BIO
Kathryn was born in Moscow, Idaho, along with her twin sister (and two sisters before them) into a typical North American family who elevated themselves into the middle class.
Her father was Metis, coming from a lineage of French Canadian fur trappers who intermingled with Indigenous tribes of the north. He was the first of his family to get a college education, through the GI Bill, as a veteran of the Korean War.
Her mother is of Scotch-Irish descent; a family of working-class migrant farmworkers, whose parents and grandparents played the fiddle and traveled with the crops.
Kathryn’s background is reflected in the images she chooses for her work. In her practice, she explores personal histories, the struggle for identity, and relationships between photography, painting, and memory.
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.
STATEMENT
I use photographs to paint from. I get my inspiration from the time in which I grew up when America had first discovered the “Kodak Moment.”
While I employ different materials and methods, it always comes around to an inquiry into the relationship between the photograph, as a captured moment in time, and the unfolding nature of the painting process.
I look for images that conjure a memory, but also resonate in the present. Personal and family identity, photos that document everyday life, and found ephemera, can potentially become elements in my work.
I am seeking to reconstruct, to elevate, and to obliterate, until the intimate struggle between the photographic source and the painting process converge.