Studio Visit with Katherine Hunt

Where is your studio? Where are you making art while the Stay at Home Directive is in effect? How has it challenged or grown your practice?

My studio is at home, which is convenient. I create my own schedule and keep things flexible. The quarantine has forced me to create a stronger sense of discipline and structure. Normally, there is a natural balance between my teaching work and time spent in my studio.  With my teaching on hold, I’ve had to be a little more diligent about managing my studio time and creating a new daily schedule for myself.

How does living in New Mexico change or influence your work? Does it change your work?

Natural plant and animal fibers are highly prized resources in New Mexico, so that has been a huge influence on my work as it is my primary medium.  The landscape is also a major inspiration.  The muted color palette (pinks, whites, browns, greys, blacks) of the Badlands surrounding my home here in Chimayo have definitely affected the look and feel of my work. Working in an 100 + year-old adobe house made of mud and straw walls and pine ceilings and floors is grounding and calming.

How is your life, your practice, your art the same or different now than it was at this time last year?

I spend a lot of time reading and thinking about other artists and art theory.  Every year that goes by I end up digesting more and more about a new artist or process that  makes me reconsider my own work and approach. There is a huge conceptual element to my work and I really love the ideas behind art. Those ideas or concepts sometimes are equally as, if not more important than, the finished work itself.  I feel more confident and more disciplined than ever before.

What does (or did) a typical day in the studio look like for you?

I’m a morning person so I like to get into the studio right after having coffee.  I’ve gotten back into a short Qi Gong practice each morning since being in quarantine and that really helps to empty my mind and wake up the body. Because my practice is so physical and repetitive, I have started to set a one hour timer to regiment breaks. I was recently diagnosed with Lupus and that can limit my energy.  Not overdoing it is really important, so taking regular breaks, drinking water and stretching are all key.

Where do you get your inspiration?

Artists Eva Hesse, Sol Lewitt, Agnes Martin, Yoko Ono, Ad Reinhardt, Gego, Richard Serra, Donald Judd, Louise Bourgeois’ “Insomnia Drawings”, Magdalena Abakanowicz, Michelle Stuart, Joseph Beuys and John Baldessari, filmmakers’ Claire Denis and James Benning, Brian Eno’s “Music for Airports” and Fugees “The Score” , the poetry of Yoko Ono’s “Grapefruit” and Dr. William Carlos Williams, hay bales, the smell of hot pine in the sun and piñon burning in a wood stove, subtle tonality of color at Plaza Blanca and southwest Badlands, spiderwebs, the faded white grey color of sun dried animal bones found on desert hikes around my home, Geometry, the collective experiences of my past adventures and mishaps and overstimulation leading to the desire to obliterate distraction and condense my senses down to the minimal.

Do you have another job in addition to making art? How does it inform your art practice?

I teach mixed media visual arts, fiber arts and public art installation to youth at a variety of nonprofits, including NM Fiber Arts Center, Moving Arts Española and Harwood Art Center (All going to be Zoom distance learning workshops this summer which will be a new adventure!)  Working with kids reminds me to play with materials and not be too concerned with the results. I’ve also farmed and gardened professionally for over 15 years.  Having my hands in the soil, feeling the texture, using my body and all my senses has greatly informed my practice.  I tend to be really aware of subtlety in textures and colors and in general am a very tactile person.

What is your process when starting a new project or piece?

I feel like my work is an extension of so many other things.  I usually have an idea for a piece after I’ve spent a couple days reading about art or poetry. Some kind of texture, image or shape will come to me and then I need to express it in the form of a process-oriented piece.  That’s where the tediousness comes in, I think. A lot of my work ends up being really meticulous because it allows me time to think abstractly and work through some emotional state I might be currently juggling in life. Or sometimes if I am reading about a theory in art, I want to try and implement that theory in my own way. It doesn’t necessarily have to have an emotion to it and can be informed by theoretical ideas rather than emotions.

What are you working on right now?

I am working on a two-canvas piece, each 48’ x 60’.  Each one is like a large rock or cocoon pod and their forms create tension with one another. I use one continuous string for each to fill in the space and apply it with glue and a paintbrush. I started a smaller piece in a similar fashion using only one string to cover a large surface area and this new piece is taking that experiment and building on it in a larger work.  These one string pieces are a means for me to channel and calm thoughts and anxieties and allow “my mud to settle” (which was to be the name of my exhibition and references a Taoist philosophy).

 

What is your dream project? If there were no restrictions on time or money what would you create?

A large scale, one string installation piece covering an entire wall of a gallery or museum!

Is there an artwork of yours that you will always keep?

Not any of my own artwork, but there is an old 1970’s framed print of the painting I’ll always keep, The Bookworm by German painter and poet Carl Spitzweg, from my Dad’s little library room in our damp and dusty childhood home’sMidwestern basement.  My Dad passed away 15 years ago and I’ve hung this painting wherever I’ve lived.  It reminds me of his humor and why he appreciated this painting, which pokes fun at a fusty old butler unconcerned with the affairs of the mundane world, unaware of his apparently princely surroundings, being totally absorbed in his research of a Metaphysics book.

What excites and / or delights you in the studio right now?

Continuing to work with tactile materials and bringing those materials and my ideas onto a larger scope.

What has it looked and or felt like to adjust your Harwood exhibition plans — which you proposed in early 2019 and have been working towards since?

It was disappointing at first to have the show postponed, but that quickly turned into acceptance and then excitement!  I will have more time now to work on new pieces and develop my work further for next year’s exhibition.  

How can people learn more, support, and or purchase your work?

Please check out my website https://katherinehunt.xyz.  I can be contacted via email there.  I’m also trepidatiously re-entering the Instagram world and just starting a new account @katherineahunt on which I’ll start posting my work and news/updates!

Is there anything else you would like to share?

I would like to thank the Harwood Art Center staff for their flexibility and ingenuity during this pandemic. Taking artists and their work online has been amazing and I am grateful for the opportunity to have my exhibition in 2021!