the stain is beautiful

Artist friend Orly Cogan recently mentioned the artist Kate Kretz in a recent correspondance and I am so glad she did. Her work is gorgeous and simple but packs a powerful gut punch of emotion. Just my style.

Detail of pillowcase piece.

Many of her works are done with human hair, a feat of patience I just cannot imagine.

images from Art World Truths series.

Her work seems to conceptually vary quite a bit from being about the art world and its commodification, the body, motherhood, the voice, our everyday landscape and more. But something that ties all the work together is its fierce honesty and the fact that it seems incredibly personal.


This is her statement...

One of the functions of art is to strip us bare, reminding us of the fragility common to every human being across continents and centuries. Often, I will meet someone, and the visible weight of his or her life becomes almost unbearable to me, it rips me open. The objects that I make are an attempt to articulate this feeling.

I give birth to the tactile as I am swallowed by the virtual. I obsess over craft as our world becomes disposable. I wield emotion in its messiness because it's uncool. I work until my hands shake, because the world does not care.

I am banging my head against the wall, but the stain is beautiful.

WOW.

I really love her use of language.

Detail of drawing.

Her work is diverse from painting, drawing, to thread and worth seeing more of. Check it out here and here.