KATHERINE GAUNTT
Fine Artist
Our homes are integral to our life experience and identities; where you come from will always be a part of who you are. Whether you see your home as the city you were born in, your first apartment, or where you raise your kids, pieces of us are scattered between each place we love and leave.
In this body of work, I consider the complicated relationships between individuals and their homes. I explore the transition from childhood to adulthood, and the feelings of loss disconnection, and loneliness that come with it. At the same time, this transition represents freedom and growth. By painting portraits of people in abstracted aerial views of the place they consider home, I suggest those juxtaposing feelings.
As we age and evolve, our location does too. By painting landscapes from above and transforming them into something almost unrecognizable, I mirror this process of growth and change. This shift into obscurity underscores the feelings of returning home. The major pieces are still there, but the details have fallen away and been forgotten. Thematic connections between the subject and their surroundings are emphasized through technique and color; each piece shows their individual experiences. Someone who barely lingers in her hometown may look ghostly, while another figure is consumed and weighed down by her environment.
I encourage the viewer to look at these paintings as a window into the home and the life of the individuals I have represented, and to consider their own relationships with different landscapes over time. These visual stories of the complexity of place - attachment are centered around the idea of impermanence, and how it can contribute to the importance of location in our individual experiences.
