Between 1974 and 1990 she lived on three US coasts, in two mountain ranges, in remote rural rentals, in major cities and never in one place for long. Her continuing eclectic education consisted of pursuing a smorgasbord of work: a street portrait artist in New Orleans, a potter in Vermont, commissioned copyist, corporate portraitist, advertising/ magazine/ book and textbook artist. Her clients ranged from Simon & Schuster's Great Composers textbook series, to graphic production on the first Motley Crew album. Her diverse commissions included a large founding father portrait which hangs at the Oakland Children's Hospital, and over 150 small paintings for ten history books by Rourke Publishing. She was the subject of a televised news interview in Reno Nevada in 1983, and won the Grumbacher Gold Medallion award in Batavia California in 1985. She has completed commissioned portraits including (the jelly belly) Goelitz Corp. founding fathers, and the CEO of USBank in Portland OR.

In January 1990 Ace moved to Oregon and established a permanent studio. She has had 32 solo shows since 1992 including The Woodside/Braseth Gallery, Seattle; The Margo Jacobsen Gallery, Portland; Elmhurst Art Museum, IL; Portland State University; Pacific University, OR; Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle; The Cliff Dwellers Arts Club, Chicago IL; Oregon State University, Corvallis OR.

Ace has participated in numerous regional and national group shows at museums, galleries, art centers, colleges and universities including shows at the Whatcom Museum, WA; Bellevue Art Museum, WA; Maryhill Art Museum, WA; Tacoma Art Museum, WA; Holter Museum of Art, Helena MT; Hoyt Institute of Fine Arts, PA; Vorpal Gallery, San Francisco, CA; John Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, CA; Middle Tennessee State University, TN; Tarleton State University, TX.

Her work hangs in private, corporate and public collections. In 1998 she was awarded a public art commission for two 6x7' paintings for the Art Center at Southern Oregon State University in Ashland. Work hangs at the Oregon State University Library in Corvallis, the Vintage Plaza Hotel in Portland, Paccar corporate collection and Paragon Inc. in Seattle. A 1996 winner of the Portland Symphony Program Cover Competition, Ace often contributes cover art for magazines, journals, and books in the US and Europe, including Irse de Casa-by Gaite, published in Spain, CALYX book and journal covers -including their two 25th Anniversary Anthology edition covers, Pomegranate Publishing cards and calendar, and Terre Lontane poetry by Maggiare. Magazines and journals that have featured her work include The Other Side, Gnosis, and Interreligious Insight.

Katherine Ace has an ongoing fascination with both figurative and still life painting. Her work posits, plays with and subverts realism, is deeply involved in contraries and opposites, and has a feminist orientation. She finds inspiration in art from ancient times to the present. Her influences are many and include: Arthur Dove, William Blake, Greek sculpture, Balthus, Da Vinci, Magritte, E. Vigee Lebrun, Varo, Carrington, Fantin-Latour, Emily Carr, Asian Thangkas, Dutch flower painters, and too many contemporary artists to list.

Ace is represented by the Woodside/Braseth Gallery in Seattle, and the Froelick Gallery in Portland.