TWELVE VOICES FROM ONE: Catherine Kirsch

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Catherine Kirsch

Grids

I am fascinated by the endless opportunities to explore the convergence of color on the grid of cloth.

I love working with linen as the weave is very reminiscent of the grid and offers a satisfying visual and actual texture.

I begin each piece with a single layer of color applied with fabric dye to manipulated linen. Then the cloth tells me what happens next. What color works? Is there to be another grid? What kind of grid? A folded one, created with discharged lines, or one that is painted.

Then the painted color is added. And again the cloth directs the process. I spend many hours deciding what color choice is best for the cloth. I use color wheels that I have carefully painted in various color combinations based on color theory to reach a final decision.

My images are elements I have designed related to the grid, and then generated as silk screens, thermofax screens or temporary stencils. I use these tools to print the paint, transferring my imagery onto the cloth.

Biography

Textiles have played a prominent role in Catherine Kirsch’s sense of identity from childhood into adolescence and young adulthood. Sewing, weaving and quilting are doorways into relationships and work. In 2001, this culminated in a solo art quilt exhibit in Worcester, Massachusetts. In February 2011, Kirsch exhibited recent art cloth pieces in the Surface Design Association show opening in New Bedford, Massachusetts. When she is not in her studio, Kirsch is a clinical social worker in private practice in Worcester, Massachusetts specializing in marriage therapy.

chk1@charter.net

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THE MASTERY PROGRAM

This exhibition represents nearly three years of intense and dedicated study on the part of the participants. The Mastery Program 2009, in which they were enrolled, required five week long sessions in the San Antonio studio, in addition to demanding assignments which were addressed during the interim periods.

Artists interested in surface design processes are at a disadvantage in this country. Most opportunities for study require either enrollment on site at a university or college, or are offered as week-long workshops through adult education summer programming. The inability to relocate to a program venue inhibits artistic mastery, as does the limited experience of a week’s class without a systematic follow-up.

The Mastery Program was developed to address this reality. The selected participants study surface design techniques on cloth, and also color, design and the articulation of a personal visual language. Each artist is required to develop a research project related to the dyes, chemicals or paints used as part of the patterning palette. Assembled together, these projects will eventually become a catalogue of research to contribute to the surface design field at large.

Professional behavior is also a topic of discourse. Artists prepared a resume, visual documentation, an artist’s statement and a biography as part of the requirement for completion of the program.

This exhibition is a sampling of the finest work being presented by serious students of surface design today. I expect each of these artists will continue to generate studio work for exhibition after the program is completed. A few may choose to extend their circle of influence by teaching. Others may decide to write a book or produce some other lasting contribution to the field. The future is rich with possibility. It has been my great pleasure to accompany them on this exciting path. I congratulate each on the efforts of the past two and a half years.

Jane Dunnewold