Dave and Kathy have lived near Glendorado for over 30 years. Dave is a native of Foley and Kathy is originally from Minneapolis. Dave is a commercial pilot and Kathy is an artist. 

 

I visited with Kathy earlier this week about her love of art. Kathy told me: "I've always loved to draw, and from an early age I paid attention to details. For example, in kindergarten, when we were instructed to draw a person, while most of the children drew circles for eyes, mine were realistic. One of the boys across from me said he was going to tell the teacher that my drawing didn't look like everyone else's. So I changed it back to a stupid circle because in those days I was non-confrontational."

 

Kathy explained she had a strong interest in horses and, consequently, many of her drawings throughout school were of horses. She loved the shape of the horses muscling and how their necks were, as well as their jowls and leg structure. Once in a while, she would change her drawings to something different, such as a burro. 

 

"I loved any assignment where the teacher specified that there was to be a drawing. During high school, for some reason, I never had an art class of any sort. I regret that to this day. To this day, I wonder if I had a teacher that had steered me in that direction, if it may have changed the course of my career," she said.

 

Despite that, Kathy dabbled in art, but it wasn't until after she got married (1977) and met a fellow horse person with artistic ability that she started getting more involved and a friend introduced her to Harvey Schroeder of The Schroeder Studio in Elk River. I worked alongside Harvey for many years off and on and enjoyed it very much. 

 

Kathy told me: "I didn't always have time for it, but when I got involved with the Elk River Art Guild I picked up many helpful tips from Harvey. I decided to get some more college in. I received a two year degree (AA) from the U of M in Commercial Illustration/Graphic Design. Computers were just coming out and not taught at the college level. All signage and fonts were hand painted, which involved very technical and detailed work. No glitches were tolerated, nor was it allowed to show where the pencil/ink began or ended, as it had to look as though it was hand drawn. I learned to increase my speed, as deadlines were faced in the commercial world. Unfortunately, by the time I had graduated, the world was entering the computer phase."

 

Kathy ended up working for Benton County News (newspaper in Foley) designing ads. She did some commissioning work and was also the editor and webmaster for Western Saddle Club  putting together their publication and handling all the mailings. Shortly after that, she decided to go back to college at St. Scholastica and earned a B.A. in marketing in hopes that it would enable her to incorporate commercial and classical art. Her college coursework included a clay class at Paramount Theater, which Kathy really enjoyed. 

 

Kathy loves doing art shows and her artwork is on display across the country and in Europe. She was commissioned to do a portrait by a woman in France and has an art piece at the National Morgan Horse Museum in Vermont. She has also had two paintings on display at the Walton Art Gallery of Sam's Club/Wal-mart in Arkansas. 

 

Kathy enjoys teaching and has taught art through community education for the past 13 years. She also has had numerous solo exhibits at Sherburne History Center in Becker. Her work has been for sale at Elk River Arts Alliance and St. Cloud art galleries. She has donated work to Ducks Unlimited, MN Chapter of the Rocky Mountain Elk Association and has own awards from the Wild Turkey Federation.

 

Kathy was chosen to paint a statue for the city of Buffalo's 50th year round-up. Her work has also been published in various publications. 

 

She and her husband have two grown children, Chris (Clearwater) and Heidi (Farmington) and three grandchildren-Landon, Maya and Emma.

 

Besides her art, Kathy stays busy as a substitute teacher for the St. Cloud School District.

 

Her and husband Dave also farm 28 acres of hay and raise animals north of Santiago. They have dairy goats (up to 10) they milk once a day. Kathy enjoys making goat cheese. They also have 25 egg laying chickens and 25 meat chickens. They had angus cattle in the past but gave that hobby up since goats are much lower maintenance. 

 

The Lichy family is busy! Kathy told me: "I've been so busy I realized its Christmas next week and I need to start my baking!" I have no doubt she'll get it accomplished. Clearly she is ambitious and talented.