Kathy Sosa

Kathy Sosa

May 31–Jul 31, 2013

May 31 – July 31, 2013
Semmes Library

Featuring Kathy Sosa

Join us at the Semmes Library for an artist talk and opening reception for Kathy Sosa on Friday, May 31. The artist talk will be from 4:00 – 5:00 PM with a reception to follow from 5:00 – 6:00 PM.

ARTIST STATEMENT:

My paintings are inspired by Latin American art and craft. I am fascinated by the ways these beautiful things are worn, used and displayed in both the places where they originate and also how they are worn, used & displayed in my home town, San Antonio, Texas, where Latino culture gives life, color, texture, taste and music to our lives. Primary inspirations are the Huipil, a meso-american garment textile made in this hemisphere for many centuries and Trees of Life, which are usually expressed as three dimensional ceramic folk art. Examples of both of these art forms vary widely from the simple and rustic to the exquisitely detailed. Thematically, they tell many stories about their makers and the places they are from. Trees of Life frequently center on Creation or celebrate the history of a particular familia, tracing it back to certain pair of ancestors, if not all the way back to Adam and Eve. The nativity is popular as well but when one looks a little deeper, Tree of Life can be found on a myriad of topics…from the totally traditional to the unbelievably unorthodox.

My newest series of paintings interprets the Trees of Life two-dimensionally and with a contemporary edge. The paintings depict modern women integrated with Trees of Life. Influenced as well by 18th and 19th Century Spanish and Mexican portraiture, iconic religious images and masks, they are elaborate with ornamentation. Inspired by folk art, the intended effect is quirky and unpretentious. Each Tree of Life incorporates a set of thematic figures that represent what the woman is thinking, or obsessing about at the imagined moment. I expect to be adding to this series for many years to come.