ABOUT THE WORK

Found photographs are the source material for these paintings. Katherine Strause's compositions allow us to bear witness to familiar stories through images of our shared past.  By altering and re-arranging the original compositions a provoked subject matter emerges. At times the active witness appears in the paintings; at other times the active witness was the person behind the camera that took the original photograph. Katherine Strause’s editing process encourages her audience to do the same as they interpret her images. Part documentary, part naturalistic expression, the painted compositions take a provocative stance towards its topics, be they discarded family album photos, archived civil rights photography, or beauty pageant publicity photographs.

Katherine Strause exhibits nationally and is currently Department Chair and Assistant Professor of Art at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. She holds a Master of Fine Arts from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville.