Kay Apking was born in Ohio in 1957 and followed a non-traditional route to college, graduating (with Honors) from Peru State College in Nebraska in 1996 with an art degree. Kay works primarily with pastels to develop an artistic reality of delicate color, shade and shadow. She blends colors extensively to fill her compositions with that sense of color and shadowing sensitivity. The spontaneity of her work comes not only from the objects that are used to create her compositions, but also from the force of the colors and their blends. Apking’s work can be found in private collections throughout the United States.