SLAF Program Guide 2020

LISA TELLING KATTENBRAKER BACKGROUND Lisa Kattenbraker grew up outside of Chicago, the daughter of creative parents who lovingly supported her endeavors. Introduced to batik in high school, it quickly became a significant piece of her life. Batik is an Indonesian technique involving wax-resist dyeing applied to whole cloth. With over 100 hours of application per piece, the draw of this medium for Kattenbraker comes from working within such strict parameters to ultimately affect a change in the structure of the fabric itself. Having practiced for over twenty-five years, batik remains to her a mysterious and evocative process, and has a long history as being a way to tell stories through patterned fabric. THE IMAGE The figures in her pieces are black stick figures—a combination of all the colors in the piece and in the color spectrum— and serve as an inclusive way of portraying humans in general. Portraying them without facial features, she presents them as an invitation and a challenge for us all to see ourselves in one another. The pieces/stories/scenes are there as a backdrop to any person’s life. When someone sees themselves in the figures, she feels as if she has done her job. The shape of the figures stays “open” through the dye process to accept all the dyes, thus adding layer upon layer of color. These figures are essentially a product of the combination of the whole background scene. THE MESSAGE According to Kattenbraker, our experiences, thoughts, and feelings connect us in a way that extends beyond our physicality. The pieces she creates are momentary versions of her experience of happiness, sorrow, excitement, confusion, comfort, loneliness, love, and a myriad of things combined together in nostalgic memory. Kattenbraker began the process of using stick figures as a blank canvas structure to be used for story telling with her own small children and their friends over eighteen years ago. It quickly became part of her studio art life as it resonated with other people (not just the kids) as a way to tell their own stories. For the past five years the series has been rooted in the idea of ancestors, communication, and as always, connection. Much of her work incorporates her own memories of childhood with the experience of watching her kids grow and learn. Lisa travels the country exhibiting her award winning batiks. When not on the road, her home base is in Olympia, WA where she lives and hides out in her garden and studio with her husband and two kids. WE NO LONGER FELT SO ALONE COMMEMORATIVE PRINT 2