Kathleen Gaitt

-Monotypes, paintings, drawings,
and photographic and fabric art-

Biography and Artist Statement

As a young child growing up in England I enjoyed many creative pursuits and loved to explore and observe plants and creatures in the countryside around my home.

Years later for my graduate exhibition, I designed a series of multi-textured children’s garments which could be played with, as well as played in. These play clothes incorporated interchangeable “aprons” containing multi-sensory surprises. These ideas were based on the observations of a group of 5-year olds using dressing-up clothes in their imaginative play. They became part of a juried touring exhibition by The Royal College of Art in collaboration with the Child Development Research Unit of Nottingham University. Before requests for sets of the clothes could be manufactured for interested diagnostic centers, I decided to move to Canada.

Teaching and raising a family then became my main focus. During that time I produced small scale graphic arts assignments such as program and magazine covers, posters, t-shirts or cards, and my home and natural garden became my installation art.

In recent years I have been able to devote more time to my art, using a variety of techniques and materials depending on the dictates of the subjects or creative use of minimal supplies. My monotypes, paintings, drawings, and photographic and fabric art have been shown in several juried exhibitions. In my pieces I attempt to explore and capture glimpses of nature, both human and environmental. Like many artists, I am constantly learning from the breadth of learning experiences shared by so many extraordinary ordinary people showing and telling their own stories. Lifelong fascinations reappear and instinctively become part of a series or concept.

Current obsessions are ideas around what we keep or discard and momentary and lasting patterns in nature. Everything has a pattern or place; there is so much to still discover and create.

Click for photo 2008 news clipping of Kathleen

 

Top: All in My Head, Wax crayon

Mother N, Having a Good Hair Day, coloured pencil