I come from a working class background, born in Moscow, Idaho and raised in Ventura, California. My father, who was the first in his family to be educated with the help of the GI Bill, was able to elevate his family into the middle class. My personal history inspires the choices I make in subject matter, and I always start with a photographic image as a point of departure. 

       I have noticed in the course of my creative life that I return again and again to certain images, as if they are keys to unlocking some mystery. Often these images are quite banal. They are fragments, like a memory. They come from family archives, as well as photographs found in the bins of thrift stores and flea markets. 

        My method of choosing is intuitive. I am drawn to certain images that conjure a personal memory, or some kind of shared experience, such as childbirth and other family milestones, or simple things we do everyday, like eating.

         The images I choose to work from often ask questions about class, identity, and entitlement. Coming from partly Metis lineage, I am looking for keys that might explain my own family history as it relates to other personal histories. I see these works as pieces of a puzzle, as a rumination on the meaning of the American Dream. 

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Kathryn earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at California State University, Long Beach, and later studied at the University of Wyoming.
 

She lives and works in Los Angeles.

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