Kati Gegenheimer

It’s Thursday morning and for me, a newly 40-year-old-left-handed-sagittarius-artist, that means I am waking up around 6:30 AM to power up for MFA Reviews at Tyler. I’m an adjunct there, and this year have the pleasure of working with a number of our graduate students on their MFA committees. Today is my heaviest review day of mostly painters, as well as a printmaker. While these reviews are critically important for the students to share their work and research, I often find them to be incredibly fun and stimulating myself because it’s a moment where faculty across disciplines come together to have hour-long conversations about the work, where it has been, where it is, and where it can go. I need to bring my clearest brain into the room for each meeting, so it’s time for coffee.

I egg myself on with color quite often - in my paintings, in my clothes, and yes, even my pretty pepto-esque coffee maker, matte and beautiful. My husband got this for me as a Christmas gift last year and it makes me happy to see it every morning, and it brews incredibly quickly. Urgency!

My beloved large-eared dog is less than thrilled for the day ahead and definitely not fueled up on coffee. He went out for a cold walk while I made coffee and breakfast, and somehow over the course of the past few months he’s commandeered this chartreuse pillow on our velvet sofa as his own. Who can blame him? He groans when we have to get up to get going - he’s spending the day at our painting studio building with two of his favorite people while my husband and I go to work. If only he could make our paintings while we go to our day jobs.

In the calendar year, December means it’s that end-of-semester-and-holiday-season crunch. I’ve also just closed a show of my paintings, started a new part-time job, and celebrated my 40th birthday. We’ve suffered the loss of my father-in-law this fall, so the oscillation of joy and sorrow has been palpable and at times disorienting. I suppose I’m feeling “harried.” I’ve never used that word to describe myself before, but I feel like my hair reveals it. So does my to-do list, which has so much speed and brevity, like the pen barely met the paper. It’s not the way I like to do things, but I do like to maintain some sense of order, so my memory relies on this list for today. It’s a season of Sagittarius birthdays, reconnecting with friends and spreading cheer…and some shared equipment. 

I was in MFA reviews from 9am to 2pm straight, so this photo is all about getting some natural sunlight near the windows in the Tyler Lobby and powering up with grapes and my favorite seltzer flavor from Wegmans: Black Cherry Vanilla. It sounds terrible, but it’s such a treat. 10/10 recommend. I didn’t take any pictures while in reviews because I believe it’s a sacred space. I have amazing students making incredible work, but the crit stays in the room! When I teach, I really believe in building a circle of trust in the most sincere sense: space for growth, failure, victory, criticality and reflection.

I’m home in Brewerytown, just a quick drive from Tyler. It’s getting dark out way too early and I’ve been feeling myself slow down. I can’t imagine living in Florida and having light and heat year round. Imagine what I would do with my life if I didn’t feel like crawling into bed at 5pm in Philadelphia on an evening in December?! Well, again, here I am caught egging myself on, because I’ve put my beloved kitschy wreath up on my door for the holidays. I wish I had the nerve to keep this up year-round because it really brings me a lot of joy.

We’ve had a dinner on the books for a long time with a dear couple of friends who live in South Philly, so off we go braving this dark and chilly wintry night! These friends are incredibly smart, witty, elegant, and have the perfect balance of humility and over-achieverness to them. Their house is decorated so beautifully for the holidays, I stand outside and marvel when we arrive. We are also greeted by their cat, Klaus. I love orange cats, but my husband is so allergic to them. His loss! Klaus has an attitude that is all his own, and I’m inspired by it!

Over dinner I hear a very familiar voice, and it’s this record Alopecia by the band Why? It came out in 2008 and I hadn’t listened to it in a few years. It makes me think of my early 20’s in Philadelphia. I lived in a loft on 5th and Cecil B. Moore with a bunch of my undergrad art school friends back in 2008 and this record was very much a part of that moment in my life. Now being back in Philadelphia, my second time around in this gorgeous and very weird and sometimes dysfunctional city, hearing this album again made me feel emotional. Loving it all, all over again. I was so happy for this surprise accompaniment of music and emotions over dinner with friends who I had never heard it with before. The old is new again!

We’re finally in an Uber back home, it’s late for us - almost midnight! There is nothing like careening around the city in the back of a car at night, so this is my attempt to capture the Ben Franklin Bridge. Philly can really be a magical place if you let it.

Xx

Kati Gegenheimer is an artist, assistant adjunct professor, and often arts administrator living with her husband and dog in Brewerytown. Her favorite Philly store is Halloween, her favorite ice cream is chocolate from Harper’s, and she loves the whispering bench in Fairmount Park. You can check out her work at www.katigegenheimer.com or her life in general on Instagram at @kati_gegenheimer.