Today we’d like to introduce you to Kathryn Wyatt.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
My artistic journey started in the heart of Boston at Mass College of Art and Design, it was there that I studied photography and fiber arts. Art school gave me the chance to hone my aesthetic eye and develop my growing passion for creating by hand. Travel to Japan a few years after graduation reignited my love for the Japanese culture and their arts. Their appreciation of detail and reverence of nature helped me find beauty in my everyday life.
Currently I live surrounded by the Green Mountains of Vermont and try to balance raising a family with my artistic practices. Each season of my life has its own rhythm and demands, but I find the time to pause and look around myself to see those details that are always there, but often overlooked. Each morning I take a ‘morning wander’ on our land of 10 acres, past field, through forest and along river to catch these moments in time and light that I find special. These moments are my own, in solace and quiet, communing in nature. I share them with those who want to be a part in spirit but cannot in person.
I strive to pursue my dream of a creative life. Although this is not always easy, my outlets give me the nourishment I need to sustain me. I dig my hands into the earth in the summer and tend my garden that gives me both beauty and sustenance in return, and in the in between seasons, when the ground cannot be worked yet, I dig my hands into vats of indigo and create useful works of art to be enjoyed by those who live around me.
Please tell us about your art.
Because I live my life cyclically, my art work takes on different forms in different seasons. Although there is a constant thread of photography year-round, I tend to spend the colder months in my studio making with my hands. My current fascination is creating seascapes using pigmented wax and watercolor on handmade paper. I also produce functional indigo dyed pieces using shibori techniques. My artist husband and I open his studio twice a year to sell these and other works of art.
I have always created with my hands since I was young. My soul calls for it, and when I go without, I feel as though there is a deep dark pit looming and my soul needs to be fulfilled. This I feel intensely.
When my children were very small, I struggled with losing my creative identity. I had to get creative just to find other creative outlets that could facilitate having young ones around me. I learned to work in extremely limited time spans and learned to work in the evenings. I made time for things that I wanted to do, but also put my energies into birthday cakes, sewing, making toys; things that were not my normal mode of art work.
Now that they are older, I have been able to head back into the studio to a more consolidated art practice. Due to the many duties in my life, my work days have been shortened and I am still constantly working on the balance of allowing enough work time without neglecting the other parts in my life that are also important. This has been the hardest part of being a mother, wife and artist simultaneously.
Given everything that is going on in the world today, do you think the role of artists has changed? How do local, national or international events and issues affect your art?
I think the roll of the artist has always been the same, and that is to show their unique eye of the world. Methods of sharing work have changed due to technology, but social media has brought artists together who wouldn’t have met otherwise. We all still create with our hands whether it is visual arts, preforming arts, writing, making music, cooking or gardening.
With the constant turbulence of our world and the never-ending exposure, I choose for my art to ground me and continually remind me that nature lives cyclically too and transcends our daily struggles. I choose to walk in the woods, dig in the dirt, immerse myself in indigo cultures and let the seascapes create themselves with my help. Everything goes back to nature, and I stand in the center of it, in awe of what surrounds me.
Contact Info:
- Address: Lincoln, Vermont
- Website: www.studioroji.com
- Phone: 802-349-0991
- Email: studioroji98@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/studioroji/
Image Credit:
Kathryn Wyatt
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