THE WORK OF KATHRYN CAMERON
Kathryn Cameron's work delves into the fragility of the mind, body, and spirit by investigating the symbolic meanings of shapes, forms, and colors used across different times and cultures. She explores their symbolic, psychological, and spiritual impacts on the soul. She uses various natural materials, often recycled or repurposed, such as paper, fibers, wood, leather, steel, and pure pigments, to unearth the connections between man and nature. Her work seeks to honor the simplicity within the natural world's complexity.
Cameron's inspiration is deeply rooted in the erratic layers, irregularities, and textures of forms found in nature and architecture. She expresses herself through the manipulation of surfaces, leaving visible marks that bear the imprint of her humanity. Using fingerprints of different densities of pigment underscores the importance of being human, leaving a trace of identity. As in the antique signs in early caves, there is an enchantment of the human touch on a surface, which can generate debates on light, sound, or emotion.
Her works also deal with the topic of individual space. This encompasses the space residing in the painting per se and the space of the painting absorbed into an environment. Some spaces became emotional; some emotional states became spaces. The manipulation of the surface through the actions in the paintings is always present, but the memory often resides on the edges. With the impossibility of completely defining the metaphor of the edge, there is an emphasis on the periphery, where the surface ends, leaving the glance on the verge of equilibrium. This records memories from the past and simultaneously represents a projection of the future. Under an almost minimalistic approach are hidden laborious layers, depicting that the mystery of life can be found beneath the surface, from the drama of art to the certainty of death.
Cameron is particularly interested in the expression of emotion through the natural elements and special meanings of color, which are the essence of landscapes, mood, and our perception of the physical world. The colors in the works, often made with pure pigments and natural substances, are a palette that pays tribute to the earth's natural minerals. This use of color not only references antique ways of painting but also reflects her desire to maintain alive the nature of our past, infusing the work with a sense of continuity and life.
The interaction of all these elements becomes the way to interpret and observe the relationship between man and nature, with color being the great miracle that ties all of this together. Fragility, purity, and emotion linger in a poetic silence, maintaining an antagonism or harmony, and are both the generator and the recipient of the energy that populates the space in an organized system of tones and reverberation of sounds.
Kathryn Cameron is an American artist living and working in New York. She is a member of the New York School of the Arts and Hub Center for the Arts in New York City, where she serves as a faculty member and exhibition curator. Cameron also teaches courses and workshops worldwide in paper pulp, paperclay, and sculpture. She is a member of Alive! Art Creativity & Climate Change, a French-based organization exploring the potential of art and education to inspire a transition to a more sustainable society. Cameron holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Kutztown University in cinema, photography and television production and has received extensive art training in New York since 1990. She studied sculpture, painting, and printmaking at The National Academy Museum and School, the School of Visual Arts, and the New York Academy of Arts, and paper making at Carriage House Paper in Brooklyn, NY. Her work is in private collections in the United States, Europe, and New Zealand.