Kat Richards
Hunt, 2019, Monoprint, 30 x 22 inches.
“I am constantly looking and finding color; I don’t limit myself to where and how.”
Kat Richards is an artist living and working in Fayetteville, Arkansas (USA). Their approach to color is one of foraging, and their approach to printmaking involves assemblage.
Kat’s fanatical, blunt and equivocal work is created with monoprinting techniques and three-dimensional materials which involve wood, felt, metal, and fabric. Kat’s current projects are defined by “all things metaphorical and physical that protect and come together”.
Where do you reside between technical and intuitive in your work as an artist using color?
The process I use is simple, like a beginner's magic trick; it's as good as you make it. That's what I like most about it; it is as intuitive as it is technical. For years, I have used variations of the same magic trick to have something very intuitive also be very technical.
Similarly, through this process, color has become fluid and precise. I have said my sense of color is intuitive, which is true but to be more specific, how I began to see color and light was intuitive. My use of color is foraged and changing. Most of what I know about color can be found on a hike; I feel very grateful when more is revealed to me.
Land Land 2018, Monoprint, 34 x 46 inches..
Helping Hands I, 2020, Monoprint, 11 x 20 inches.
“Most of what I know about color can be found on a hike...”
Are there specific associations towards color in your work?
There are several, some are metaphoric, and others are very apparent. At face value, my work directly references digital flatness; using a screen for communication is second nature in my life, and for now, I want that to be a part of my work. However, this reference is a filter and not a point of origin.
I am constantly looking and finding color; I don't limit myself to where and how. For my current work, I'm using colors, shapes, and patterns that mimic modes of protection and connection found in the Phylum Arthropoda.
Three in the Grass, 2019, Monoprint, 22 x 30 inches.
Stars, 2019, Monoprint, 22 x 30 inches.
What can printmaking ink achieve regarding color in your work that no other material can?
I use Hanco litho ink and whatever modifier is needed. I love this ink; I know this ink. Mixing color is the most tranquil part of my practice; if I am ever unsure what color is needed, I mix until I see it. In that sense, I am what printmakers have coined as a "painterly printmaker".
The difference is what the ink does with the press; I can rely on it to make a perfectly flat surface of color without compromising. The flatness of ink separates it from any other medium; it can mimic, describe, define or float seamlessly into paper. I watch people get as close to my prints as possible to figure out its mystery, looking for printing errors to explain the image embedded in the paper.