Katherine Tolve

September 13 through October 6
Artists Reception September 13 from 5:30 to 8pm

Katherine Tolve
Artist-Entrepreneur, Teacher, Mother
 
Katherine was born and raised in Windsor, CT.  She obtained her BFA in painting from Hartford Art School in 2008; in the years following she continued her studies, attending workshops and artist residencies while actively creating and exhibiting her artwork. She has held various art related employments including work as an artist assistant, curator, and gallery director.
In 2012 Katherine became a mother, which ignited her interest in teaching.  She soon became a substitute art teacher at the Greater Hartford Academy of Arts, began collaborating with arts organizations including the Greater Hartford Arts Council in offering special workshops and classes, and started home-schooling her two young children.  A self-described experimental painter, she has developed a vast knowledge of fine art mediums and techniques allowing her to teach a variety of classes for children and adults.
Most recently Katherine and her husband have moved to N. Granby CT. Since their move Katherine has become a member of The Granby Art Association and has begun teaching classes at the Granby Senior Center.  Katherine continues to teach art classes in South Windsor at The Connecticut Art School as well as Curating exhibitions for The Windsor Art Center. Katherine is excited to host her first ever Open Studio in her new Granby space, October 2019!
 
Artist Statement
I constantly struggle to find balance between my urges to collect and to minimize the amounts of objects I possess. This awareness stems from my childhood experience of watching my Gram pull jars of treasures from the back of her closet. Gram’s collections were miniscule compared some of the ones that I’ve come across as an adult which has caused me to reexamine the value and worth in the saved objects of others. Like the cliché: “One man’s trash is another man’s treasures,”
 Pattern design and ornamentation have always been reoccurring themes in my artwork.  They are also ingrained in our daily life, through packaging, clothing, and home décor, to the point that we often look at them without much analysis.    Through my work I am interested in challenging the traditional view of high and low art by blurring the distinction between art and craft.  Even in the simplest designs, the combination of arbitrary marks placed with precision help to create the unique beauty of each piece.
I work on impulse and intuition, driven by a passion for color, shape, and the never-ending exploration of materials.  It is very important for me to continually examine new mediums and they help to remind me that a painter can sculpt, a sculptor can illustrate, and an illustrator can paint.