Peggy has known Kathy Erteman since grade school. The two of them are good friends and this interview has been one that we looked forward to doing since the very earliest conception of Outside the Lines. Kathy is one of those rare artists who has always done her art full time. And she has spent the past 19 years successfully navigating the pressures, opportunities, and hazards of being a full time artist in New York City.

We did this interview a couple of weeks before the arrival of hurricane Sandy. When the hurricane came, Kathy was (and at the time of posting still is) in Tibet, launching a 2 year grant project that you will read about below. She is safe, and while her studio is on 18th Street, just half a block from Union Square in Lower Manhattan, it's on the second floor above any flood threat and next door to a fire station.