Katia Stewart

My process is driven intuitively, by making aesthetic decisions with a sort of poetic logic I developed through early and prolonged exposure to western wildernesses from the jagged terrain of the Sawtooth mountains to the dark, metallic-pink of the rocky buttes in the Sonoran desert. I work from the perspective of a process artist to convey the uncovering of beauty after having found it in the gestures of preparing the materials. There is a carving and slicing mark in both paint on canvas and knife on clay as I work out unanswered questions derived from concepts, primordial and infinite. I juxtapose formative experiences with glimpses of industry to make the effort towards seeing beauty in more and more places. I use the feeling of unification within an artwork to communicate its completeness and arrive there by subtly adjusting the application of marks, or tonal structure between various mediums. By mixing, matching, and disguising materials I introduce discovery as the eye transforms perception and scale. Most recently I’ve been working on a series of low, square containers that hold collections of natural elements hand built from stoneware like elaborate dioramas of remembered wildernesses. They could be planetary surface samples excised and preserved by alien technology. The work is energized by a switching between the micro and macro of landscapes like the enjoyment of both the stoic form of a boulder and the concept that it settled in its size and placement after an ice dam released a crashing rush of water forming the Snake River Canyon. Epic occurrences in nature prompt me to create depictions of phenomenal transformations. Working in multiples allows me to have a conversation between these occurrences, aiming for a wholeness while working through extreme diversity. There will always be more to discover and create because the majority of life is unseen and widely unexperienced. I plan to continue to work with materials that are close to nature like clay, wood or a keyed-up, vivid pallet of earth tones not to try to out-do Nature, but to stay close enough to be able to figuratively point to moments of ever present beauty. As I add to my collection of collections I’m noticing a shift from organic realism into abstraction, via memory. Both methods of conveying life are capable of triggering memories of being outside, tying what is the experience of artwork, to the experience of wilderness. Ultimately, it is the personal realization that one is a part of the natural world that may lead to the appreciation and preservation of ourselves and our planet.
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