Murray State's Digital Commons

Collection Title

Kathryn Huttunen Art399 Portfolio

Author/Artist Name

Kathryn HuttunenFollow

Files

Academic Level at Time of Creation

Junior

Date of Creation

Spring 5-6-2021

Artist Statement

Kate Huttunen

Artist Statement.

The overall themes and concepts of my work are my personal self-reflection and memories of black and white culture as an adopted woman of color as well as how society views me and how I view society. When I just began pursuing art I started with using digital media such as video and digital photography. Recently switching to spending more time painting I feel I can portray certain emotions better with that medium than with digital. With digital media, I’m focused on showing the failures, triumphs, and struggles that come with adoption as compared to painting I show more inclusive problems and themes such as the constant struggle black woman face with mass media and how they are portrayed through it. Many question’s I relive and ask myself are “Am I black enough to question this?” “Am I valid, are my opinions valid?” “Do I really sound or look like that?” “If I date someone will they like me for me and not for an exotic kink?”. My photography is more straightforward compared to my paintings in which many of them use surreal imagery and convey loss, yearning, and confusion. I like to make different textures with paint, thick mark making clashing with more smooth and thin mark-making as if two different worlds are coming together and trying to make unity out of all the chaos. A few artists from online media and shows have inspired me and have influenced my use of color, light, and shadow. I’ve looked at Rashid Johnson, Jenny Saville, Mickalene Thomas, and Francis Bacon for influence as well as Yinka Shonibare. Yink Shonibare is a big influence for me when I’m painting for texture and color and light and shadow as well as composition planning. I hope my thoughts, stories, and struggles show well through my artwork so people like me know that it’s okay to feel lost in a world that tells you to be in one group. Doing these personal themes in artwork is like a coping mechanism and a diary where I can put my energy onto the canvas and hope some can relate to these struggles and start a conversation about it so they can feel like they belong to a group or community.

Advisor/Mentor

Danielle Mužina, Mike Martin

Description

I would like to show some of my most real pain and recurring thoughts I’ve had throughout this year. The overall theme of every painting is focusing on my personal experience and processing of past and recent events as a black woman. Unlearning the things I was taught by my family and learning more about a community I wasn’t actively a part of in the past with the help of my friends. Seeing the world with new eyes and understand past trauma and self-realization. The only medium or main medium is oil paint and it is just on standard canvas and will need to be hung on a wall, there’s no specific order. If there were to be a pair, Protest Vibes and February First or Pincushion and Please Be Civil, but any of these paintings could be together or alone.

Photo Credit

Kate Huttunen

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Huttunen, Kathryn, "Kathryn Huttunen Art399 Portfolio" (2021). Professional Practices (ART 399). 115.
https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/art399/115