Meet the owners of Alley Cat Studios

Kandi Jamieson- MFA (Art Therapy) School of the Art Institute of Chicago

William Jamieson- MFA (Ceramics) Boise State University

We have been creating art together for over 20 years and we want nothing more than to share that passion and and experience with you.

Kandi is the owner of Orchid's True Blue, a furniture art business where she paints and refinishes one of a kind works of furniture art. "I use almost every room in our home to be creative and make art, and I've out grown my home and garage studio space".

William is a professional artist and teacher who currently teaches art at Oakton College and the City College of Chicago as well as prior teaching at several local art centers like Lillstreet, River One, and Epic Art House.  William expresses himself artistically through the medium of clay, creating both ceramic sculpture and functional pottery. "I love creating art in a community where artists can gather to create, share ideas, learn new skills, techniques, and transform the ordinary into something inspirational!"

We have a history of creating community studios and art resource centers. We created ARTHOUSE in 2010, a small art business out of our home where we served the community with children’s classes, adult drawing courses, private lessons and pottery instruction.  Later, in 2015, Kandi was offered a scholarship to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago to pursue an MFA in Art Therapy and we closed the business and moved to Evanston where we fell in love with this city!  We always believed we would start a new studio experience in the future.

Our vision at Alley Cat Studios is a shared art studio for ceramics, with gallery space to exhibit furniture art, paintings, drawings and more. We will host classes, open art studios, events, workshops, visiting artists and help organize community art experiences.  We see this space becoming one of the main hubs for art in Evanston and a cornerstone for the local art community.  This project will be community-based and celebrate creative diversity.  We are so excited to share our artistic passions with all of you, both locally in studio, and globally through social media.