Bio

A native Nashvillian, Kathryn Dettwiller has been active in the arts all of her adult life…producing art, teaching and working as an arts advocate. A fine arts graduate of Vanderbilt University, she continued studies at George Peabody College, at the University of Tennessee in Nashville, and at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg TN. In 1992 she participated by invitation in a master class with Nathan Oliveira at the Santa Fe Institute of Fine Art in New Mexico.

Statement

For me creating art is an intuitive process where my mind dialogues with my media, be it wax, paint sticks, cloth, plaster or any of the traditional media. I begin with marks or shapes or textures and a thought…sometimes easily defined, sometimes utterly subconscious. Then, the discussion begins…with the hand and the eye as moderators. Over the course of the cycle of birth, growth and finality of form, the content and its visualization engage in a constant encounter until the work is finished. The end product makes visible a content known intimately yet not necessarily known consciously.

Using shapes and forms from the real world, I look for the metaphors and emblems that transcend their present place in order to give a visual form to the concerns, feelings, and issues that have meaning for me.