About Kate McCavitt
 Kate
McCavitt is an Asian informed Mixed Media Abstract Painter.
In her work, East meets West in the fusion of contemporary
experimental water media and ancient Asian brush work influences.
Kate truly creates her original art "Between Two Worlds".
In her previous lifetime
this time around, about four years ago, she owned a corporate
Project Management company for about sixteen years and stressed
over enterprise voice and data installations which were
hot beds of things busting and going wrong. Enough! She
decided one day to do something she actually wanted to do.
Risking her reason for it, she took her art to a full time
adventure. Trained as
a Sumie artist, often called "Chinese Brush", and self-taught
in other genres, Kate lavishes all of her colorful, textured
abstract paintings with the subtleties of Asian tradition.
Rich layers of fluid acrylics, gloss mediums and metallic
gesso capture between them both the random events of experimental
techniques, and ancient icons of Zen Circles, delicate chrysanthemum,
circling yin/yang figures, and representational foil spheres
hand embossed by the artist.
Colors, ratios, numerological philosophies,
polarities and sequences all dance together within Kate's
unique abstract style. No two pieces can ever be the same.
McCavitt's titles for her work are often "Untitled" for
she believes the observer will create their own through
how they connect to the work. Many of her long "SuiteStickS"
pieces also can be hung any way the orientation pleases
the viewer. Kate McCavitt,
a native of New York, lives next to a wildlife conservation
corridor in Oceanside, California with the love of her life,
grandchildren nearby, a resident hummingbird family, and
bunnies, egrets, coyotes, bats, crows and hawks. Her studio
is in her home and her home is her Catharsis Gallery for
showing her work in a beautiful setting. She finds joy in
the Artist's Way, in writing and creating art journals,
in being a grandmother, in long walks, scuba diving, teaching
art and inspiring others. She tries to live by Martha Graham's
advice, "You have to keep open and aware directly to the
urges that motivate you."
Artist's Statement
 Up
until age 40, all my art was practical. Today I look at
the delicate crochet work my grandmother did, and I see
exquisite art and pattern. I want to use it as a stencil
for powdered gold against rich purple. Maybe this IS where
my inspiration came from to do embossed foil spheres. All
of my art is born of this attention and an awareness that
everything in the world is immediately available for me
to witness and that allows me to find the extraordinary.
My inspiration is the infinite and the infinitesimal and
mostly the Ordinary. How lucky we are to know they are all
one and the same.
Symbol Hunting is an avocation
for me, found in life’s small synchronicities. Standing
inside the centuries old ritual tomb at Newgrange in the
Boyne Valley of Ireland, the spirals carved thousands of
years ago in the standing stones, become embedded within
me. I can’t help it, it just happens and they will inevitably
show up in some painting. Diving at 60 feet, floating effortlessly
just a foot above iridescent purple tube sponges where neon
orange cleaner shrimp and glowing yellow wrasse play around
the openings, using only my breath to change my depth, I
find my mind expands. It will manifest in my next artwork.
Stunning sunsets, sleeping children, light through cobalt
or ruby glass, a lover’s laugh or shoulder muscle, sea horses,
colored sand patterns on a deserted beach all become part
of my interior visual library and Iconography. I am very
blessed.
Styles
My art is primarily
abstract with elements of collage, often wrapping in the
Asian influences I studied for so long. I've devoured Oriental
Philosophy since the 1960's and studied Brush Painting since
1988. My traditional work stands alone, but now I wrap oriental
influences into "Artstories". My fluid, interference, and
duochrome acrylic layered abstractions are on both artist
wrap and 3" deep stretched canvasses. Many are diptych and
triptych which can be rearranged. For texture I engrave
foils, mostly spherical shapes and paint them with powdered
metals mixed with gloss mediums, or layer them with color
over the metallic and collage them on. I also will add gold
mica flakes and miniscule glass or metal beads to create
a field of contrast. I love the idea of hidden or partly
revealed things. I work flat and work on many pieces at
a time; that allows for drying and keeps me out of my head
about forcing a specific direction too early.
I use
bold, pure color, strong contrast and heavy textural elements
and hope viewers feel compelled to touch my work to connect
with it. Techniques in experimental water media give me
the
organic nature resident in my work.
My SuiteStickS
are custom canvasses in a "Stick" format, (15"x60", 20"x72")
where the width/height ratio is approximately 1:4. One day
I decided to try to get some of the consistency that galleries
are always looking for and I figured maybe the shape of
my canvas was a good way to do it. It allowed me to go a
bit left of center with subjects and styles while maintaining
a consistent "at first glance" look. Almost all my work
is framed now. I do a lot of small
studies to play with new ideas, materials and to push techniques
into new territory. I market these as the "Strata Sphere
Series" and they are popular because I sell them for a lot
less. What I learn doing these, goes into my larger works
which take many times over in hours and fine detail work,
what the studies require.
Please enjoy this pictorial
essay of how I do my art process, playing with techniques
in experimental water media, metal reactive acrylics, collage,
photo transfer, and unusual embellishment.
CLICK
HERE TO VIEW
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