ARTIST STATEMENT: Instead of describing why my art work looks the way it does or the exact motivation behind each piece I have written a poem that describes a time and an idea central to my motivations. Each painting I make has a different story either; a short story, or a complicated expression of feelings. I work a lot with found objects: old painting that no one wants, fabrics that were discarded and pieces of electronics that I find or inherit. The art that I offer here are samples of a larger narrative, pieces, best understood as part of a whole but each element of the story is both beautiful and tragic. I offer you this poem so that you may better understand who I am. Swallow Into, Out to, On to Far from, In from, There We are here We make noise We are alive We are listening We understand And we need to And we came to Know something Feel something So, that we can Change So that we don’t exploded Implode On our fears and our doubts On our empty promises Abandoned by fate Blanket stolen in the night I shiver with the knowing, That the day ahead is cold That when I awake Things will not be okay Fine Or better Just Just More, More of the same More of the knowing And the disappointments And the hating Afraid to change Dulling the senses In order to feel better About being selfish We go there We come here And we came We came We saw We, we, we were swallowed -Kate Sharkey