Katherine Kodama

Born 1956 in San Francisco, California, USA. Full time painter, part time dancer, and blogger

Since early 2007, I began to explore painting as a vehicle to translate the essence of a memory, a feeling, an experience, or a fantasy. I experience the memories or fantasies by creating a narrative, dramatizing actions, and incorporating movement during my process. By using the same repetitive brush strokes to convey for example a moment of contentment in the sun as a child (A Grand Day) or the weight of humidity in a field of wild orchids (Orchid), my intent is to minimize variable mark making in an effort to focus on the juxtaposition and layering of colors. Covering the canvas with beeswax mixed with oil paint in this repetitive manner generates spontaneous images that result from my environment, my state of mind and my own limitations. Many layers of paint are stippled on to the canvas so that every layer is shown through in the finished piece. Layering represents the connection between the sounds, smells, tastes, and perhaps most importantly, the emotions of my vision. As I continue this body of work, I am finding that the process has taken on a collaborative spirit between me and the painting. The painting defines ...

San Francisco Art Institute, BFA 2005,