Artist Statement
One source of inspiration for my artwork is my long career as an art therapist, guiding my clients through life’s challenges with verbal communication and artmaking. Another is the beauty, chaos, fragility and strength found in nature.
My artwork always begins with a monotype. I am drawn to the printing process for many reasons. I love that I can create images, using a variety of materials, or simply move paint across the plate, adding and taking away. When I send the image through the press, I’m always surprised by the outcome. It is a medium that feels like the art creates itself.
In my studio, I surround myself with the colors, rhythms, patterns, movement and mood created in the images. As I shift the prints around, putting some together and moving some apart, I determine what needs to happen next to allow the art to fully express itself. I tear or cut, often coat them with a Japanese paste that protects the paper and strengthens the fibers to allow me to sew, weave, and/or embroider on the images to create something new. By incorporating my interpretations of these crafts I hope to honor the artisans whose works have spanned time and cultures. I study the traditional crafts, but use them in new ways to offer the viewer an unexpected experience of familiar materials.
About
Kate Rogers is a collage artist in Sonoma, California and has been creating monotypes since the mid 1980’s. In her current work, she uses a variety of materials to allow the viewer to see something familiar in a new way. By highlighting the intricacies of materials like linen thread, raffia, fabric, or lichen, her work brings the viewer into more intimate contact with what these materials offer. By using the traditional crafts of sewing, weaving and embroidery, she honors these crafts and the generations of artisans before her.
Kate studied painting, drawing, design and printing at the University of Miami in the 1980’s. In the 1990’s Kate returned to school for a Masters Degree in Psychology and Art Therapy. After working with adolescents and families at the Children’s Health Council in Palo Alto, CA, she opened a private practice in San Mateo, CA. For more than twenty five years she has helped children, adolescents and adults work through life’s challenges, finding their voices through the process of making art.
Kate is a Certified Mari Practitioner. Mari is a psychological assessment tool using mandalas to help people understand their inner truths. She runs an art group for seniors in Sonoma, emphasizing self care through creative expression. She prints her monotypes at the Sonoma Community Center’s Printing Studio and then creates her collages at her home studio in Sonoma. Kate is a member of the California Society of Printmakers.