Art Con 10 is coming next weekend. In the run up to the big event on Saturday, November 15, the team is helping us introduce some of the participating Conspirators. Thanks to Martha Belden, for telling us more about today’s artist,  Kate Langley

Kate Langley, who prefers to go by K8, is Art Conspiracy’s youngest participant and, perhaps, biggest cheerleader. At only six years old, Kate participated in her first Art Con in its third year, and has championed the organization ever since. “My dad and mom went to the first two without me, but my dad submitted me to Art Con 3 because I had already been in Artfest in 2006 and was painting for charities with my group 10paint5 / kanvaskidz,” she explains. “I was six and a little scared at first, so I decided to paint a mermaid because I love them.”

That first experience is one she’s never forgotten as she met her first fan and made a new friend in Scotty Mankoff. “He took pictures and made me feel special.” And since that first year, Kate has befriended and been influenced by an overwhelming number of Art Con artists who have, in a matter of speaking, taken her under their wings and encouraged her. Not only is she the youngest participant in Art Conspiracy’s decade of existence, but she’s also the youngest charitable entrepreneur you’re likely to meet. With the help of her parents, at only five years old, Kate (who had already been painting in local charity and arts-based events for a year), with the help of her parents, founded 10paint5 / kanvaskidz. “Me and my friends paint for Jonathan’s Place, the North Texas Food Bank, Genesis Shelter, Shakespeare Dallas, and St. Baldrick’s,” Kate explains.

And her young efforts do not stop there. In 8^th grade and in addition to her active participation in Art Conspiracy and her own organization, Kate is a member of the Junior National Honor Society; Community Connections; her school’s softball, basketball, drama, musical theater and book clubs; and has received the Headmaster’s Highest Honor Roll and the U.S. President’s Gold Community Service Award three times running (soon to receive her fourth). Perhaps most incredible about this young girl, is the humility and sincere gratitude she heartily expresses for Art Conspiracy. “It supports the real artists and me with opportunities and encourages us to grow and continue our art,” she says. “But just as important is the money we raise for the smaller charities that most forget about. Besides, it is cool and something my family believes in.”