Elizabeth Katt Reinders
Artist Statement
Art-making is a resting place and a recovery from the externally-oriented world I often live in as a mother and a climate advocate. Art provides a path inwards where I explore my internal landscapes of emotion and my own unprocessed experiences. There is a relief that comes from expressing emotions and physical sensations without words; through color, movement and marks. Abstract, expressionist and figurative styles allow me a freedom that eludes me in other areas of my life: a freedom from my own judgement, from needing to have the right answer, from trying to ensure I’m understood, or from having to get it right. It’s a freedom that leads me to resolution and clarity through intuition, expression, and reflection rather than through the analysis, assessment and strategy mode in which my brain so often operates.
A lifelong writer, I first turned to a regular art practice in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, when I found myself without access to words to adequately process my experience. What began as a sort of intuitive art therapy sparked a passion and compulsion to paint and make art whenever I could carve out the time. I’m drawn to themes inspired by and centered on nature, and those that explore the identities of women.