When Gayle Kabaker moved to Western Massachusetts from San Francisco with her soon-to-be husband, artist Peter Kitchell, her friends took bets on how long she’d stay. Kabaker fell in love with the area and has called it home for over 30 years.
The successful artist, illustrator, and writer has created covers for the New Yorker magazine and had a show at the prestigious Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in 2020.
Producer Dave Fraser visited her at her studio in Ashfield and brings us her story.
This story originally aired on April 9, 2020.
Read the full transcript:
Zydalis Bauer, Connecting Point: When Gayle Kabaker moved to western Massachusetts from San Francisco with her soon-to-be-husband artist Peter Kitchell, her friends took bets on how long she’d stay. She fell in love with the area and has called it home for over 30 years.
The successful artist, illustrator, and writer has created covers for “The New Yorker” magazine and had a show at the prestigious Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. in 2020.
Producer Dave Fraser visited her at her studio in Ashfield and brings us her story.
Gayle Kabaker, Artist/Illustrator: I met my husband, Peter Kitchell, in San Francisco when we were both living. And his, um, Dad was an architect in Amherst, and Peter had bought land out here when he was visiting his dad. So, when I met him, he had this property already. And… I kind of ended up just tagging along for the ride.
Well, I had always loved to draw. Ever since I was a kid, I was like the one who could draw. When I was in high school, there was kind of never any other idea other than I’d go to art school.
I wanted to be a fashion illustrator and I wanted to go to school in New York. My parents moved to L.A., but they didn’t want me that far away. So, we compromised on San Francisco because the Academy of Art had a fashion illustration program.
So I went there for four years and got out, and was a fashion illustrator for a few years until I came here, and that’s when I had to branch out into…everything else.
And I paint the old fashioned way, with paint and paper, and then I scan it and finish it in Photoshop.
I entered a contest that the art director from “The New Yorker” was doing. Each week, she was posting a topic that was similar to the real “New Yorker” and people were submitting. And then she’d pick — at the end of the week, she’d pick the top 10 and a winner.
So, I started playing and the first week or two I got into like number two and I was like,” Wow, this is fun!” And then the topic was gay marriage, and I submitted my brides and I got an email from her saying, “We’d like to hold this out for consideration for the actual magazine.”
That was really special because it really meant a lot to people. And I got a lot of emails and you know, like people wrote me. It was very special.
And then I thought, “Oh, I’m in now, you know, like my I’ll be doing all kinds of covers!” Well, I submitted for four years and nothing. And then four years later, the woman sledding downhill got chosen.
I think the style cover was next, which was really fun since I started out as a fashion illustrator. That was extra special. And then the jump cover, that was another special one. I don’t know why some of them just feel more special, like people seem to respond to them. But that was like announcing the summer was here and that was the woman jumping off the dock.
And then the last one was the woman skiing with her dogs, and Charlie was in it. So that was extra special because, you know, he’s my — I paint him a lot.
I got involved with Vital Voices three years ago, and this is a series of one hundred portraits to celebrate the one hundred years of women getting the vote, and also to just, you know, really call out these women who are doing really important things. Some famous, some not famous, from all over the world.
You know, it’s tough out there right now. A lot of scary stuff and…and I think that there’s a place for art to really make a difference. So, however I can use my art to support causes that I want to — that I believe in or to get information out to people.
You know, every once in a while, you can make a really big impact, and that’s pretty cool.
