Hi! My name is Kale Hunt, I am a 20 year old Tacoma based Mixed media illustrator and glassblower. I started blowing glass at 12 years old with hilltop artists, and have been pursuing a career in glass ever since.

My work is heavily focused on sexuality- My experience as a young woman has come with being sexualised and of course, like most young woman I am a victim of sexual assault. A disappointing reality, but my body of work is somewhat expressive of the experiences and life afterwards. I have always been interested in exploring the ways I can send messages through my work while pushing the boundaries of what is palatable for professional art based settings. Taking the most sexualized part of the female form and turning it into something somewhat surreal amidst a background of sometimes silly colorful images, or aggressive animals forces the viewer to look elsewhere instead of going "wohoo boobies!" (which i am not nieve, it will always happen depending on who sees it.).

In my experience, living as someone who had been victimized at such a young age- people look at you differently when you open up about it. Like now theres this big ugly elephant in the room and now everything is uncomfortable, even though this happens to so many girls. I think the pieces I make with the body as the main focus while theres so much business going on in the background represents the way everything else about me gets ignored as soon as someone hears my story- My body being taken is the only thing they can focus on. It makes Me feel dirty and guilty for making everyone uncomfortable with this awful thing that happened in my life, so I turned it into a pretty paintings.

Lately I have been trying to merge my glasswork with my illustrative art. I have been making these colorful, devilish forms to sit alongside my paintings. Honestly, the idea of sexualizing a glass object feels similar to the way men tend to objectify the female body. It is interesting to get into that headspace, it makes more sense to me when it is something i made to be striking and playful. I am still exploring this idea and hope to expand on it. I have been mainly focused on working with my glass community and building those connections, and bringing a lighthearted energy to work!