Kathleen Kucka prepares her surfaces with paint or charcoal, and uses torches, hotplates or irons to “draw” her burn on paper or canvas. She controls the process by dabbing water to maintain the desired shape and size of her burnt forms. Working steadily, Kucka structures her composition in spatially arranged linear or circular patterns, adding layers of pigment, canvas or fabric to achieve more depth and texture. The results are organized abstractions evoking thoughts of nature, destruction and re-generation. Kucka’s barn studio in upstate Connecticut allows her the space needed to do her scorching safely and undisturbed, and she then completes the work in her New York City studio.
"Drawing from an arsenal of materials, aesthetic choices, and techniques, my work mines a personal language of forms and patterns.
I explore image-making through physical interaction and transformation. Heat: a force of nature changes the paper and canvas.
Burning is a pathway to something psychological, personal, and universal: destruction and rebirth."
Artist Statement