Kathleen Kvern Encaustic Art

Kathleen Kvern is an abstract painter based in Minneapolis, MN where she has a studio behind her 1920’s bungalow. She works primarily in encaustic and mixed media and her work has been juried into exhibitions at the Nicolet College Art Gallery, Northfield Art Gallery, Artistry at the Bloomington Center for the Arts, and at the Minnesota State Fair Fine Art Exhibition among others. She has been featured in Wax Fusion, a digital publication of International Encaustic Artists (IEA), and she was the recipient of the 2019 Emerging Artists Grant from the IEA. She teaches encaustic workshops at the Chicago Avenue Fire Arts Center, her work is for sale, and she ships locally, nationally, and around the world.

ARTIST STATEMENT

My encaustic paintings, often done in series, are an exploration of the layered meanings of personal narrative and the intersections between my spiritual/recovery practice and the creative process as methods to mapping more meaningful connections with myself and others. Altered by fire, both in form and texture, encaustic is the perfect medium to explore the concept of transformation. The process of encaustic painting is meditative. Scraping away, revealing what is underneath and then building back in a repetitive manner. Altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form, the finished paintings are palimpsests of my own successive creations. My work emphasizes the qualities of translucency, luminosity, vulnerability, and durability specific to the encaustic medium that I work in. My work, while referencing the natural world, has been a way for me to interpret and make sense of my internal geography which is grounded in my recovery from addiction.

I hope you enjoy my work. Please contact me if you are interested in purchasing anything you see on my website or to discuss a commission.