Untitled (Smile)

See Kathryn Shriver’s work in WTP Vol. VI #7

hand-woven and embroidered
glass beads, faux fur, pumice paste,
enamel paint on panel
11” x 7”

Despite the continual upending of what art can be, presumptions of what art should be, remain steadfast and continue to be reinforced by categories and biases that run throughout art discourse. My work focuses on how materials and making processes play into the valuing of artworks on the shifty spectrum between art and craft, by examining how both art forms are at once separate and intertwined theoretically, materially, and historically. Handmade beadwork has been specifically significant to my research on the instability of divisive lines between different categories of artmaking; the history of beads is heavy with instances of transformation, contradiction, and transition. Linked with the historical of colonialism, femininity, labor, costume, and craft, beads upset dynamics of power, identity, value, and taste. This transformative tendency allows for an interpretation of works beyond the scope of their original form.” —Kathryn Shriver

Kathryn Shriver is an American painter and fiber artist currently living and working in Montreal, Qubec. She earned her MFA in Painting and Drawing from Concordia University, Montreal, and her BA in Studio Arts from Wells College in Aurora, New York. She has exhibited in the United States and Canada, and is represented by Studio Sixty Six in Ottawa, Ontario.