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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.”
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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.
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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.
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I am seeking to reconstruct, to elevate, and to obliterate, until the intimate struggle between the photographic source and the painting process converge.