ARTIST STATEMENT
Making a connection to my childhood nicknames, Finder and Stretch, it’s oddly wonderful that my work revolves around the collecting and meaning-making of discarded found rubber bands. Whether aware or capable of admitting it, we are all collectors. Collectors of stories, collectors of memories, even sometimes collectors of objects that aid the recall of places, people, experiences and knowledge. Collecting has a spiritual quality no matter the level of devotion, recreation, or happenstance. It is an act of harvesting and when it happens fortuitously it is important to notice; to pay attention.
Without distinguishing between becoming and history, my work is an exploration of labored tinkering with utilitarian materials. Using discarded and found objects for untapped potential and unexploited energies to mirror our daily existence. Commitment to a habitual process of noticing, documenting, contemplating, listening, tinkering, telling and questioning is coupled with an aspiration to support the development of the underused energy of appreciation. Embedded in each object is a meditative quality. By presenting the work as a collection devoted to seemingly insignificant dead objects, I challenge the viewer to allow the material to transcend its intended purpose, away from the refuge of the obvious and certain towards dwelling in appreciation, care, and concern for the connectedness and potential of our actions towards self and others.
BIO
As an artist/teacher/seeker, Katie Morris does not distinguish between history and becoming. Her work is an exploration of labored tinkering with utilitarian materials trying to mirror a human interest to be seen as something other than what they appear. Katie came to Baltimore from rural Pennsylvania earning a BFA (painting/printmaking) and MAT from MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art) in 1993/4. Her 24 plus years in art classrooms range from pre-K to college teaching of studio art and art education. Most recently Katie completed a low residency MFA in Studio Art. If not in a classroom or studio you can find Katie refueling herself stage side for live music, walking in the woods, observing and recording the early morning sunrise from her urban roof deck, tying knots or visiting desolate ocean sides. Most of all she loves to do anything dictated by the imaginations and creativity of her two daughters.
katie morris 