ARTIST STATEMENT
Stacking, gathering, mounding, bundling…all words that speak to accumulations. There are stone stacks, sea stacks, wood stacks, haystacks and book stacks. Years leave rings stacked around the beginning core of seedling trees. Time leaves the earth with horizontal strata of various sediments as well as the vertical repetition of mineral laden seeps. Horizontal lines present the boundaries between sky and distant mountain elevations. Water ripples outward in lines of dark versus light, a cadence of reflection.
I work as a multidisciplinary artist out of two studios, Seattle and Santa Fe. The five archetypal elements of water, earth, wind, ether and fire interplay in my sculpture, paintings, printmaking, and photography. The materials I use reflect these elements: beeswax and resin; graphite and oil stick; wood, paper, threads, and cloth; glass, bronze, and stone; lead sheet, wire, precious metal leaf and found objects.
Photographs taken in my travels have focused on repetition and patterning: antique books, cardboard piles, wrapped objects, continuous marks on walls and ground. The Stacks series began with photographs of the freshly printed pages at EBS Press in Verona for my book 108. As the new pages amassed on the pallet before trimming, the edges became marked with color and shades from black to white. Accumulations originated with a fascination of the fore edge of books, the side not normally seen as it faces the wall of a bookshelf. Often in antique books these pages may be uneven, deckled, gilded and stained by years of use.
We have a historical reverence for the power and sacredness of earth. But we live in a chaotic world, where it is difficult to feel a part of the whole: personally, politically and spiritually. If we become still and silent, we feel the four winds and the sky. We can then integrate past, present and future. Hopefully, we will continue to find ways to understand and bond, not only to our environment, but most importantly, to each other.
Catherine Eaton Skinner’s creative sensibilities stem from growing up in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, her BA in Biology from Stanford University and her painting instruction from Bay Area Figurative painters Nathan Oliveira and Frank Lobdell. Skinner has had 39 solo domestic and international exhibitions and her work has been in numerous group exhibitions in museum and galleries. Public collections include, among others, the Embassy of the United States, Tokyo; Boeing Corporation, Seattle; University of Washington, Seattle; and the Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma.
On exhibit at Enterprise Library from December 20, 2022 through February 21, 2023
Monday: 10:00AM – 8:00PM
Tuesday: 10:00AM – 8:00PM
Wednesday: 10:00AM – 8:00PM
Thursday: 10:00AM – 8:00PM
Friday: 10:00AM – 6:00PM
Saturday: 10:00AM – 6:00PM
Sunday: 10:00AM – 6:00PM
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