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Kathleen Stevans holds a painting of the Walnut Grove skyline at the Hidden Treasures, the Delta shop where Stevans sells her functional art. (Jennifer M. Howell/News-Sentinel)
Delta artist brings the inanimate to life
Lodi Living Editor
Artist Kathleen Stevans is a people person if there ever was one. She's the type of person who makes you feel like a friend the first time you shake her hand. Her Walnut Grove home is welcoming and warm — and it's not only because she just pulled a cake out of the oven.
Stevans is the woman behind Pure Hokum. Her hand-painted mugs, plates, piggy banks (and pretty much anything else you want painted) are often a reflection of the Delta. Her signature platter is illustrated with a colorful, yet simple painting of three old Walnut Grove houses, complete with a clothesline and uneven fence.
The name of her business, Pure Hokum, is named after a dog she had in her college days, named Hokum. He was a unique kind of dog, one who refused to stay in the yard. Not only would he wander around college classrooms searching for her, he would come home at the end of the day with Sesame Street stickers stuck to his collar by neighborhood kids. Later, Stevans discovered that Hokum was meeting neighbors for morning gardening sessions and even went on a boat ride with a family in the neighborhood.
Because of her love for animals — including her huge rescue dogs that are just as much a part of the family as her husband and daughter — a portion of her proceeds go to groups like the Humane Society. To make special orders or to view the Pure Hokum studio, contact Stevans at (916) 214-1205 or e-mail purehokum@hotmail.com.
Q: How did you get into creating functional art?
A: I started doing it for family and friends. I remember one year for (a gift exchange) we decided to give things we each made. We wanted to make it more interesting and fun and heartfelt. One year I painted on fabric and made cushions and pillows. Then one year, I was standing in the grocery store line and I saw a cover of a family magazine and it was of a bunch of glass plates that they painted on the back of them.
Q: So you learned all of this from a magazine?
A: Yeah, it was like a how-to-paint-plates article. The first time I washed it, it slid right off. I was so disappointed.
Stevans enjoys painting silhouettes, like this grasshopper. (Jennifer M. Howell/News-Sentinel)
Q: You have hundreds of pieces, but do you have a favorite?
A: There's a platter at my studio that I painted. There are three houses in town that I just really love (and I painted them on the platter). Originally when I baked it, the handle cracked. It's a very small crack, but I just felt like I have integrity and I didn't want to sell something that I damaged. So I made it into a sample. Sometimes the universe works in mysterious ways because I've gotten so many orders from that piece. It's kind of like my signature piece because it looks like the area.
Q: What's your style of painting
A: I like a lot of empty space.
Q: What's your most unique piece?
A: One lady came to me with this plain ceramic white piggy bank and said, "My friend just had a baby and I'd like you to do something to match his room that's going to have a cowboy motif. Maybe it could have boots on and jeans — and make them Ryder jeans because the mom loves to ride horses. And if it could have a bandana and then the tag could maybe be the kid's name. And he has blue eyes." I'm looking at this big, fat pig thinking, "This is going to be so tacky." And then she says, "Oh, and the dad's an interior decorator so can you make it kind of classy."
It turned out so cute.
She does most of her painting in her Walnut Grove studio. (Jennifer M. Howell/News-Sentinel)
Q: Do you have to know how to paint to do this?
A: I would think so. Yes. The paint likes to slip around a lot. When you go to paint on a piece of paper, the paint grabs on to the paper. But when you go to paint stuff like this it just wants to slide off, so it can be very challenging.
Q: Anything you haven't been able to do?
A: Not yet.
Q: How long will it take you to do a cup?
A: It's hard to put a time frame on it. A lot of times I have to prep it — find out what design is going to be used — and then bake it. It's a several day process for each item.
Q: Who do you credit for your creativity?
A: My parents. Both of them are creative in their own way. While on vacation we'd go in this river, where all these rocks were along the river and (my mom would) say, "Oh what does that rock look like" and we'd paint the rocks to be like what they look like.
