back / zpátky

Kaitlyn Pietras

I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio in the early 2000s.  I spent my teenage years frequenting the Cleveland Museum of Art, Lakeview Cemetery, and Coventry Road.  I took Saturday morning art classes at the Cleveland Institute of Art.  My favorite authors were Jack Kerouac and Chuck Palahniuk.  I went to shows at the Grog Shop and the Agora Ballroom and listened to David Bowie.

When I joined my high school drama club, I thought it would be a fun after school activity and never imagined that it would set the course for my career.  Kate Bernardo, my Drama teacher, encouraged me to cultivate my leadership skills as well as my love of theatre. I frequently stayed after rehearsal to paint, hang lights, or program cues. I enjoyed having responsibilities and feeling like my work mattered.  It made me feel like I was part of something special.

I decided to study Architecture at Clemson University. This laid a great foundation for my creative process.  We were encouraged to thoroughly research, exhaust many iterations of the same idea, and have a reason for every design decision we made.  Martha Skinner and David Lee were two professors whose ideas and critiques helped shape the way I think about spatial design.  I was also fortunate enough to design a few sets for the theatre department under the guidance of David Hartmann and Shannon Robert.

From Clemson, I took a leap of faith and pursued a MFA in Scenic Design at UCLA.  For my first design, I created an “emotional response collage”.  My mentor, Myung Hee Cho, encouraged me to continue making these collages and to this day I make a collage for every show I design.  While the focus of my graduate education was in Scenic Design, most of my education as a Projection Designer was learned on the job while working with my husband, Jason H. Thompson.  We recently started PXT Studio.

As I reflect on my career path, I realize what an incredible privilege it was to be able to focus on education and pursuing my passion.  I want to lift up voices that have not been heard and tell stories, like Mojada and Vietgone, that have a heartbreakingly relevant message. It gives me hope that healing in our country can come from sharing and witnessing each other’s stories.

back / zpátky