The Ohio Artist Registry (OAR) is an exciting opportunity for artists to share their work, connect with the creative community, and establish an online presence—all on a free, virtual platform! The OAR encourages artists working in all art forms, throughout Ohio and beyond, to create a profile, which allows them to better promote themselves and their work. Being listed in the OAR provides artists with new opportunities to share their work with clients, galleries, patrons, and audiences. A listing in the OAR does not confer an endorsement, approval, or verification by the Ohio Arts Council.
For more information, contact Kathy Signorino, artist programs director, at kathy.signorino@oac.ohio.gov or 614-728-6140.
2024 Ohio Artist Registry Juried Exhibition
Katie Clark
Cleveland Ohio 44120 United States Cell Phone: 2164011317 Website: Chitin & Chlorophyll
Bio
Katie Clark is a self-taught Cleveland-based artist working primarily in watercolors. With an emphasis on highly-detailed paintings that challenge traditional conventions of the medium, her watercolors are crisp, small, precise, and tactile. She channels her lifelong interest in nature with the signature botanical insect paintings for which she is most known.
When she’s not painting, Katie enjoys foraging and tending to her many houseplants. As you may be able to guess, she also has a passion for insects and maintained a “bug garden” in a disused planter for many years as a child, which has provided plenty of artistic inspiration through the years.
Artist Statement
While I’ve been drawing and painting all my life, I settled into my creative niche, botanical insects, after looking for inspiration in the simple floral paintings I would create to sell at art shows. I started to feel that my botanical drawings could be engineered to create shapes rather than sitting neatly in detached rows across the page, so I started experimenting and deconstructing elements until I reached a style that I love. It’s challenging work that requires a lot of focus and planning, and each piece I create gets my full, undivided attention as I craft it sitting at my grandmother’s antique secretary desk.
My work is both directly inspired by insects and symbolic of deeper meaning. In a literal sense, I believe insects are vital members of our ecosystem whose very real environmental peril often goes under-recognized because many people see them as repulsive. To that end, I hope that viewers will see my art as a statement that whether plant or animal, we are all interconnected beings whose ecological fates are inextricably tied.
The size of my pieces is critical to this interaction. Much like the insects they represent, each is a tiny, carefully crafted work filled with detail and moving parts- one that must be observed in an intimate, up-close environment to truly appreciate each precise, intricate brushstroke.
My hope is that by transforming these insects into something botanical and conventionally beautiful, it will lead the viewer to reflect on their preconceived notions about beauty, worth, and perspective.