Kathryn Rodriguez, MFA Painting, MA Art History 2008
Painting
email: kathy@kathyrodriguez.net
website: www.shiverbones.com/kathyrodriguez/index.htm
MA Thesis Paper (PDF): Henry Meloy: The Portraits-A Narrative of the Exhibition
MFA Thesis Paper (PDF): The Extravaganza Awaits
Biography
Kathy Rodriguez was born in Metairie, Louisiana, on July 16, 1980, during a heavy thunderstorm. She lived in Metairie and New Orleans before and after a brief 1998 stint in art school in Baltimore. Between 1999 and 2004, she sold fine cheeses for a living while she completed the curriculum for a Bachelor's degree in Arts, with a focus in studio art, at The University of New Orleans. In August 2005, she moved to Missoula to work towards a Master of Fine Arts in painting and drawing and Master of Arts in art history degrees. In Missoula, she taught, painted, interned, and struggled to keep deer out of the garden. In late June, 2008, after graduating and teaching a summer painting course, she and her sweet husband, Matthew Kirscht, returned to New Orleans. She loves to be home.
In addition to continuing her studio practice, Rodriguez now teaches at University of New Orleans and is a contributing writer for New Orleans Art Review and NOLA Defender.
Statement
I consistently maintain an interest in painting and drawing the figure. I find issues of identity, memory, family, and society particularly compelling, and have found that the figure is peculiarly capable of communicating ideas associated with these topics. Painting has a history of narrative, and so it seems an appropriate medium to relate stories of my own and others’ experiences as individuals and in society. I observe and record these experiences, working from subjects and memory, using invented or exaggerated characters to keep my stories of tragedy and hilarity relatable to the viewer. I subtly entwine other ideas in the subject matter and make them accessible to the viewer through humor, intimate or encompassing scale, sensual application of paint, attractive color, and quirky characterizations of the figure. The resulting paintings and sculptures are open-ended narratives which allow the viewer to personally associate themselves with the subject matter. Though I always intend a specific message through painting, I personally enjoy the mystery which results from a non-textual story and viewers’ individual responses. I want to encourage the personal association because my content refers to what I see as general but sometimes overlooked aspects of human relationships and behavior.