Brenda Kato

Brenda Roberts Kato was born in Jacksonville, Florida. She discovered her artistic talent as a child, winning various art contests as early as the first grade. In high school, she entered the Graphic Design program at the Skills Center, where she learned the basics of graphic design, illustration, sign painting, silk-screening, airbrushing, and 3D displays. She won many awards during this time, including first place in the state and second place in the nation for a VICA (Vocational Industrial Clubs of America) 3D display celebrating the Constitution, and first place in Duval County's 'Just Say No To Drugs' poster contest. Continental Cablevision even turned her poster's slogan 'Wanna Grow? Just Say No' into a commercial.

After graduation, Brenda entered the Graphic Design program at the Savannah College of Art and Design, but soon discovered computers in her elective classes. After a year and a half at SCAD, she transferred to Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida where she studied illustration, painting, photography, animation and art history. Brenda's work was included in the RSAD senior show and their annual publication.

After college, Brenda returned to Jacksonville and helped form an Arts group called The City of Expression. Boasting a membership of around 150, this group created opportunities for artists to get community exposure; the group produced monthly art shows in parks, coffee shops, and storefronts, and produced a magazine for the next two years.

In 1992 Brenda taught art at an inner-city high school, but lack of support and respect for the arts department led her decision to leave teaching. Brenda wanted to become an animator and joined a large government contractor, Logistic Services International. There, she gained experience with several animation packages including WICAT, Animator Pro, and 3D Studio MAX. She also fell in love with Adobe PhotoShop and Illustrator. During this time, Brenda served on the board of the Beaches Fine Arts Guild. She was asked to participate in many fine art shows, showcasing her series of 'Green People' acrylic surrealist paintings.

In 1994, Brenda joined the commercial video and multimedia department at Orlando's JHT Multimedia. She was soon promoted to Art Director, and worked with such clients as NASA, The Army, ORMC (Orlando Regional Medical Center), and Olive Garden, Watermelon Board, FedEx, EDS, illustrating storyboards, producing graphics, animation, and user interfaces for CD-ROMs and web sites. In 1997, Brenda became the Art Director for a live television talk show for Paxson Communications in Clearwater, Florida. Paxson Communications used her background elements in the overall look and feel for the launch of the entire PAX Network.

Next, Brenda became a full-time freelancer, accepting work from several Tampa production facilities, including Tampa Digital, Island Media, Magic Studios, Edit Suites, and Digital Video Arts. She was soon offered a full time Art Director position with Wizard Studios, a large international themed-event company. Brenda spent 1999 as part of a creative team that handled conceptualization, illustration, fabrication, painting, and lighting. She specifically, helped theme the interior of the WWF Restaurant in New York, designed 'Country Club' style tents for Outback Steakhouse, created the FedEx/Doral Resort's Millennium Celebration water-screen video, and designed the logo for Lager's Old World Grill. This event job was the most fun because it utilized every creative bone in her body and required collaboration with other creative people.

In 2000, Brenda moved back to Jacksonville to open Digital Chemistry Inc., a Multimedia Design Alliance. She worked on several projects with this alliance of marketing and design professionals. In 2001 she rejoined her friends at Logistic Services International to work on the ASE contract for the Navy. As lead artist she managed a team of artist to create distant learning courses using the latest Flash technology.

In 2003 she joined Emergency Debt Relief Inc. as their Art Director and was part of a marketing team providing EDR with excellent print and web marketing materials. She left EDR in March 2004 to join forces with PRO DESIGN LABS a local marketing and web development company. As Art Director for Pro Design Labs, she created graphics for many websites. During this time, Brenda, her niece Sarah Gordon and a handful of other artist helped Tony Allegretti create the First Wednesday Art Walk downtown Jacksonville, Florida. She began showing her acrylic painting series of contortionist females in several venues downtown and was the featured artist at the Karpeles Manuscript Museum for the month of October, 2004. From 2001 to 2005 Brenda’s home in Avondale became known as “The Art House” because she let local bands play in her garage, and rented out her spare rooms to artist, gave art lessons to children and hosted figure drawing classes.

In November 2004, she became Art Director for SkyeTec Environmental Building Solutions and has helped them transition from a small mom-n-pop inspection company to a thriving mid-size indoor environmental solutions provider. She was one of 12 Jacksonville artist selected to show at Art After Dark, April 21st, 2006 at The Florida Theatre. This show is an annual charity event for the theatre. During this time she showed her “Circus” series and “Big Brother” series paintings in several bars in Jacksonville, Florida and in a Russian Tea Room in the lower east side, New York, NY.

In August of 2007, Brenda moved north to work in Manhattan for Newtek Business Services, a large business services company as a web designer and web projects manager. She spent the next three years living in and working in New York City and taking advantage of the arts and music scene available in the city. She showed her political art show called 'I Love Big Brother' in October 2008 at Teneleven Tavern on the lower east side. She became friends with Jimmy Gestapo and other living hardcore punk legends in New York Hardcore and redesigned the New York Hardcore Tattoos website and the Murphy’s Law website. She created an online community for hardcore fans, http://www.nyhc4life.com. She joined Art-Trope in 2009, a French arts group in NYC and went to as many galleries and art festivals as she could.

In May of 2010 she put together the NYHC4LIFE Art Show to promote the website which featured two hardcore illustration legends Sean Taggart and Gary Gilmore and newcomers Craig Holloway, Chris Roque, Samma Jamma and herself. The art show was hosted by TenEleven Tavern on the lower east side and was part of the BNB Bowl annual hardcore music festival.

Brenda returned home to Jacksonville in 2010 to escape the cold winter and help her 80 year old parents. Brenda is able to work remotely from Florida for Newtek Business Services during the day. By night she pursues her fine art passion. In April 2010, she joined forces with two female artists to take advantage of the “Off The Grid” artist lease agreement program. Together they opened Bee Gallery and Design Studio in the Jacksonville Landing. Bee Gallery is a contemporary arts gallery and design studio featuring the works of Melissa Finelli, Jennifer Woodall, Brenda Kato and guest artist. Brenda’s paintings, batik and scratchboards can be seen during open hours Tues. – Fri. 11am to 2pm and every First Wednesday Art Walk at the Bee Gallery. Bee Gallery now hosts figure drawing every Monday night from 6-8pm.

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