ARTIST STATEMENT
I am a child of the Women’s Liberation Movement and an incest survivor. I’ve been told to keep my mouth shut and encouraged to use my voice and be independent. I remember watching the Mary Tyler Moore show religiously with my mother. As a ten to fifteen-year-old girl I was enamored with the sassy, outspoken women, all the while harboring a debilitating secret, so how could I realize that my mother was watching this show with longing? It wasn’t until my mother tried to leave my alcoholic and abusive father and could not obtain housing because everything was in her husband’s name that I realized my mother had no rights. Under the weight and horror of the current administration, I should be triggered; I probably am triggered, but I’ve learned coping skills.
My art invokes the story of Virginia Giuffre and drowning girls and their adult selves everywhere; my art tells the story of women who have struggled for autonomy and independence but were still regarded as chattel as late as the mid-1970s. My art celebrates and honors the women who have stood up to the patriarchy for decades under the warrior goddess Athena, representing the strength of all the women who have pursued and prevailed against the odds throughout American history, both in words and in deeds; women who have gone before us and still stand with us.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
For over forty years Kathleen Cecilia Nesbitt has rarely been without her camera. Having studied at Columbia College, Chicago with Peter Thompson, Myron Davis, Ray Metzker, and Ruth Thorne-Thomsen her subject matter spans through play of light and shadow, textures, people on the street, architecture, portraiture, the beauty of imperfection and impermanence, and documentary photography. Upon completing and publishing her novel, Sentencing Silence, Kathleen began collage work in 2021, incorporating her own photography with found images to create representational political narratives that approach preserving our planet, women’s topics past and present, and the themes of loss, loneliness, and isolation.
Kathleen’s photography and collage work can be viewed in many online galleries including Cape Cod Art Center, Las Laguna Art Gallery, J. Mane Gallery, The Naturalist Gallery of Contemporary Art, collage Artists of America, Fusion Art, Gallerium.Art, PhotoPlace Gallery, Light Space & Time Art Gallery, SE Center for Photography, and in brick and mortar galleries including The Art Center, Dover NH, DragonFLY Gallery & Creative Spaces, Chicago IL, Timeless Arts Gallery, Chicago IL, La Luz De Jesus Gallery Los Angeles, CA, ArtSpace Chicago, Evanston Art Center, and Chicago Fine Art Salon.
© Kathleen Cecilia Nesbitt