ARTIST STATEMENT
My practice is a process of transformation, an opportunity to translate my experiences as a city dweller, a woman, and a mother. Often, I juxtapose unrelated elements symbolic of these respective and intertwining identities yielding mixed media compositions that aim to raise questions through the visual cues cobbled together. My creative strategies are partially informed by collage-like layering of imagery on the streets of New York City. Regularly, I stop in my tracks, overwhelmed by the unexpected collision of color, line, image and text that presents on the wall of a construction site or a corrugated garage door. The vernacular of the city reflects an urban ecosystem in constant flux, interchangeable aspects of growth and decay unfolding daily. I'm also compelled by domestic space and the stuff of life that lives within the home. Like the public world beyond my front door, the private one also engages in building and razing, arranging and scrambling, doing and undoing; actions which live in my approach to making. I like taking images (and life) apart and puzzling them back in new ways.There are multiple dimensions to my practice and stages of making, but the work is most fulfilling when I’m suspended in a state of uncertainty, and am able to tune into my materials and be present in the moment.
ABOUT
My work has definitely evolved over the years. Primarily exploring assemblage while in college, I gravitated to performance after participating in a show where I lived and worked at a gallery and was on display to the viewing public for a month. This experience prompted me to return to graduate school where I could buy time to fully explore this new direction. While at Yale, I picked up a video camera and ventured into experimental film. Collaborating with drama students propelled me into a decade of producing films for theater alongside my own personal explorations. Highlight projects included collaborating with the string quartet Ethel on Truckstop The Beginning performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Laura Karpman’s Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz, Carnegie Hall and Annie Dorsen’s Hello Hi There. In the past few years, I've settled into a dedicated studio practice working in mixed media.
A native New Yorker, I live and work in my Brooklyn home with my family. In addition to my studio practice, I teach high school at an independent school in West Chelsea where I've had the incredible opportunity to build an art program from the ground up alongside many inspiring colleagues and students. Teaching has been an integral part of my growth both as an artist and an individual and keeps me in a constant state of learning for which I am grateful.CONTACT
kthow@mac.com, Instagram: a_kthow