And my dad's always been artistic.
Q: Do you feel like the Delta and Walnut Grove inspire you too?
A mug designed as a gift for a swim coach. It's one in a series. (Jennifer M. Howell/News-Sentinel)
A: Absolutely. I just love the area. It means a lot to me. There's a real subtle kind of beauty about the Delta. When my husband first came here — he's more of a city guy — he could not believe he was living on the Delta. One of his friends came to visit and he said, "I can't believe you're living here." As he commutes back and forth, he really sees the beauty out here.
Q: What is your dream vacation?
A: To not have to get in a car or put on makeup the whole time. I want to plop down, feet in the sand or next to the river, or not have to do any kind of driving or getting dressed.
Q: What are the most played songs on your iPod?
A: There's a Black Eyed Peas song called "Where is the Love." For some reason I just love the lyrics to that song. "People livin' like they ain't got no mamma." I love that. Our society — it's like we're raised with no mother telling us what's right and what's wrong. And I love Cat Stevens. I love Corrine Bailey Rae and Norah Jones. "Adieu False Heart" by Linda Ronstadt — it's very haunting, but very feminine. One of the things I listen to that's almost like a time of worship is a song called "The Prayer" by Bocelli.
I really like a lot of silence too. When I'm painting, music helps me to get in the mood. I have to get in a zone when I have a lot of work to do.
Q: Do you ever have to paint something exactly the same over and over?
A: No, I tell people they're not going to be the same. They match sometimes, but they're not going to be perfect like silk screens.
Q: What are your goals — do you want to have your own shop?
Kathleen Stevans At A Glance
Family: Husband Joel Stevans, daughter Victoria "Tori", dogs Max and Mollie
Where she lives: Walnut Grove
Where she grew up: In a Victorian house in Rio Vista
Past jobs: Trainer for Nordstroms, waitress
College: University of the Pacific
Major: Philosophy — "As Steve Martin said, 'I've had just enough philosophy to screw me up for the rest of my life.'"
Books she's reading: "The Glass Castle. "The Passion of Mary Magdalen" — "For any woman who wants to feel empowered by her own femininity.
What else she does: Works at the local preschool — "I get really attached to these little kids I can't stand it."
Family: Husband Joel Stevans, daughter Victoria "Tori", dogs Max and Mollie
Where she lives: Walnut Grove
Where she grew up: In a Victorian house in Rio Vista
Past jobs: Trainer for Nordstroms, waitress
College: University of the Pacific
Major: Philosophy — "As Steve Martin said, 'I've had just enough philosophy to screw me up for the rest of my life.'"
Books she's reading: "The Glass Castle. "The Passion of Mary Magdalen" — "For any woman who wants to feel empowered by her own femininity.
What else she does: Works at the local preschool — "I get really attached to these little kids I can't stand it."
A: No, I would hate to have my own store. I used to think it would be fun to have somebody pick up my designs and reproduce them on a bigger scale — like have my designs be reproduced by Target. But I still think the hand-painted by me, individually touched is special. I like them when they're done by me. I would like to keep control and have them each done by hand. I think there's a certain feeling that comes through.
Q: What are some of your favorite things to do when you're not painting?
A: I just love to be by myself. I love soaking in the tub. My friends call and say, "Are you in the tub? It's like two in the afternoon!" I'm like a cliche.
I don't really like walking all that much, but I walk my dogs every day because they need it. And shopping — it's retail therapy.
Q: Anything you want to paint that you haven't?
A: Light fixtures. I was thinking of doing ceramic knobs and stuff for drawers.
Q: You talk a lot about your friend, Marty Stanley, a well known Walnut Grove artist who died a couple of years ago. Beside being a great family friend, did he help you in your art?
A: I think he was a big influence on me personally. Not his artwork so much, just his encouragement as an artist. And he gave me all his scraps. That's what I would paint on because he painted great big things and I painted little tiny things.
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