K A T H R Y N C O M B S
a r t i s t b i o
Kathryn is a recent graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology where she studied fine art photography, earning her BFA in 2009. Kathryn currently resides in Burlington, Vermont, where when not being visually creative she enjoys writing, her 1969 Schwinn Varsity, and baking a mean apple pie.
a r t i s t s t a t e m e n t
Art as therapy has always fascinated me. During the winter of 2009 I began a project of diptychs that use images of the public and private sector relating to my public and private life. This project was my own form of therapy, forcing myself to confront my own issues and reconcile them through art. Not only did it help to heal my own interior wounds, but it let me further investigate the various domestic spaces I called “home”. These photographs are ultimately
about my interior and exterior life, and how the public and private sections interact.
These photographic diptychs serve as a metaphor for my own relations with people and domestic space, and how those interactions have become more closed off over the past year and a half. Through visual relationships created by the use of objects left behind and physical entry points such as windows, my hope is that metaphoric and emotional entry points are created for the viewer.
about my interior and exterior life, and how the public and private sections interact.
These photographic diptychs serve as a metaphor for my own relations with people and domestic space, and how those interactions have become more closed off over the past year and a half. Through visual relationships created by the use of objects left behind and physical entry points such as windows, my hope is that metaphoric and emotional entry points are created for the viewer.
h o m e s t a t e m e n t
This series relates to the concept of “home” in quite a few ways to me. First off, almost all of the photographs that make up these diptychs are of domestic spaces that I called home at the time of making them. In terms of my own personal history, I left what I called home for almost 18 years and created a new place of comfort in Rochester, NY, only to leave and come back to the place I had originally left. Now in a state of transition, these photographs for me are all seeking out a place of comfort and familiarity.
To a blind eye this series may appear as just pictures of stuff. These aren’t about the physical object, they’re about what they say about the people affected by them. I am not interested in objects and spaces because of their inherent beauty, but rather because of what may be learned about those who own or inhabit them, even if – in the case of this series – that person is myself.
To a blind eye this series may appear as just pictures of stuff. These aren’t about the physical object, they’re about what they say about the people affected by them. I am not interested in objects and spaces because of their inherent beauty, but rather because of what may be learned about those who own or inhabit them, even if – in the case of this series – that person is myself.
