Artist Bio
Originally from the artistic village of Wakefield Quebec, Kathleen was raised surrounded by beauty and unusual people. Raised in an old barn that had been transformed and built into a unique home by her father and always at the foot of her artist mother, Kathleen has had a keen eye and deep respect for materials and technique si
Artist Bio
Originally from the artistic village of Wakefield Quebec, Kathleen was raised surrounded by beauty and unusual people. Raised in an old barn that had been transformed and built into a unique home by her father and always at the foot of her artist mother, Kathleen has had a keen eye and deep respect for materials and technique since she was small. She has attended The Haliburton School if the Arts for both their Jewellery Essentials program as well as their Artist blacksmithing program, completed the metal arts program at Georgian college and has done Blacksmithing at The Penland school of Craft in North Carolina. Kathleen has been an active member of the arts community wherever she has gone, recognizing it as a thread that holds us together. Stories of who we are and where we are told through our finger tips. Kathleen has worked on pieces for The Royal Ontario Museum, The Children’s Aid Society and The City of Toronto. She has also created work for people she will never know, worked on commission pieces to celebrate life’s milestones and sees all this work as equally important and finds it a deep honour to be invited to celebrate, connect and commemorate life’s big moments with people she doesn’t know through her work.
Kathleens work can be found in various private and public collections.
Artist statement
I have always made things with my hands. My mother was an artist and would teach art classes and instead of getting childcare she would sign me up for one of the adult art classes happening while she taught. I took a batiking course when I was 11, an eyewear design course when I was 13. It forced me to be mature and take the work seriously but I was also always playing. That has never changed.
Once I found metal I knew it was my medium. The way it refuses to move between your fingers unless you know just the right way to convince it. The way it holds the record of each hammer strike, how it shines and rusts and warms to our body.
I have always been inspired by the beauty that sits just outside the devastated. My work finds joy and play on the darker side of things, Looking for balance and a silver lining. Delicate designs that allow the makers marks to sit upon the metals surface, reminding and celebrating that it was made by hand. Finding beauty in imperfections. I am lucky my work continues to evolve, delight and challenge me.