Katherine J. Fries ARTIST & EDUCATOR

Safekeeping                                                     (2013-Present)

 

“It is only in the world of objects that we have time and space and selves.”

-T.S. Eliot

 

At the center of this body of work, Safekeeping, is the relationship between people and object, where my role is that of storyteller and preservationist. These roles blend and diverge- offering a spectrum of interaction, narrative, and cataloging.

 

Since I was small, I have always been aware of my relationship with the objects that have surrounded me. I contemplated their meaning, stories, and origins. As a storyteller, I grasped at any known narrative of who, what, when, where, and how. As a preservationist, I longed to know its context, strived to understand its relevance today, and asserted its importance for posterity.

 

With that in mind, these works share carefully-selected collections of objects, images, people, and events, reflective of narrative threads based on personal experience. The collections are an accumulation of memories in that they seem random, yet are intertwined, becoming clues of values, interests, relationships, and experiences.

 

While I arrived at these concepts as a painter, I soon found that the incorporation and exploration of various printmaking processes and assemblage would allow me a greater understanding and potential to explore the idea of object and its relationships to myself and my viewer. Each medium brought with it, its own weight, visual impact, and type/scale of object that could be employed. With this variety, I explore a sliding scale of time, degrees of sentiment, documentation verses narrative, and viewer interaction with the collections. Subsequently, my work elicits an increased awareness of objects, our relationship with them, and their potential value, evocative of a sentimental or nostalgic longing.

 

 

 

Album: A Series of Time Capsule Portraits            (2010-2011)

 

Album: A Series of Time Capsule Portraits is a body of work that explores the idea of the individual and their story. This idea is manifested through the orchestrated grouping of objects, clothing, location, and symbolism surrounding each subject/person. This series utilizes the genre of the painted portrait. Each portrait explores the traditional use of oil paint on canvas. The canvas acts as the “capsule,” the story/person’s means of preservation. The conceptual framework of this series considers how albums, portraits, and time capsules serve as safeguards of images and objects for the future.

 

In each time capsule portrait, objects that represent who they are surround the individual. Unlike a traditional time capsule, which is collections of actual objects, a painting is a rendering of objects, wardrobe, and location that directly relate to the subject/person at a specific point in time.

 

This body of work is already a testament to the concept it explores. Many of the subjects have experienced life-altering changes and thus their portrait has proven to be a glimpse of that particular person at a particular moment in their life.

 

My work and aesthetic sensitivity have been influenced by a number of fine artists and filmmakers. Painters whose work explored the figure and portrait genre include Edward Hopper, Alice Neel, John Singer Sargent, and Johannes Vermeer. Directors examining the human condition and visualization of storytelling include Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, George Sidney, and Frank Capra. Each source directly or indirectly influenced my work, aesthetic, conceptual approach, and working processes.