Kathryn E. Martin a STATEMENT of INTEREST
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kathryn e. martin A STATEMENT OF INTEREST Sixteen years ago, while working on a show, I was told I was attempting to “make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.” It was explained to me that this was the notion of working to make something beautiful, valuable and interesting, with materials that were not inherently worthy of the effort. At the time I was using pine 2 x 4’s – an inexpensive and readily available material that worked with my budget. Using the store-bought 2 x 4’s, I ripped, planed, and joined seventy 8’ boards. After each warped, bowed, and twisted length was rectified, I covered the light pine material in wood-grained contact paper. And from those wrapped boards, I constructed ten five foot high tables for my BFA exhibition (see image 01), each illustrating one of the 10 steps in Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The piece opened up like a silk purse and revealed thought, message, and wonderment to its users. Atop each table, a new world unfolded through the placement of everyday, found objects. Evident in my works are “created connections” between the art and its users. I create works that are in communication with their audience, and in the case of this project, a pair of headphones hung from each pine plank table. As the user put on the headphones they heard Frank Sinatra sing “Wonderful World”. They listened to The Beatles “Get by with a Little Help from My Friends” and so on for eight more tables. Was that making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear? I don’t know. But those words have echoed in my head with each project, form, idea, material and environment I work with and maybe this is what I do because regardless of what material, what scale or what idea I’m given, I work to make it beautiful. I create formal, physical sites imbued with meaning, connection and belonging and this is what I would work to give to you and all those involved. I use the word “given” intentionally. While I am an active seeker of artistic inspiration, I work best from the challenge of being given the initial idea for a project – whether that idea be one of architectural space, environmental restrictions or social history. I am an artist who likes to make things from the everyday but is deeply connected to the challenge of working with, connecting to, and collaborating with others – and creating art for Pennsylvania Park, in Madison, WI, excites me. I want to work to make something perfect, as a visual way connect your given considerations. In my work, I need to find my passion. I need it so that I can connect my passion with the public, its viewers and its users. My Art is meant to connect with its users and be in communication with its audience. I make Art to talk to those around it. I make Art in response to those around it. I am sensitive to not just what it is, what it is made from, how it is assembled but where it is placed and why. The why, perhaps, is most important. The why gives reason. Ten years ago, in 2007, I was presented with my first public art project, an artwork to be erected along the Art Loop of the Hank Aaron State Trail, located on the south side of the Menomonee River, in Milwaukee, WI. I had neither created a permanent sculpture before, nor had I ever desired to do so, because I tended to work with temporary installations, but I welcomed the challenge of thinking about permanency and relished in the work, research, and learning that came with the proposal. As I entered the project, I had a superficial awareness of the area. The land and location selected for the sculpture was not pretty. The site competes with a municipal yard, yet I was compelled to learn more and contribute to its beautification. I found the why for A Place to Sit (see images 02, 03, 04) by first visiting the Wisconsin Historical Society and later by reading a book suggested to me by one of the Society’s staff. The Making of Milwaukee, by John Gurda, gave me what I was looking for. In the first chapter, his description of the fight for this very plot of land and the ensuing turmoil - a “game of musical chairs. In the end, it was the Indians who had nowhere to sit” - gave me what I needed. This was the metaphorical imagery that provided the inspiration I needed. My second commissioned project gave me a sow’s ear in the form of a state-funded building, built in 1959, on the campus of the University of Wisconsin – Madison, Chadbourne Hall. Constructed from a Y shape that dictates the form of the building, Chadbourne Hall had stretched upward in vast difference to its counterpart, an older residence. Barnard Hall, and its handsome style of architecture that had for so many years characterized the building on Madison’s campus, began to be replaced by more cost effective, space-efficient “high density structures”. These two buildings were the sites for my second public project. Through my working process, I was drawn over and over again to the footprint of Chadbourne Hall, the “Y shape” and that “Y shape” became my found object. I challenged myself to create a sculpture utilizing only this shape, ascertaining that the sculpture would have to fully and effectively come together in combination and connection as a symbol of unification of the two residence halls, while conveying that abstraction we call togetherness. I gave myself the task to create a new “high density structure” that would stand reflecting on the past while marking the present and looking towards its unfolding future. I wanted a form standing in connection with the spirit of this place. Ellipsoid (see image 05), an 8’ x 8’ x 8’ welded aluminum sculpture, was made. And so it was and so it goes that one project leads to the next. A to-be client was inspired by Ellipsoid and its close connection with the architecture and wanted to look out of his second-floor home office, over the sprawling city, and see a sculpture rising from its ground, piercing the sky like a ship’s prow. His wife wanted nothing of the sort, demanding that the sculpture sit no higher than two feet from the ground. After listening to their needs, spending time with the space and again finding beauty in the backdrop of the architectural lines of the buildings in the distance, Prowess (see image 06) came to be. He, happy with the boldness of color and resilience of the cast eco-resin having never to worry about sun damage, cleaning, wind, snow or the damage grandchildren might wreck and she, delighted with the movement, the form, and the way it exudes all the presence it needs while sitting only 18” from the ground. It gave them what they, and their space, needed and they take pride in the work every time they walk by. My ability to collaborate with the two of them and their space, led to a yearlong collaboration with Renaissance TheatreWorks in Milwaukee (see image 07 + 08). Originally commissioned to create a sculpture for their lobby during the production of Athol Fuggard’s Road to Mecca, I found passion in the life and spirit of Helen Martins, the main subject. A true outsider artist, Martins was driven to make Art, make it in abundance, and making art to lift and keep her spirit lifted. Rightfully so; this is what Art should do for us, whether trained, educated, learned or unlearned. I tapped into her passion and ran with it. At the end of the project, we, members of our community, including girls from Pearls Girls, a Girl Scout troop, and young women from the Sojourner Truth House in Milwaukee made approximately 800 owl forms. Martins’ house (where their play was set) became known as the owl house, thus my decision on the form. Martins believed the owl to be her totem spirit and wanted to be protected by it. Everyone who came to the Renaissance TheatreWorks production was able to walk out with an owl. In 2014, I embraced the opportunity to work on the Milwaukee Public Library East Branch as I came to see the first step into any library as an admission of curiosity and a desire to learn. That voice guided the specific work, Topos (see image 09 + 10), to be created from locally harvested urban lumber, CNC cut into a topographical map of the neighborhood the location serves. At last, it has been the intent of this letter to inform you of my reason for interest, namely, that this is what I do. I work to convey an idea, through beautifully executed form and craft that works with its environment or better yet, belongs in its environment. I am inspired by what is given to me to work on. I work to find a connection to the place, the users and the story to be told, be it past, present or future. And in this spirit, I embrace the opportunity to work on the Pennsylvania Park Public Artwork and would be honored to be chosen as a finalist. Thank you for your time, attention, and consideration. It is much appreciated. kathryn e. martin kathryn e. martin CURRENT RESUME www.kathrynemartin.com [email protected] FORMAL EDUCATION 2007 MFA in InterMedia, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee (UWM) 2005 MA in InterMedia, UWM 2001 BFA in Sculpture, Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) 2000 Summer study, Vietnamese College of Art, Hue, Vietnam GRANTS / AWARDS 2016 C.D.