Kathy Haines Dench is a native of the Pacific Northwest, where she lives with her husband and two children near Seattle, Washington. Her studio is located in a second story warehouse space nearby. She received her formal education from Whitman College, Western Washington University and the University of Washington, but has found that the most valuable aspects of her artistic education occur at her easel.

During a three year stay in the San Francisco Bay Area, she was able to have contact with numerous artists and teachers, and paint as a daily discipline. Throughout this time she maintained a studio in a complex for professional visual artists in Belmont, California. Since returning to the Northwest in 1987, her many artistic activities have resulted in opportunities to show in Art Expo, California and New York, several major corporate and private commissioned works, as well as expanded representation in numerous corporate collections.