Kathryn Clark lives and works in San Francisco. She worked as an urban designer and architect for seven years before becoming a full time artist in 2005. She has a degree in Interior Architecture, but has been an artist for over twenty years.
Her art revolves around reminding people of the beauty of simplicity and awareness of time. Although trained as a painter, her studio slowly became full of remnants of yarn, wire and stacks of linen and burlap. One day, she put the paints and paintbrushes away, pulled out the fabrics and began sewing and layering thread. These tools express the time and effort it takes to create each piece while emphasizing simplicity.
Her art revolves around reminding people of the beauty of simplicity and awareness of time. Although trained as a painter, her studio slowly became full of remnants of yarn, wire and stacks of linen and burlap. One day, she put the paints and paintbrushes away, pulled out the fabrics and began sewing and layering thread. These tools express the time and effort it takes to create each piece while emphasizing simplicity.
Artist's Statement: From 1999 to 2004, I worked for a private urban planning firm designing New Urbanist neighborhoods throughout the US. In 2007, as foreclosures began to occur I questioned the development work I had made during those years. Did I add to this in some way? I was aware early on that these foreclosures were just the beginning of something bigger yet I felt alone when I mentioned it. Few agreed with me or seemed concerned.
I needed to find a way to bring this into my artwork but was unsure how. I wanted to map the affects of this crisis to show viewers who might be unaware how severe the problem has become. Making quilts seemed an ironic solution to this question. It is during times of hardship that people have traditionally made quilts, often resorting to scraps of cloth when so poor they could not afford to waste a single thread of fabric. Foreclosed lots are shown as holes in these quilts. Frequently, half the lots within a block have been foreclosed upon. These holes question the protective nature of a quilt. Times are so hard now that even a quilt can’t provide the security one needs. The neighborhoods shown are not an anomaly, they are a recurring pattern seen from coast to coast, urban to suburban neighborhoods across the US. The problem has not been solved, it is still occurring, just changing shape, affecting more of us.
Location: San Francisco, California, USA
Languages spoken: English
Foreclosure Boro: Las Vegas, 2011. 12" x 36"
by Kathryn Clark
Tags: linen, minimal, conceptual, quilt, boro, pojagi, fine art, natural, abstract, fiber art
Excellent blog redesign, Rachel. Thanks!
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