Katherine Watts
BIOGRAPHY
Katherine E. Watts is printmaker and multidisciplinary artist based in Evansville, IN. She received her MFA from the University of Louisville with honors in 2021 and received her BSc in Art with emphasis of graphic design, with extensive studies in Printmaking and Figure Drawing, from the University of Southern Indiana in 2007.
She has since then been included in numerous exhibitions; most notably at Jasper Arts Center and the Thyen-Clark Cultural Center, Mccutchan Art Center and Pace Galleries at USI, the Portland Museum in Portland, Louisville, KY, Las Laguna Art Gallery in Laguna Beach, CA, and the Cressman Center for Visual Arts in Louisville, KY.
Watts is currently an active artist and instructor of art and design at the University of Southern Indiana; she teaches both studio and digital arts. Her research includes alternative papermaking methods, book binding, mycology, ecological art, eco art theory, and found object printmaking/ sculpture. Her art studio is located within the West Side Community Center in Evansville, IN.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Various techniques are employed within my work, such as printmaking, new and digital media, 3D sculpture, and music. Foraged riverbank findings and discarded objects are incorporated, which are deconstructed and then reassembled in unexpected or abstracted ways. While there is an innate, accompanied romanticism and beauty associated with these objects, there is also a sense of regeneration and urgency.
Instead of simply presenting such realities, the implied Derridean approach to their complexity and instability might be better served by deconstruction; to attempt to discover the meanings within them. My intention is to accomplish this while retaining the sources of the relationship of abiding beauty and conflict.
My overarching intention is to create a polyphony of work that focuses on ecophilosophy, nostalgia, metaphor, and abstraction. My hope is that the work creates a dialogue between humanity and nature, presents the idea of non-duality of beings, and promotes a realization of the larger Self - humanity.