live/work: Albany, NY
MFA: SUNY Albany
BFA: SUNY Purchase
catherinemctague@gmail.com
ARTIST STATEMENT: Through photographic references and painted narratives, I explore a lifelong curiosity of the unknown. Investigating the bridge between the lived experience and the extramundane, I am fascinated by the desire to create rituals, images, and media to relate to that which we do not understand. I collect personal images, thoughts, dreams, and memories, both mine and borrowed. I assemble these photos and symbols, translating collages into drawings and paintings. Through layering, washing, and erasure, I construct soft-focus forms, suggesting found footage and a narrative rooted in ambiguity. What emerges is a clouded sensitivity more ethereal than clearly defined. The tone of the work is spiritual and psychological, with repeating motifs including hands, televisions, faces, baptisms, and snakes. I strive to establish a luminosity that can be read in multiple ways; the neon light of a television, or the mystical glow of a divine experience.
