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Kathleen Caffrey
Drawing, Fabric Arts, Painting, Printmaking
Like many people, I came into art during Covid. I liken the experience to a very french looking Koolaid man in effect. The drive to create and draw and paint was immediate and nonoptional.
Later, when the mania subsided, I took a breath a looked at what I was making. What the topics were and how I was showing them. Then I arrived at the name I’ve used since, Anthrosercher.
I’ve never known a time when my overriding inspiration wasn’t curiosity. Always surrounded by history and culture my greatest joy was found in exploration, seeking perception, and wanting to understand more. I grew up in Alabama, near Civil War Sites, Bus Boycott parking lots and hanging trees that once bore strange fruit. The complications and shadows of life were ever-present. There’s a saying that anthropology majors are born and have to find their way home. I remember reading the introduction chapter of my first Anthropology textbook and feel that to be true. I had found part of my tribe.
Looking over my current works my story is reflected. Archaeological sites, historical references, artifacts, architecture, classical studies, forgotten techniques, and echoes of people and cultures past. Yet I also draw the courage of those who came before, who faced the challenges of their time - as well as those who claim that courage today. With courage, all things can be faced, and more than we think can be changed. There is no time without challenge.
Like my topics, I can’t seem to stick to a medium. There’s just too much to learn and explore to stay anywhere stagnant. I received a classic art education and have used that as a jumping-off point to explore further. With a foundation of the classics like oil, watercolors, and graphite I have added anything I can to learn and gain additional tools.
As time goes on I have my own times to explore, times past to inspire, and the world for new things to live through. My brushes are ready.
Mindfulness and transformation. The world we live in is precious in the passing moments and dynamic in the shifting sands under our feet. I express my observations and moments in my own efforts to make sense of these opposing forces.
I have always been interested in techniques and methods from the past and present. I have studied historical photographic methods as well as historic drawing, painting, drafting, and methods of perspective. I have also made a point to keep an eye on new products and methods, as well as pioneers exploring joint and evolved techniques.
The past is always present, the present is always passing and the future was planted long ago. While rooted in a lifelong personal study of the Humanities and Science, human beings experience life on emotional terms. This data is transformed into experience and reaction, relationship and connection, and community and focus.
The creative fields, including art, are a means of exploring these. And in my work, I use the emotive effect of art to explore the complex reality we all daily seek to understand.
Poseidon
12x16
Multimedia on wood