Local artist Katharine Fletcher has transfigured the walls of the Café 349 with Transformations, her latest exhibition featuring a collection of 53 of her artistic outpourings. The exhibit is broad and leans heavily on recent diversifications to her portfolio of techniques.
The exhibit itself is an open invitation, layered upon some of Fletcher’s longstanding and personal convictions, to dismantle the proverbial fourth wall separating artists from their audience, would-be artists from the acclaimed and experimentation from the proven.
“We are all artists in our way. If we want to develop our artistic path, we simply need to develop our abilities, experiment with our techniques, and have faith in ourselves,” said a beaming Fletcher standing amongst a large group of supporters at the vernissage Wednesday evening.
“‘Transformations’ has so many meanings,” she toyed while allowing onlookers their own space to interpret and appreciate her creativity. On one wall, there was a spirit horse, an image for which Fletcher is known, glowing in an ethereal aura of possibility. A neighbouring piece displayed what looked like a version of a Rorschach inkblot framed in unfinished wood and paired with a second inkblot, both conspiring to inspire and enmesh in equal measure.
On the one hand, the show’s title alludes to transforming seemingly unartistic elements, like leaves and feathers, into art. On another hand, the show’s title alludes to Fletcher’s own transformation and evolution as an artist and on yet another, it alludes to philosophical undertones of unpredictable change made manifest using the techniques with which she is experimenting. Any way you look at it, Transformations invites intrigue.
Fletcher has long written about the environment from many angles and common to them all is her overarching awe and desire to advocate for all things natural.
Deliberately, she embraces nature in her life and art forms while actively seeking methods whereby she can even further envelop the essences of nature she finds around her into both her technique and her artistic body of evidence. For what is legacy if not a body of evidence, and Fletcher longs that nature have both.
In this exhibit, Fletcher showcases beautifully her adaptation of, and expertise with, a relatively new technique called eco-dying. While the method is not new, having been around for centuries, the adherence to tradition while exploring outlier possibilities for realization is what makes Transformations such an extraordinary romp of unexpected joy.
The exhibit runs at Café 349 until Nov. 1.
