M.A.R.
Manifest Artist in Residence
2023/2024
Kitty Schroeder
Kitty Schroeder's education includes a BA and MA from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. For the period in between receiving these degrees, Kitty was also able to attend workshops offered at the Arkansas Arts Center by Jerome Witkin and Sigmund Ables. Her MA was completed over several years while a single mom and working full time. Throughout this process she received several tuition scholarships along with multiple awards including consecutive Jack Diner Drawing Awards (1989-1990) and top award in the 3rd Annual Invitational Exhibition at Hendrix College, juried by D. Kuspit (1991). In 1992 she was invited to exhibit her work Reciprocal Energies at UNC, Charlotte, College of Architecture Gallery. This same year, Kitty received a full scholarship along with an assistantship to pursue an MFA in drawing from the University of Cincinnati. After receiving her MFA, she taught a beginning figure drawing class and worked for two semesters as an adjunct professor at Northern Kentucky University teaching beginning drawing..
For a period of around ten years after receiving her MFA, life became overwhelming. Art seemed lost to her for the first time she could remember. Thinking of life intersecting art (remembering Lee Krasner) she began making little images from the post-it notes and gel pens being sold by the wholesale company she worked for. These images were subsequently exhibited at Borders Books and Music. Around 2005 after the work day, she began meeting at an open group setting with live models. In 2010 Kitty was invited by Dan Biggs to have a one person show at Frame Designs Gallery, now (Indian Hill Gallery). In 2019 Kitty was privileged to have another solo exhibit in Dillsboro Arts Gallery that showcased her project, Still Voices & Dandelions. This project was envisioned in 1994 during the last stages of her MFA work and highlighted missing children. After retiring, the year of hours necessary to bring the forty five 18" x 48" scrolls into fruition were finally available.
Kitty continuously weaves art into her life whether it is her main pursuit or in conjunction with or sometimes at the expense of other responsibilities in response to question of why not?
Artist's Statement (abbreviated from application):
The entranced feeling I had as a five year old painting slick paper with messy blue finger-paint is still with me when I work. I love creating marks. It always surprises me when something appears. Becoming more professional as an artist for me is also important.
When I look at my work, I can see why it may look inconsistent. I prefer to think of it as building parallel bodies of work. Whether I'm working on images of landscape, figure or still life, drawing, painting or putting something together, I know that the marks I'm striving for are consistent. My process often includes mixing mediums, use of alternative surfaces such as maps or old blueprints and recycling older works. The images I make stem from visiting different areas of myself and new tests of what I know.
In this vein, I can point to one experience that had a profound effect on my art; a workshop with Robert Reed, a professor from Yale. I spent the most amazing five days with a possible total of ten hours sleep, making marks in response to a life-size still life built of cardboard cut-outs which kept changing. It was pivotal in regard to how I ingested connections between space, time, objects and the marks I make. Pentimenti is part of the weather of life. My goal for this Residency is to develop a group of works that build on the idea of weather and unity.
The images pictured at right are a sampling of those submitted with Kitty's application.
As Manifest Artist in Residence Kitty will be based out of our MAR North Studio at the Gallery on Woodburn Avenue.
See more and learn about Kitty's work here:
www.kittyschroeder.com
Information on how to apply for future SIR or MAR awards can be found here.
