Sidewalk, mixed media collage
-Kathy, we'd love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today, both personally and as an artist.
I feel like I’m sitting in a sweet spot that I’d call “midlife magic.” I’ve found my 50s to be a decade of coming into my own, both personally and as an artist. There have been many big shifts in my life in the past five to ten years, between children leaving home, completion of a 5-year course of treatment for breast cancer, the loss of my mother, menopause, and my husband’s retirement. All of these experiences have left me with an appreciation for the preciousness of the time I have left to me on this earth.
It’s no coincidence that it has been during this decade that my art has finally reached “escape velocity” after decades of being stuck on the launch pad. The combination of having time and energy to devote to improving my work, the ambition and desire to make my work the best it can be, the deeper self knowledge that midlife has offered me, and the diminishing concern of what others will think of me and my work has proven to be a powerful accelerant that was simply not available in the earlier decades of my life.
Discovering gel plate printing in 2018 was a game-changer for me, after searching high and low to find a medium that felt just right. I’m so grateful to have found it! I soon started developing my collage skills and learning how to use a cutting machine, and I have found that these three processes feed off each other and keep my creative process in perpetual motion.
After the Rain, mixed media collage
-You describe neutral colors as both exciting and calming, and your work reflects that beautifully. Can you expand on how you see these two opposite qualities coming together in your artwork?
I was a teenager in the 1980s, so bright colors like neon pink and chartreuse make me feel happy and excited. Because of these emotional feelings about bright colors, I developed a prejudiced idea about neutrals: I thought of them as boring. As you can imagine, my art in the first few years was almost exclusively bright colors.
In 2023 I started to explore colors in relationship with each other, pairing neutrals with brighter colors. I found that the neutrals were a wonderful complement to the brighter colors, allowing them to have the spotlight while avoiding a cacophony of brights. As I continued this study, I started falling in love with some of the neutral prints that I pulled—they possessed gorgeous subtleties and detail that were compelling and exciting, and yet they gave the viewer a sense of calm and peace. I was surprised to see how collages with the neutral prints could stir me but not overwhelm me. My experience with rethinking neutrals was like approaching someone who's quietly sitting alone in the corner at a party and then discovering that they’re a fascinating person.
I feel that the bright colors and the neutrals in my work represent the different sides of me that are both in play at any moment: extroverted and introverted, talkative and quiet, emotional and analytical, youthful but middle aged, etc. I think that we all contain these “conflicting” facets!
Rain Date, mixed media collage
-Your work blends experience, memory, awe, and angst. Can you share more about how these emotions interact in your creative process?
Shapes are a huge part of my art practice: I’m always looking for shapes and discovering shapes. Often I discover intriguing shapes in my daily life (like a stain on a sidewalk) or while traveling (like a piece of Arctic sea ice that looks like a monster). I create cut files of these shapes and incorporate them into both my printmaking and collage work, tying that experience of place and personal memory into my work. Some of these shapes have become important recurring symbols in my work. Personal memories also figure into many of the titles of my work.
I feel awe on a regular basis when I am hiking in nature, and it’s the small things that trigger it: weeds, fungus, holes eaten out of leaves by insects. This experience of awe is shared through my work as I create imagery from these precious little gems.
Angst’s role in my creative process is visible in the many monster-like shapes in my collages and prints, which symbolize the many anxieties that I contend with on a daily basis. I have a lifelong history with anxiety, and seeing it represented in juxtaposition to beauty reminds me that while anxiety is always present in my life, I won’t allow it to overrun or diminish my life.
Ledgerock, mixed media collage
-You’ve talked about how printmaking lets you work fast and on instinct, while collaging slows things down. How do you balance those two mindsets when you’re creating? Do you find one comes more naturally than the other?
I believe gelatin printmaking “unlocked” my longstanding creative block because it gave me freedom to play. There’s such a feeling of safety: if I make a print that doesn’t turn out the way I like, I can add another layer later on that may just transform it into a show-stopping print. If a print gets overworked and it’s simply too much? It will likely be amazing if I cut it with the cutting machine and use it for collage. There are no failures, so I feel free to experiment and respond to my intuition.
When it’s time to glue down collage, one could argue that the same idea applies: you can always add another layer on top. While that’s true, I’m less interested in doing that. I much prefer to have a bit of a road map before gluing begins. I collage onto cradled wood panels, and I believe that this gives me a sense of serious intention: at the collage phase, I’ve already sealed the wood panel front and back and painted the sides, so both time and money has been invested in preparing this lovely substrate. I will play around with placement of paper to create my composition, but once the matte medium comes out and the gluing begins, I’m usually quite sure of my plan.
Where Is She?, mixed media collage
-What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
I’d love your readers to visit my website and join my mailing list while they’re there to get monthly inside scoops on what I’m up to: www.KathyCornwell.com
I’m also on Instagram @kathy.cornwell.art and that’s also a great way to see my work and support me.
Statement
I create mixed media collages out of monotype prints that I make with a gelatin plate. My process allows me to work quickly and spontaneously (during the printmaking process) and slowly (while collaging), making decisions both analytically and intuitively. Both steps of creating the work involve layering, which introduces complexity, intrigue, and interaction.
This body of work represents a new direction that my work took in 2023, when I discovered the powerful emotional effect of neutral colors and their interaction with other colors. I’ve always been a “bright color person,” from the neons I wore in the 1980’s to the bright colors I enjoy wearing now. In my artwork, my colors had always been primarily bright and saturated.
In the spring of 2023, I began an inquiry into neutral colors, especially grays. To my surprise and delight, I found that pieces composed of these shades were simultaneously interesting, exciting, and calming. This body of work was a revelation to me, and I am continuing to delve into this body of work through research, play, and exploration.
For example, I’m studying the effect of varying ratios of neutral papers to brighter colored papers. I’m also exploring machine-cut, unique shapes as unification tools, and I’m exploring the effect of using different degrees and methods of mixed media mark making.
Cloud Forest, mixed media collage
I’m also beginning to create these works on a larger scale, which recently led me to create the largest gel plate I’ve ever seen and begin making large “collage fodder prints” using 24”x 36” paper. Composition and collage techniques pose unique issues when working at a larger scale, and I’m excited to grow from these challenges.
I foresee a long and adventurous exploration still ahead for this body of work, and I’m excited to see how it continues to develop and evolve.
Bio
Last Winter, mixed media collage
Kathy Cornwell should have known she’d be a printmaker at five years old, when she made handprints on the wall of her friend’s basement and was stunned when the prints didn’t resonate with her friend’s family. Unfortunately, it took 45 years for Cornwell to reunite with printmaking, a process that takes her right back to the spontaneity and joy she felt in that basement (before being yelled at and sent home).
Cornwell is a printmaker and mixed media collage artist based in Northern Virginia. She has been creating monotypes using a gelatin plate since 2018 and she often creates mixed media collages with her prints. An enthusiastic daily hiker and world traveler, Cornwell has a deep sensitivity for the beauty of nature (from the large and majestic to the small and overlooked). Her work blends experience, memory, awe, and angst.
Self-taught in midlife, Cornwell has entered the art world running. Since 2022, she has participated in numerous juried group exhibitions nationwide and her work has been featured in four international art publications including Women United Art Magazine and Suboart Magazine. She was a finalist for the 2023 Women Art United Art Prize in printmaking and her work was shortlisted for the 2022 Contemporary Collage Magazine awards.