Kate Sciandra
Artist’s Statement
One thing that unifies all my work is the theme of deeply seeing, being
seen, and the intimacy that results.
During the countless hours spent as a figure model, being an object for
others to find aesthetically and artistically useful, I became obsessed with
capturing the compositions that would reveal themselves to me while I
worked. I began to have a fascination with what it means to be seen and
to simultaneously be the seer, like an optical illusion where from one side,
the object becomes the viewer and then with a shift of the eye, flips back
again.
Having both the regular experience of my body being the subject, and
having worked in the healing profession with the bodies of others as my
subject for over 20 years, I have a deep understanding of the body as
something both intimate and abstract. This pairing has translated and
evolved into a way that I perceive, and then reflect the world at large.
Creating a balance of universality and specificity, I work to capture objects,
places, and people in ways that penetrate their nature, while also creating
an image that has an aesthetic distance, sometimes reaching into the
abstract. This generates a tension that is compelling for the viewer,
drawing them into an even deeper relationship with the subject and the
work itself.
