About the artist:

Katherine Hagstrum lives and works in Bisbee, Arizona. She is currently an instructor of Humanities at Cochise Community College where she teaches courses in the history of the humanities in Western culture. She has been the director of the For the Love of Music classical chamber music series in Bisbee since 1985. She was President of the Board of DIrectors of the Bisbee Foundation from 2000 - 2004. She and her husband, Alvin Sandler, set up the Art Entree Foundation in 2002, to encourage young artists and musicians. " I began making monotypes in 1976 at the Print-Making Workshop in New York City. At that time I was employed as a textile designer, and my first images reflect that experience. I even did some textile designs using monotype printing. As I explored the medium of monotype, a sense of depth began to develop quite naturally. I gave my images titles like, "Down on a Spacious Planet". As my technical mastery of this medium grew, I became increasingly interested in creating realistic illusions. It was later, when i discovered the American Southwest in 1979, that I became aware that my fantasy mindscapes had their counterparts in nature. In 1982 I Made a fresh start, setting myself the goal of recapturing the same surprises and excitement that i experienced when i first began making monotypes. My goal was to gracefully blend my more practiced skills with a rededication to adventure and spontaneity. This meant putting aside my emerging concern with realistic spatial relationships, and making my images more enigmatic. My images became bolder and more abstract. The result was that while giving freer rein to my own imagination and encouraging he "happy accidents" that are such a wonderful stimulus to the imagination of an artist, I also tried to engage the viewer's imagination more powerfully. At every single stage I have used color in a variety of way; bright primaries, subtle earth tones, surprising contrasting hues, dark images, delicate hues, rich variations and bleedings. All have found their way into my monotypes from every period. I hope that my images will encourage people to take another look at nature and see the colors and textures the they didn't believe were possible. They may be surprised, as i was, to find them close to home."