle, and I live in the Athens area of Georgia. I studied painting and drawing in undergrad, taught art for some years, and recently earned my Master's degree in "Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages" and/or Applied Linguistics. I now teach the English language and art to students of all ages.

The artwork I have recently created is inspired by the beauty I find in trailers and trailer parks and made with oil paint and graphite on canvas. Nearly every home I have spent extended time in has been a trailer. My childhood home is a trailer. Trailers, trailer-houses, or 'mobile homes' are materially unique and influence the ways people physically move around in space. Through creating this body of paintings, I am exploring my relationship as well as other people's relationships with trailer-houses and trailer parks and how those relationships influence and reflect perceptions of the world and interactions in the local community.

I am interested in trailers as unique standalone physical objects as well as how they interact with humans, visitors, animals, other trailers, cars, ditches, trees, porches, streets, light, weather, etc. I hope to experience these paintings as steppingstones to future artwork that involves even more symbolic conceptions of the themes I have described and am approaching. I hope my viewers, especially those who grew up living in trailers or other homes often perceived as less glorious, will enjoy viewing Portrait of a Trailer House as a way to understand and engage with the particular beauty of these nurturing but mobile structures and their surroundings.