About Katelyn Reed
Biography
I graduated from Eastern Washington University with my BA in Visual Arts Education, Minor in English Education in 2018. Within the last five years have received opportunities to showcase and sell my work more heavily. I have never compromised my art for the sake of desirability; what I make has always been a direct reflection of how my mind works. But these experiences have shown me that it does resonate with others, and this is something I am deeply grateful for.
I am a multidisciplinary artist, and I work across writing, poetry, visual art (primarily drawing and painting), and music. Each of my pieces are complete on their own, but many of them greatly inform each other and serve to create an immersive world of my imaginings. Many times an idea won't let go of me until I have manifested it in several mediums, and so my daily practice most usually includes some exploration in each of these.
I have been making art for all of my life, and my creative self is likely the most stalwart thing about my existence. It is my passion and my purpose, I am who I am because of it, and I make what I do out of what life has brought me. Every moment of inhabiting space in this world provides me with a wealth of experiences, visions, and conceptions that give vent to my soul.
Many of my works revolve around specific colors, sensations, words, phrases, and creative ideas that pique my interest, combined with the personal experiences, thoughts, and emotions governing my existence. I am satisfied when I have captured the essence and shadow of the concepts at the heart of each work. I live deeply in my internal self and imagine too many things than I could ever create. But still, I try. By making something concrete, it can reside in places other than the intangible; and this is always fascinating. By working through the elements of my life creatively in my art, I am granted a unique peace, therapy, and freedom.
Art Practice Statement
My art practice can best be described as a full journey and a cumulative experience.
Sitting at my desk, I look out the window. There is a potted petunia plant that is growing and reaching out diagonally, with flowers hanging downward from both ends. Immediately, I see the side of a hand, the thumb and forefinger stretched so far they seem nearly broken, held at a diagonal angle. Veins, roots, and living things grow from the fingertips and shoot outward. All of these shapes meld together in various shades of tan, mauve, and red. The fragile tension of the fingers stretched so far, with fingertips simultaneously holding and growing new pieces, has captured my attention. The almost triangular base of the hand adds to the feeling of spreading out. I start drawing what I see.
As I work, I remember a black tapestry I glimpsed once, with vibrant peach and red flowers spread throughout. In my mind, I saw a woman's body hidden under the black and breaking the surface in peach or tan shapes. I saw dark strips of fabric stretched across the skin and pulled under the inky liquid.
The intensity of these colors and scenes feels so right, I am thrumming with the urgency to continue painting. While I work with this pounding necessity breathing on my neck, the lines of a poem I recently wrote in much the same state come back to me:
“That urge to do more before I lose all my words...”
I paint the images I see and use myself as a figurative reference, smugly charmed that my form and likeness come forth in the painting, seemingly emerging from the darkness and being pulled under. I situate the figure across the crux of the stretched hand, framed by and interrupting the growing shapes. There is additional space on the left side of the canvas, and immediately I see another layer of veiling, as hands grasp and pull a gauzy fabric back from the figure and black center. I add this new element to the painting, using a contrasting periwinkle blue for the fabric and my hands again as references. I work until satisfied with the piece, having captured the essence of what had so fixated my attention.
