untitled Collage

Kathy Leader grew up in South Africa where she received a degree in fine art at the Michaelis School of Art, University of Cape Town. She then went on to get her masters in art education. After teaching in Cape Town, Kathy emigrated to the United States in 1985. Kathy's personal artwork has gone  through many evolutions during her move from the southern to the northern hemisphere. She worked as a representational, figurative artist and then moved into more abstract forms as she experimented with various mediums.  Since combining collage, monoprints and wax, her work has become more about the unfolding creative  process. She works intuitively, allowing the process to evolve, drawing  ideas, shapes and colors from her past and present spiritual life, consciously and subconsciously. "As I enter each new phase of my life,  emerging and receding thoughts and emotions allow me to work in layers as I uncover parts of who I am in the art piece. I am fascinated by what happens to an idea when it is painted over. Does some of its essence remain below the surface? Perhaps that is how I can somehow come to understand the complexity of the human psyche.”