Kat Howard
Book Meat Studio Artist
Kingston, NY
I'm Kat Howard and I'm an artist living in the Catskills/Hudson Valley. I come to weaving from a background in poetry and book art. I’ve always been fascinated with how historically women worked within the constraints of the domestic space to express themselves, and how their mark making was an attempt to make the true self known; to force the female body to be seen outside of its bound, traditional context. I'm captivated by fibers, paper, thread, yarn; what I see as connective tissue in art. And so I make woven wallhangings, embroideries, hand bound books and zines. Oftentimes I let the materials of my different practices bleed in to each other. Many of the textures I try to capture in my work are echoes of the body, or the landscape where fragments of our selves are tethered. Evidence of the hand and the physical marks of the body are always present in my work, so the viewer can't ignore the identity of the maker behind the piece. Through weaving I feel like I am really able to convey this collective voice in thousands of tiny stitches, textures, and tones. You can't look at a tapestry and not be gobsmacked by the amount of work and artistic choice that went in to it. There's power in this quiet, fevered language.
kat-howard.com/
