Kari Cholokny ’06, who hails from Darien, Conn., is not a typical alumni artist. At 28 years old, she has had a large amount of exposure in the field thanks to her visual arts education at Choate and beyond, her own work in the visual arts arena, and her collaboration with other artists and their work.
During her time at Choate, Cholokny’s peers and teachers greatly influenced her. She took many fine art classes, but did not complete a senior project. However, this did not hinder her from pursuing a comprehensive arts education. She took advantage of her skills and advanced her opportunities through extended artistic coursework.
She explained, “I remember that Figure Drawing with Reggie Bradford was an important event in my development as a student and an artist and a person. I was a sophomore taking a class that was supposed to be for upper level, and I remember knowing that it was uncommon for high school students to be working with nude models in a figure drawing class. It was empowering to be trusted by a teacher to take responsibility with the material and treat the class with respect and seriousness. It was empowering, it greatly advanced my rendering ability, and it made clear to me how important art was to my life. It wasn’t as simple as me being good at drawing, it was that the class was hugely fulfilling in a soulful way, and that my mind grew tremendously during a semester of attempting to transfer the impression of seeing a person to a two dimensional image.”
Not only was her arts education a substantial part of her Choate experience, but also it helped her stay grounded in Choate’s hectic environment. Cholokny said that the studio was her personal haven away from the insanity of Choate’s daily life. However, despite the saety of that space for her, she believed that there were some drawbacks to her intense Choate arts education.
She said, “In a way, the school kind of passively showed me that art was to be considered a hobby or a non-serious pursuit. I understand that, as a prep school, the school is under the burden of giving students a course load that will make them impressive applicants to top liberal arts colleges and universities. It would have been nice to simply have some more flexibility in terms of modifying course paths according to students’ natural interests and abilities. I would have loved to have taken more art courses at Choate, but things may have become more flexible since I graduated.”
After Choate, Cholokny went to Dartmouth College, where she double majored in Environmental Science and Studio Art. Initially, she considered becoming a surgeon, but could not imagine spending four years in a New Hampshire lab. Instead, while she was attending Dartmouth, she became certified in Outdoor Emergency Care and worked as a ski patroller. She said, “I’ve always had a foot in science and a foot in the arts — much of what I read and what inspires me comes from the scientific world.”
After she graduated, Cholokny worked and painted for a few years, then attended graduate school for painting at Cranbrook Academy of Art, outside of Detroit, where she lived for two years. She later moved to New York, where she has been living and working ever since.
Today, she is a studio assistant for two artists and also paints for herself. In her job as studio assistant, she helps the artists with various tasks, from mixing paint to building canvas, moving artwork around the city in trucks, coordinating with their galleries, and talking about the broader art world, in general. In her own studio, she works on paintings, sculptures, and drawings, showing them in exhibitions locally in Brooklyn and Manhattan as well as nationally in places like Los Angeles and Detroit.
“I will probably be in New York for a long time,” Cholokny says. “I’d like to get to a point where I could make a living off of the sale of my paintings, but that’s quite rare. To be honest, I have a pretty good gig right now. I have great bosses, and I’m devoted to making my paintings. I’ll always be fighting for more time in my own studio instead of theirs. I’d like my future to include a gigantic concrete-floored studio for me to work in, a steady stream of coffee available at all times, and the time necessary to make the work I want to make.”
Cholokny’s advice to young Choate artists is concise, spunky, and insightful: “For anyone lucky enough to attend a school as fantastic as Choate, there are many forces at work giving him or her a boost in life. I have always felt that the best way to honor that leg up that Choate affords moving forward is with being an informed, careful and positive force in the world. Remembering my time at Choate, I’m always propelled forward to do the absolute best work that I can, and to be aware that education doesn’t end at graduation — it is a life-long process.”
