About the Art
Give Me the Death I Need, oil on canvas, 36"x48"
Revelation, oil on canvas, 36"x48"
Background: Bloody But Unbowed
My work explores the infinite beauty of the human spirit and its relationship with change, transformation, and transcendence. Through oil on canvas, I create visual narratives that reflect the archetypal Hero’s Journey through the lens of both the masculine and feminine. These themes allow me to investigate these topics within my personal life, giving me an outlet for growth and expansion at a spiritual and physical level. Working in oil on canvas, I capture moments of tension, surrender, and metamorphosis.
I aim to depict the immensely complex human experience by highlighting how the light and dark interplay. Finding strength in vulnerability, power in surrender, and peace amidst chaos is all a part of the universal experience of transformation. I emphasize contrast both thematically and visually because contrast is what defines reality–it often takes pain and hardship to recognize that every moment is a blessing.
The work is a reminder of the innate potential, power and magic that resides within us, and a call to action for the hero within.
About the Artist
Katie Chatham is a visual artist from Southern Alabama. She received a B.F.A in Painting from Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, GA. She has exhibited her work in juried exhibitions in the Southeast U.S. and virtually. Chatham's recent body of work explores narratives that speak to the human experience of transformation. Her large-scale paintings focus on the Hero's Journey as an archetypal example of human fortitude and transfiguration. Working in oil on canvas, she depicts instances of metamorphosis with dramatic imagery of the human figure.
When she’s not painting, you can find her doing yoga or slacklining in the park and reading and researching to expand her creative and spiritual worlds. Chatham is currently living and creating in Fairhope, Alabama.
Current Events
Click on the image above to view the exhibition catalog!
Installation shot from show Poetic Bodies.
Click on the image above to read my interview with Canvas Rebel!