Kathleen Mitchell was born in Jacksonville, North Carolina (1958) into a family that relocated frequently during her first 9 years.

A lifelong maker of art, it has been said that her stegosaurus sculpture at the age of 6 was the best piece of pinched clay in all of Northeastern Pennsylvania.

In 1967 her family settled in San Diego, California. The geographical and cultural shift reformed her identity as both an artist and as a member of a complex community.

Mitchell was a glassblowing and lampworking instructor at the University of California San Diego’s lauded Crafts Center until it’s closing in September 2012. The closing of this important crafts hub prompted her to build her own glassblowing studio/school in the burgeoning arts district of Barrio Logan in San Diego.

A near fatal encounter with her glass lathe in April 2015 has not deterred her. Both Mitchell and her studio bounced back to function and create at 100%.

Ms. Mitchell is the owner of Art-Hell, a glassblowing studio, the lead instructor for Project PAINT (an Arts-in-Corrections program at Donovan State Prison), an active member Allied Craftsmen San Diego, past President and current Education Chair of the Art Glass Association of Southern California, and an active member of Feminist Image Group (F.I.G.).