KATHERINE (Kit) WEST

Primarily  a poet,  I aim to combine poetry and art to express a moment of connection with nature, myself, my people and the divine.  Sometimes the poetry inspires the art and sometimes vice versa, and when I am very lucky, they come together with a small explosion of energy and meaning.  For me, everything is connected, and therefore art itself, while expressing the connection, is the connection. 

My lino-cut prints, often printed on fabric or Japanese rice paper and highlighted with water colors or pastels, have a mythic feel, or the vibration of ancient rock art.  Often, they tell a story and/or follow the emotions of a poem or dream.  In these stories, women are often conflated with nature, and the sublime happens by way of connection. (https://www.silvercityart.com/kit-west)  (https://www.facebook.com/kitwestart/)

Like poetry, prints are magical.  I have only an idea of how they will turn out.  They surprise me as much as they might surprise the reader or the viewer.  It is important that I too be carried away by the wave of my own expression, which is always greater than myself.  To make the circle complete, the reader/viewer could also be carried away, even unto responding to my work with works of their own! 

My work has appeared in multiple New Mexico exhibits including:

Grant County Art Guild Gallery Studio exhibitions–“Creatures of the Gila” and “The Body”

Light Art Space gallery’s “Silver City Art Association Independent Artists” annual exhibit

“Poetry and Art” exhibit at the Windsor Museum in Windsor, Colorado 

Tombaugh Gallery in Las Cruces, New Mexico.