Kate Ochoa
Scroll to view two CAS Visual Arts projects.
My Kitty, 2021
GIF
looping
My cat, unimaginably named “Kitty,” has been my closest companion. I was nine when I found him as a kitten, living in a storage shed next to my house. Watching over and feeding him became an integral part of my life, until the day my family decided to take him into our home. Since he spent the first several months of his life as a feral cat, Kitty possesses a naturally wild personality and energetic character. I love to observe him every day. His many quirks always make me smile.
My goal is to capture his spunky persona through a small series of hand-drawn looping animations. I shot multiple videos of Kitty in my house, and used them as the reference for each of the animations. I drew the frames by hand in Photoshop and chose background textures that remind me of him and my home, such as a texture of a blanket on my bed that is one of his favorite places to sleep.
I’ve always wanted to create a hand-drawn animation, and I’m hoping that you can feel in each of my animated vignettes both my deep affection for Kitty and the many hours I enjoy watching him.
Click to enlarge.
Fleeting Moments, 2021
Digital photography
Dimensions variable
Whenever I first enter into a new place, time slows as my senses take in and absorb its foreign surroundings. The experience of discovering something unusual, mystical or even magical, invokes both curiosity and wonder at once in me. In this setting, it is natural, almost reactionary, for me to reach for my camera and capture that moment. My goal is to emulate this feeling through my photography, and to motivate others to be more aware and appreciative about their surrounding environments.
I find this same sensory experience in places that I know very well, and in nearby local communities that I have not seen in a long time, or have never visited before. I brought my camera on many walks and drives to photograph the surrounding environments and their subtle details. For example, one of the photos included in my series is of a black crow sitting in a tree. I had to be decisive to capture that moment in time, as seconds after I looked at the crow, it decided to fly away. I hope that my viewers will understand that there is innate beauty in even the places we have lived in our entire lives because there are many intricate details in the landscape that are not easily visible on the surface and often last a only few fleeting moments.
Click on images to view individual diptychs.
