Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1188718
Kathryn Hudson still shakes her head in amazement: "I never thought I would get all the opportunities that I've been afforded." Hailing from a small town (population 150), Hudson's journey from the Mississippi Delta to Los Angeles is anything but straightforward. Hudson showed an interest in art as a young girl but doodled on her own since her school didn't offer an art program. Fortunately, her mother found an art teacher in Jackson, Mississippi (about 60 miles away) teaching figure drawing to adults; she wrote a doctor's note to excuse Hudson from school every Wednesday and then the two headed to the DMV. At the ripe age of 14, Hudson got her hardship driver's license and started commuting to art classes weekly. By the time she was 16, she had amassed enough work for a portfolio and applied to the painting programs at both Ringling School and the Memphis College of Art but reality set in when she couldn't afford the tuition. "God works in mysterious ways," says Hudson. "My art teacher, Bob Pennebaker, was approached by a small college [Belhaven University] in Mississippi to chair the art department and he said, 'I'm going to take this girl with me.'" Hudson has more than a full scholarship to thank Pennebaker for, she also met her future husband in his art class. After graduating with a BA in Art, Hudson grew concerned about the prospect of having a 9-to-5 job doing what she loved. She decided to apply to grad school and was accepted into the Illustration program at SCAD. Only this time, she would be personally responsible for the tuition and she figured if she was going to go ONE CHARACTER DESIGNER'S TRULY, UNUSUAL CAREER JOURNEY FROM HOT TUBS TO HEROES 18 KEYFRAME T H E C L I M B