Of Settler heritage, born on the sovereign unceded territory of the (Anishinabewaki Algonquin) Nation in Ottawa, Katherine has since lived for 40 years on the sovereign, unceded territories of the (Musqueam), (Squamish) and (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples in Vancouver. In 1993 she became active in the local artist's community and went on to graduate from Emily Carr University of Art and Design in 2004. As well as being a founding member of the Pride in Art Society, which hosts the annual Queer Arts Festival in Vancouver, Katherine is also one of a group of local artist who founded the 901 Artist Cooperative and established Portside Artist Studios in 2009.
Katherine’s artwork is both personal and political. One of the driving forces behind her interdisciplinary art practice is her desire to better understand the ways in which negative social conditioning, such as sexism, homophobia, colonialism and racism, has caused her thinking and behaviour to be incongruent with her values. As well as serving as a social critique, pointing out social dis-ease, Katherine’s art work critiques her internalization of said social conditioning. Consequently, she often employs representational and/or metaphoric self-portraiture in her art. Coming from a ‘recovery’ perspective, Katherine holds the practice of not asking another person to go into emotionally, mentally, and psychically challenging places she is not willing to go herself. Implicating herself in social critique, then, is necessary. Katherine shares her internal excavation discoveries and intra-personal discord in an effort to create an intimate and empathic connection with the viewer, with the hope of promoting social healing.
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