Episode 9: Kathryn Rathke hides a secret word in her illustrations

Do you see a hidden word? The portrait on the right is for this upcoming Mozart club.

Those lines! Look at those lines.

You can tell from across the room these are Kathryn Rathke’s inimitable lines.

In the case of Wendy, I could tell across a terminal at Sea-Tac.

Kathryn’s lines! Unrelated: When did you first discover bacon on a burger is delicious? Pod producer Jake Rummel shares a watershed moment.

Hidden words in the lines?

If you’re wondering: Is there a hidden message in Kathryn’s drawings, like Al Hirschfeld’s “NINA”?

We ask Kathryn on this episode—and she says, surprisingly, “Yes.”

The secret shall only be revealed to listeners. If you listen, please do not share the secret with anyone else.

Kathryn’s latest portrait

Kathryn drew young Herman Melville, top left, for Rebecca Brown’s upcoming “Billy Budd” & “Bartleby” & “Benito Cereno” club.

She talks about a few of these other faces on the episode as well.

Can you name the authors here just by looking at them?

The automata of a woman sneezing

Kathryn brought an automata she made of a woman sneezing to the podcast studio—hahahaha.

Too bad podcasts aren’t a visual medium.

Here’s what was happening in the studio that you miss from just hearing the audio:

Two other faces mentioned on the episode

Charles Dickens and George Eliot

Kathryn Rathke, Christopher Frizzelle, and Jacob Rummel in the podcast studio. On the shirt is a Kathryn portrait of Virginia Woolf.