What I Know

by Deborah Katon

Feb. 7 – March 13, 2020
The Gallery at The Kranzberg

In this day and age of “Fake News,” the pursuit of knowledge takes on an entirely different skillset. What is real? With fabricated artifacts and fictional narratives my work weaves in and out of exploring this question. 

The pursuit of knowledge is akin to the creative experience that is then edited to present as a finished “Piece”. I make objects as visuals to communicate. Arrangement, placement, and context relay information to the viewer. My latest work is a 30 foot mosaic at the bottom of a quarry in a grotto. My objects are elevated in status as they become permanent fixtures on their own. They become more, and they tell my stories. 

In my story board series beginning with “Flux Wall”. Appropriated objects along with my own creations include elements of fiction alongside nonfiction. This gives the viewer more insight into the complexities I addressed. 

“Contemporary Artifacts” are technically fulfilling to produce, as they are elegant and humorous. This has led to an installation designed for vitrines that are presented as one would find artifacts presented in a museum. 

Making art is my way of accruing knowledge. Skills it refines include: Trial and error, editing, contextual and intellectual thought, as well as spiral thinking as a golden mean for the Brain. 

The Brain has been my main focus this past year as my husband of 27 years, had a craniotomy. His story was not an easy one to be part of. Following that, horror ensued, and he underwent eleven more surgeries. Watching a brain awakening following a severe trauma is like watching a newborn emerge and grow at a phenomenal rate. Breathing on their own, swallowing, eating food, to walking, talking and problem solving. This has been a crash course in the wonders of the human brain and how knowledge is absorbed through multiple methods. 

Now that my husband is home from an 8 month hospitalization, I am able to be back in the studio producing pieces of my story.