Kassogtha Drawing

PURPOSE In order to make physical, emotional, and conceptual space for worlds governed by understanding, acceptance, and love, I use my art to 1) celebrate ambiguity, complexity, and nuance; 2) encourage playful and critical examination of oppressive cultural assumptions and practices; and 3) evoke emotion as a necessary starting point for such (re)examinations. METHOD/OLOGIES My purpose directly informs my methods. My original digital art prints begin with impressionistic and/or abstract ink drawings meant to capture a particular emotional experience with a kinetic logic translating mood into movement. I then digitize and manipulate these drawings via a technique I call digital printmaking, which involves arranging and layering multiples of the original/source drawing(s) next to and onto one other. Achieving the critical mass of a completed digital piece involves a semiotic logic transforming my use of high contrast, texture, impressionistic and abstract forms into visual expressions of antistasis* that juxtapose otherwise categorically separate cultural conventions such as performative distinctions among races, classes, genders, sexualities, ages, abilities, and nationalities. FOCI My current work, both digital and fiber, explores the role narrative plays in enabling physical, psychic, and generational traumas at intersections of racism, classism, sexism, and heterosexism. My What Lies series, for example, uses titles; semi-transparent, lace-like top layers; simultaneously humanoid skull and eye shapes underneath; and contrasting, monochromatic backgrounds to highlight the deceptive narrative of progress used to rationalize serial genocide, stolen land cultivation, cultural appropriation, and historical revision.