* All images used with permission. Please do not distribute without first contacting the artist.
Ryan’s work investigates the significant role family photographs play in our lives and memories. Working in a photo lab while in college, Ryan observed that the same images showed up in scores of rolls of film; each family seemed drawn to documenting situations in similar ways. Ryan uses these loaded elements to display the fundamental nature of human emotion.
Catherine explains her work by saying, “I’m fascinated by human behavior in the face of fear, specifically as it relates to social mores, religious rituals and mob mentality. I source the images in my paintings from all areas of mass media photography from the past to the present and “collage” them together to create new narratives that investigate these behavioral patterns in greater depth.”
"Catherine’s paintings/drawings come out of a process of layering paint over charcoal and medium. I enjoy seeing that history in her work. There is a sentimentality and remembrance in her pieces informed by that process but also with the images she chooses."