Welcome to Kathleen’s Art Blog!

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Pictures from La Cascade (Oct. 2008 workshop site)




Here are some pictures taken at La Cascade, an artists' retreat in the medieval village of Durfort, France, the site of my October "French Connection" 5-day workshop. Penina, a student I had in Sacramento last week, had studied there last summer and said it was the most quaint place she'd ever been to and that it was an absolutely unforgettable experience. Owner Gwen Gibson just sent me these pictures, which were taken by Denise Andersen (thank you!). There are still spaces available and I am looking forward to this in-depth, inspiring study experience! Visit the Calendar page on my website for details...

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

My Craft Cast interview

Craft Cast has just published an interview with me on the web. If interested you can go to www.craftcast.com/.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

New Work for the New Year



Here you see two images of new work that is not even on my website yet.  This continues within my recent "Pod" series where I make use of tiny organic forms and reinterpret them on a different scale. The series began with the idea that a pod is a hollow container designed to hold and protect something that is fragile and important. This idea seemed appropriate for the function of an evening bag as well, and so began the series.


So, expanding on that original idea, I noticed some beautiful tall grass blowing in the wind by the side of the road with purple tips, green and peachy stalks and I thought, "What beautiful grass.  Now, what can I do with that to make a purse?"  After doing some drawings and thinking about it for quite a long time, I came up with "Blowing Grass Purse." (Catchy title, huh?) I am very excited about this piece!


Ideas like this come about because I feel my job as an artist includes "paying attention". Earlier in my life when we lived in big cities, in other countries, while I was raising a family, I was paying attention to the stages in my life, paying attention to the lives of other women, and I tried to pay attention to my inner life. All of this is reflected in earlier purses that you can see on my website. Now, with more time and living in the woods of New Hampshire, I am paying attention to nature, not because I ever intended to but because it has pretty much forced itself upon me.  I used to resist being "inspired by nature" because it seemed like an overused theme for artists. Now, here I am looking at grass and reinterpreting it in colored plastic in the form of a purse.


By paying attention and then putting it somehow into my work, I hope then to open other's eyes and perhaps enable them to pay attention: to life, to the world, to people, to whatever they might be missing at the moment.