Residency Artist - Visual Arts

Kate Kern

6264 Robinson Road
Cincinnati, Ohio  45213
Phone: (513) 478-1351
Email: kmkern@fuse.net
Website: www.katekern.com

specialize in orchestrating and organizing a multi-layered residency, drawing on the strengths and interests of each unique site and my own skills as an artist. A recent residency in a high school for young women focused on the theme of nesting. We built a large temporary installation in a gathering place in the school made of a nest structure encircling projected images of students and retired nuns' hands holding nests and eggs on a large hanging sheet of fabric.The nest used symbols of the school's traditions -- oak and laurel leaves combined with faces of alumni from a 1948 yearbook. Many classes from Chemistry to American Studies participated as peripheral groups, contributing text (written responses that reflected the subject of each class-to the prompt "Once I built My Nest Of . . .") and digital images (students working in teams to built nests with a variety of materials) to the final slide show of projected images.

It has been my pleasure to work with participants of varying ages and abilities. I am deeply inspired by the challenge and opportunity each residency presents. I am most interested in working with sites that want to explore the open ended possibilities of visual art making in the context of a residency. Some of my favorite residency moments are when the participants take over the process- sharing the sheer joy of manipulating materials and the feeling that things are just on the verge of clicking. While I enjoy working with students and teachers I am excited about options presented through non-school sites.

My most recent work is about the aspect of sight that is most connected to searching. My background in drawing provides a fluid platform for selecting and inventing related materials and techniques to express the things I find. "The Night is Dark and the House is Dark" explores a search for renewed personal vision that leads through a dark night of the soul. This series of sequential images enters and moves through a dark iconic house, encountering a single all-seeing object as well as pausing to look out of windows and doors. I have been a professional visual artist for over 25 years. I received a BFA (Fine Arts) from the University of Dayton in 1979 and an MFA (drawing) from the University of Cincinnati in 1981. My work has been critically acclaimed and exhibited. My artists' books are in university, museum and public library collections nationally. I invite you to browse my website, www.katekern.com, for more info on my work. Use this link to find information and images of past residencies: http://www.katekern.com/residency.html