Kate Maura

My work begins with immersive experiences within the natural world, and the motion of the butterfly is part of my visual language. These creatures are metaphors for transformation and crossing other worlds. When I am fully immersed in nature, using all my senses, I feel a part of some mysterious, beautiful world, grounded, fulfilled, and transformed. The work is an expression of that experience. Plain air drawing, biology, philosophy, and poetry all play an integral part in the creation of my work. As I learn new things, I am changed.

When we are immersed in nature, things reveal themselves in different ways depending on what we need at that time. I intend to create abstract works that allow this open space for contemplation and interpretation. You might begin to see different things as you look more closely or at another time. Overall, the imagery looks like some mysterious world; sometimes shapes could be recognizable like florals, wings, leaves, figures, or maybe faces, as impressions have been made subconsciously while I am drawing. I allow myself the freedom to fully flow with the forms and not control things. Within each stage of the process, I keep myself open to whatever catches my attention and explore it further. There is much experimentation within each step and an intuitive response.

After bringing my analog drawings into the digital world, my visual language involves layering and thinking about their movements—the colours are informed by the place, the flowers, greenery, sky, and rocks, and I play with varying opacity to convey the ephemeral nature of these experiences; things feel like they are appearing or disappearing. Then I paint the overtop with acrylics, responding to the larger printed imagery that is now on canvas and not on my iPad. Once again, with fresh eyes, having had some distance from the work, I see new connections in form, line, and colour. The viewer can see the areas of paint and printed archival inks, and I like that the differences are noticeable. As a mixed media work, it is a way to view how I was responding again to the work, my process a witness to the visual transformation of early analog drawings.

The variety of layering and how those layers interact with each other to create new forms or colours is a unique challenge in the work. There are so many layers of drawings and forms. Why? It is not just about motion; this layering speaks to new ways of seeing through different lenses of knowledge as well as our interconnectedness, and we experience a whole new view of things. The work is like a puzzle. I enjoy finding the interactions between the layers that create different forms or colours. To be true to the creature, the butterfly, I also work in the round so that my work can be hung in any direction, adapting to its environment like nature.

The use of these different materials and tools connects more traditional ways of making (drawing and painting), which symbolize our history, with more contemporary technology (digital). Synthesizing the two can give us a deeper understanding of ourselves, who we are, and the world around us. Hence, I call my process of synthesis original art.

At some point, there is tremendous beauty in transformation, so my imagery feels like loveliness and a lightness of being. I hope my works can allow the viewer to feel a rhythm that calls from within and a space for contemplation of oneself, where one can feel energized yet calm and grounded. It is how I feel when immersed in the natural world; it is rejuvenating and vital.