Katie Kratzer (b. 1985) is a painter based on Mercer Island, Washington. She makes large-scale abstract paintings on raw canvas — expansive color fields and gestural mark-making built from a meditative, eyes-closed process she has developed since 2018.

Working at the intersection of somatic experience and chromatic intelligence, Kratzer approaches each painting as an act of surrender, redirecting design’s rigor toward a freedom of her own making: palette chosen from felt sensation and the subconscious residue of a rigorous color education.

Kratzer’s practice is rooted in synesthesia, through which emotion arrives as amorphous fields of color that she moves through and paints from. This perceptual framework converges with a sustained inquiry into quantum cosmology, mycorrhizal networks, and indigenous understandings of interconnection — intellectual territories she treats not as metaphor but as the animating structure of the work. She believes color carries vibrational frequency, and that a painting made from a genuine place carries that frequency into whatever room it enters.

Deeply aligned with the lineage of the 9th Street women — Mitchell, Frankenthaler, Hartigan — Kratzer’s saturated, unapologetic palette registers the full force of that inheritance while remaining entirely her own. Her paintings have been exhibited at the MIVAL gallery, in the Museum of Northwest Art annual auction, and appear in the cookbook First Generation by Frankie Gaw (Ten Speed Press, 2021). Her work is held in private residential and corporate collections. She serves on the Mercer Island Arts Council and is the mother of three young sons.

CV

Creative Experience

Sole Proprietor, Freelance Brand Design
2006–Present

NBBJ
Lead Experience Designer
Seattle, WA
2017–2018

Alaska Airlines, Senior Visual Designer
Seattle, WA
2017

Reztark Design Studio, Director of Graphic Design
Seattle, WA |  Cincinnati, OH
2006–2017

Bluesky Creative, Senior Graphic Designer
Cincinnati, OH
2012–2014

Vanderbyl Design, Design Co-op
San Francisco, CA
2008, 2009

National Park Service, Design Co-op
Harpers Ferry, WV
2007, 2008

Volunteer Experience

Mercer Island Arts Council
Council Member
2025–Present

Mercer Island Visual Arts League
Member
2025–Present

Pixie Hill Preschool
President, Communications, Board Member
2024-2026

Coaching Experience

Boys and Girls Club, Little League
Mercer Island, WA
2023, 2024, 2025, 2026

Stanford University, Assistant Rowing Coach
Palo Alto, CA
2010-2012

Cincinnati Jr Rowing Club, High School Rowing Coach
Cincinnati, OH
2005–2010, 2012-2014

Pacific Rowing Club, High School Rowing Coach
San Francisco, CA
2010-2011

Awards

SEGD Global Design Merit Award
Alaska Airlines Hub HQ, 2017

Interior Design Magazine Best of Year Award, Healthcare Finalist
Kaiser Permanente WA

Exhibitions

2026

Treasures in Miniature, MIVAL Gallery, Mercer Island, WA

2025

Stellar Radiance, 34th MoNA Art Auction, Museum of Northwest Art, La Conner WA

MIVAL Holiday Show, Mercer Island Community and Events Center, Mercer Island WA

Treasures in Miniature, MIVAL Gallery, Mercer Island, WA

Education

University of Cincinnati, 2004–2010
College of Design, Art, Architecture, and Planning
BS in Graphic Design
Degree included: Drawing and painting
Multiple courses on color, shape, and line theory

Leatrice Eisman
Master Color and Design Course (in-person), 2015
Bainbridge Island, WA

High School Education included:
Drawing and Painting 1–4
Ceramics 1
Photography 1
Graphic Design 1

Studio and Process Photos

A person drawing on a colorful, abstract background with pastel colors and paint splatters using a black marker.
Person holding a pink flower with their dirt-covered and ink-stained fingers.
Close-up of an abstract watercolor painting with shades of blue, pink, and white, featuring dark and gold lines.
Two abstract paintings on a concrete floor, one with blue, yellow, and pink paint, and the other with red and orange hues. Paint splatters and paintbrush marks are visible, with a person's white sneakers nearby.
An art studio in a garage with abstract paintings on the floor and a workbench covered with paint supplies.
Close-up of a person's hand holding fabric with a needle sewing a hem, with a stitched black line on the fabric.
Close-up of a sewing machine stitching a blue and beige fabric with a splattered paint pattern.
A large sheet of brown paper with scribbles on it, placed on a concrete floor with some paint splatters. Part of a person's brown boots is visible at the bottom of the image.
A hand holding a piece of fabric with a tie-dye pattern in yellow, green, blue, and purple hues, with the background showing other fabric pieces and a paint-splattered surface.
Painter's brush held over a surface with orange paint, next to paint cups in blue and orange, and a cardboard surface with a streak of white paint, on a workshop floor.
A quilt stapler, a pair of scissors, a screwdriver, and strips of fabric on a brown surface.
Person holding a painted rock over artwork with colorful abstract designs on paper on concrete ground.