About: Artist Kathleen Holmes

I was born in Monroe, Louisiana in 1953, and come from a long line of crocheters, a tradition in my family going back as far as family stories recall. I therefore incorporate found and self-made pieces of crochet into my work as metaphors for the particular patterns of my native Southern culture. Just as a single thread returns again and again to loop and interlock in crochet, the creative legacy of so many women repeatedly endows my artistic heritage and creates a conceptual "whole cloth," the "fabric" of their lives clothing my vision.

I combine these pieces of traditional handwork with indigenous domestic materials - ceramic, metal, glass - to create evocative domestic icons, subtly powerful and often innocently ironic. Familiar domestic objects accessorize in unlikely ways, illuminating overlooked intimacies of domestic life. Rusted, pierced, and shaped metal refers to man-made aspects of society and provides the visual and conceptual counterpoint to the woman-made textiles, creating a metaphorical duality.

The iconic "dress" form represents all sacred garments, from christening and wedding gowns, to judge's and cleric's robes, to bedclothes and death shrouds. Ultimately, the archetypal dress is my homage to the countless generations of women and girls who, by perpetuating a traditional domestic craft, have endowed my contemporary art.

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