Katherine  Fries

Katherine Fries

Website: http://www.katherinejfries.com

 317-459-4996

   5139 Ariana Ct , Indiananpolis, IN, 46227

“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.

About:

Katherine was raised in Lincoln, Nebraska where she was immersed in stories from and about her family and their friends. These stories captivated her and were illustrated with mementos/heirlooms, photos, and imagination. Intrigued, Katherine wanted to know as much as she could about their lives. Eventually her interest would lead her to consider how she and her peers interact with history, memory, and the objects left behind.

As an artist, Katherine is interested in capturing and preserving the world around her: people, their stories, rituals, possessions, and history. Her work constructs spaces that act as an externalization of an internal experience: memory. These constructions include traditional oil paintings of child-like forts, assemblage boxes, and layered prints.

Katherine is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Indianapolis- teaching Foundations.  In addition to her BFA and MA, Katherine recently completed her MFA from Miami University. Katherine has exhibited in a variety of juried, invitational, and group exhibitions.

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