Kathe Gregory

Artist’s Statement 

As a child, my favorite things were to build structures with my erector set and to color with crayons.  My current work is a manifestation of those loves.

For years – with no particular purpose in mind – I have been collecting small objects I find on the street: pieces of rusted metal, shards of broken plastic, twisted and flattened wire – all visual treasures.  Sometimes I know what these pieces once were: a wooden ice cream spoon, a bottle cap, a washer, a muffler, the head of a hoe – but mostly they are simply mysterious, wonderful textured forms.

I began to play with these pieces, putting several together and glued to form a relief.  With these little reliefs – mostly only 3-6” tall – came the question, what would happen if they were enlarged?  So I had them photographed at a high resolution and printed poster size with unexpected and exciting results.  Colors were sometimes not like the reliefs, varying textures were intensified and in some cases depth was lost.  So I turned to my colored pencils and enhanced them, giving them a distinct and different personality.  Since I have no idea when I start each phase how they look in the end, I love the process of finding out.