Crafty Kt Bruce

You will probably know Kt Bruce as a photographer – well, THE photographer – for Rye actually, darting like Usain Bolt from event to event, seemingly in several places at once.

You may also know her as the chief reporter for Rye News. What you are unlikely to know is the remarkable journey that led Kt to these twin skills and the many other talents that she has accumulated along the way. Last year Kt celebrated her 75th birthday with an extremely packed party at the Waterworks tap room so it seems timely that before she heads for her 76th, we learn a little more about her.

In her own words “Life is a Happening not a Plan”. That seems apt given that Kt’s life has happened at a pace most of us would find exhausting. It is also clear that the path her “Happening” took has been defined by a strong leaning to the creative so it’s no surprise that it has been anything but a conventional career.

She wanted to go to art college when she was 18 but her very strict father took a rather Victorian view of this, and insisted she go to university. She did so, but rather cleverly made sure it was Goldsmiths in south London, where she read English but spent most of her time next door at Goldsmiths College of Art. Whether her father knew or not is unclear.

The time came for her big dissertation. Convention dictated that this would be about dead people. John Milton, John Dunne, Shakespeare. Kt decided it would be more interesting to do it on a live person and opted for Harold Pinter mainly because The Caretaker was then on in the West End. So she went to see it, collared Pinter, and interviewed him. Unwittingly setting the stage (sorry!) for her future career as a journalist.

Kt’s “Happening” then followed a predictably unpredictable path which included teaching classes of 40 eight year olds, accidentally becoming head of art, and putting on musicals. She then spent a couple of years in a remand centre where she overcame the temptation for the youngsters there to graffiti everything by drawing the whole of Watership Down on all four walls and allowing them to colour it in. Unclear really who was the actual graffiti artist.

She also began doing pen and ink studies of London scenes, which WH Smith took up for sale, thus encouraging her to make her own cards, something she still does. For keen collectors of limited edition cards go to Treasures of Rye in Lion Street where her creations are now on sale. Somewhere around the pen and ink stage she also ran a children’s gym, had a spell as a children’s entertainer (Kt The Clown!), and trained in a number of holistic therapies.

In the meantime, photography had inserted itself into Kt’s “Happening”, quite by accident, while living in Oxford where her husband Martin – better known as the Chief Harbour Herring – was Headmaster of Christ Church Cathedral School. Without meaning to, she ended up photographing the Queen at a college event and that of course led not just to her passion for photography but to more commissions.

In 2014 the couple moved to Rye for no other reason than they liked it, they liked the
sea and they intended to retire. This did not happen. What did happen was more of the “Happening” which is Kt’s life. She soon branched out into 3D cards – these are startlingly captivating mixed media in a box – material collage stitched backgrounds, pebbles or matches or painted card mini structures, all merged to form a picture. My favourite is the photos of (and two real) pebbles with simple beaks and feet.

Hence Crafty Kt.

So there are many faces to Kt Bruce and Rye has clearly not seen all of them, but
there can be no doubt that as her “Happening” moves along, more will make
themselves known.

The Discovery Centre is showcasing Kt’s material collages throughout January alongside the work of Anne Yates Craft Group.

1 of 8

Image Credits: Kt bruce , Natasha Robinson , Rita Haxton , The Friends of Rye Nature Reserve .