Katherine Rankin Carnell

Katherine Rankin Carnell, “Katie”, died on 10/27/12 at home in Tacoma after a year-long battle with cancer. Katherine was born July 9, 1948. She is survived by her husband of 43 years, Stephen, daughter Genevieve, her mother Elaine Rankin, her sister Amy Conti and her brother, Walter Rankin and aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and many friends. Her father, Everett E. Rankin, was an Air Force bomber pilot and veteran of WW2. Her mother, Elaine Fox Hall was a graduate of the College of William and Mary when she married Everett Rankin in 1947. Katie was born July 9, 1948 at Fort Clayton, Panama Canal Zone where her father was stationed. As a young child she lived in Texas, Louisiana and Florida. When Katie was 4 years old, she acquired a brother, Walter. At the age of 7 her father was transferred to an Air Force base in rural Kansas as a B-47 pilot. The family lived nearby in the small town of Lindsborg. Katie had her picture taken, sitting in the cockpit of her father’s B47 wearing his helmet and a big smile. All of the children in Katie's grade school were of Swedish heritage and had blond hair. Katie and her brother were the only children in school who had black hair and the only Catholic children. There were several churches to choose from in Lindsborg. Since all of them were Lutheran, the family had to drive 30 miles to attend the closest Catholic Church. Her father was gone a lot, sometimes for months at a time, stationed at air bases overseas. In 1957 her sister, Elizabeth was born. At an early age, Katie became interested in art. There is a lovely small college in Lindsborg, Bethany College. It has a large library. One summer day, without telling her mother, she rode her bike across town, walked into the library and told the librarian she was a “student” and wanted to see the art books. The librarian wasn’t fooled about her being a student at the college but sat Katie down at a large table and brought her several large art books with the works of many of the classical European artists. She was hooked. She stayed several hours and, having befriended the librarians, came back many more times. That was the start of her career as an artist. After several years in Kansas, Katie’s father left the Air Force and the family moved to Maine in the early 1960s. In 1964, her sister Amy was born. Katie graduated from Bangor High School in 1966. After graduation she left home to attend the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, the same college her mother had attended. Her major was art. It was in Williamsburg, just after the start of fall semester of 1969, that she met Steve Carnell, her future husband. Steve had been drafted in the army and was stationed at Fort Eustis, 20 miles from Williamsburg. They were introduced by friends and then saw each other every day until they were married in December. The next year their daughter, Genevieve, was born and Steve brought Katie and Genevieve back to Seattle where Steve had a job awaiting. They lived in Seattle, where Katie attended the University of Washington. They later lived in Federal Way, Tumwater and Olympia and finally, in 1976, Tacoma where they bought a house. With a house and with Genevieve in school, Katie now had space and time to paint. She claimed a small corner of the basement. Steve cut holes in the walls and put in windows and she resumed painting. She worked hard at it, doing laundry at one end of the basement and painting in the afternoon light at the other end. The family acquired a cat and two large dogs. Since she didn’t have any human models, she used the dogs for models. The dogs didn’t always hold still so she had to paint fast. They didn’t charge much, just a biscuit or two. She began to enter judged art shows. After a while she began to get noticed and was actually asked to enter shows. She won some prizes and sold some work. One large piece was sold and shipped to Germany. One year she had paintings hanging in shows in Wisconsin and Louisiana. In 1994 she and Steve built a much larger studio onto the house. She developed several styles of work, some representational, some not and some in between. She liked to experiment with paint, mostly acrylic because it dried quickly and could be painted over if need be. She often applied many layers of paint. She did small paintings and large. She did many paintings in black and white and many in color. Nearly all of them were from her own imagination. She created characters and painted them in many different settings and situations. Some paintings were whimsical and some were sinister, depending on her mood. Many paintings were simply of shapes that she liked. Some were of things she dreamed. The large paintings were often painted on treated Masonite. Some were painted on canvas. She often painted large canvas pieces on the floor, without stretchers and then just hung them on the wall when she was finished. Katie had work hanging in art shows even after she became ill. From October, 2011 until January, 2012 she had 8 large paintings on Masonite hanging in a one-person exhibition at the Handforth Gallery at the main downtown branch of the Tacoma Public Library. She also had a painting in the Collective Visions Gallery art show in Bremerton in January and February of this year. This spring and summer, while she was still able to walk and move about for short periods of time, and in spite of the pain and nausea from her cancer, she insisted on going out to her studio and finishing a painting she started many years ago. She did finish it, working just 20 or 30 minutes at a time, until she was exhausted. When she completed it she said she knew it was her last. Katie and Steve’s house is filled with the legacy of her life. There are over 125 framed pieces of work hanging on nearly every available wall and hundreds of unframed pieces stored away. A memorial service will be held at 11:00 AM Saturday, November 10, 2012 at St. Patrick Catholic Church, 1123 North J Street, Tacoma. Following the service Steve and Genevieve will hold an open house for family and friends to see her art work at their home at 2333 North Narrows Drive, Tacoma, WA 98406. Katie loved animals, particularly dogs. Over the years she and Steve adopted a cat and three dogs from the Humane Society. Instead of flowers, donations may be sent to the Humane Society of Tacoma and Pierce County, 2608 Center Street, Tacoma, WA 98409 in Katie’s memory.