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Drawn to the push and pull between chaos and structure, between the spontaneous and the deliberate— Katherine Ratay’s paintings offer a visual field where feeling takes form, where movement becomes a kind of map, and where the act of looking can become as active as the act of painting.
KATHERINE RATAY
MY WORK EXPLORES THE LANGUAGE OF EMOTION AND MEMORY THROUGH ABSTRACTION. I PAINT WITH MOVEMENT—EACH GESTURE A RESPONSE TO THE LAST, EACH LAYER A TOKEN OF TIME, EXPERIENCE, AND INTUITION. THE SURFACE BECOMES A RECORD OF IMPULSE AND REVISION, WHERE TRANSPARENCY AND DENSITY SPEAK TO THE TENSION BETWEEN CONTROL AND RELEASE. LAYERING IS AT THE CORE OF MY PROCESS. I BUILD SURFACES THAT FEEL BOTH CONSTRUCTED AND UNCOVERED, ALLOWING PREVIOUS DECISIONS TO REMAIN VISIBLE BENEATH NEW MARKS. THIS ACCUMULATION OF STROKES, TEXTURES, AND RHYTHMS INVITES VIEWERS TO SLOW DOWN AND ENGAGE WITH THE WORK AS AN UNFOLDING EXPERIENCE RATHER THAN A FIXED IMAGE.
