
I’m Kathleen, a longtime DC resident who just turned 62 — the age the city officially recognizes you as “elderly,” making you eligible for a host of senior discounts. Woo hoo!
Life in DC in 2026 is not easy. However... I love art, music, history, and all things urban — especially urban people — and I count on those things to help get me through this historically bad time in America.
Also, I love lager beer. Lager beer helps a lot.

I was born in Boston, Massachusetts and grew up (mostly) on the “elbow” of Cape Cod. I moved to DC three years after graduating from college.
After 38+ years (since September 1989) of living near the U Street Metro Station in Northwest, in April 2026 I moved down the Green Line and to “the far side of the river” near the Congress Heights Metro Station in Southeast.
For over 10 years, I’ve maintained a Tumblr blog called “It’s art if I say so,” a quote from my favorite conceptual artist, Marcel Duchamp, as well as my answer to the eternal question “what is art?”

Installed in April 2025, it sits across from the Department of Agriculture and close to the Potomac & Anacostia Rivers. The box was designed for SWBID, and features illustrations of four of SW’s “neighbors” living in and around the nearby rivers — crabs, herons, ducks, and striped bass (Rockfish).
The Traffic Control Box Beautification project is part of DDOT’s Arts in the Right-of-Way (AROW) program.

Or, at least that it’s available to buy, exclusively through the experience of using an Art-o-mat® machine! Go find it on the 3rd floor of the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) in the Gallery Place / Chinatown neighborhood of NW.
Visit artomat.org for a full description of artist Clark Whittington’s “right smart” longterm conceptual art project.

Well that’s great! Because...
I’ll be teaching a 3-hour, weekday evening, workshop in how to make these stylized, geometric flowers out of black, white, and silver shrink plastic, at the MLK Central Library in the Gallery Place/Chinatown neighborhood of Northwest.
Currently scheduled for Wednesday, July 8th from 5-7pm. Details will be listed on the library’s EVENTS page (link below).
I use shrink plastic in all the tiny artworks I make for Art-o-mat.

It’s made up of short clips from various concerts I’ve attended over the past few years, and is meant to demonstrate that Washington, DC is a very cool music city. Every clip is under a minute because otherwise I'm living in the moment.
The above photo is from the UK’s Lambrini Girls at the Howard Theater on 5/4/25.

















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