Inspiration – Kathleen Holmes

The work of Kathleen Holmes is  haunting and evocative and powerful…..

You really have to go see her site: Kathleen Holmes

She has graciously allowed me to post a copy of one of her pics (it’s copyright to her, and is used with permission) and has sent me this lovely statement about her work:

 

Artist’s Statement

And the end of all our exploring

  Will be to arrive where we started

        And know the place for the first time.

      -T.S. Eliot

I was born in Monroe, Louisiana in 1953, and come from a long line of crocheters, a tradition in my family going back as far as family legends recall. I therefore incorporate found and self-made pieces of crochet into my work as metaphors for the particular patterns of my native Southern culture.  Just as a single thread returns again and again to loop and interlock in crochet, the creative legacy of so many women repeatedly endows my artistic heritage and creates a conceptual “whole cloth,” the “fabric” of their lives “clothing” my vision.  

I combine these pieces of traditional handwork with indigenous domestic materials – ceramic, metal, glass – to create evocative domestic icons, subtly powerful and often innocently ironic.  Familiar domestic objects accessorize in unlikely ways, illuminating overlooked intimacies of domestic life. Rusted, pierced, and shaped metal refers to man-made aspects of society and provides the visual and conceptual counterpoint to the woman-made textiles, creating a metaphorical duality. 

The iconic “dress” form represents all sacred garments, from christening and wedding gowns, to judge’s and cleric’s robes, to bedclothes and death shrouds.  Finally, the archetypal dress is my homage to the countless generations of women and girls who, by perpetuating a traditional domestic craft, have endowed my contemporary  art.

Like the canvas I paint on, the crochet panels I use in my paintings are made from cotton, and therefore are an expansion of the surface medium.  I use these patterned and textured panels to represent the architecture and geometry of Nature; like how a tree grows, the movement of water currents, not to mention life cycles.  The crochet is a metaphor for interconnections; intimate relationships – those within Nature, and also ours to that Nature.

 

Kathleen Holmes

 

Image source: Kathleen Holmes copyright