2020 Juror:  Kathryn Polk
 
Kathryn Polk currently lives and works in Bloomington Indiana, where she runs, together with her husband, L VIS Press.

Below is a recent review by Mark Jenkins of the Washington Post

Kathryn Polk has a story to tell, but she’s not entirely sure she wants to divulge it. The immaculately made lithographs in the Arizona artist’s “The Innate Thread” offer some information about her childhood, and the status of women, in the 1950s and ’60s. But many of the most intriguing touches in the Pyramid Atlantic Art Center show are cryptic, their meaning private.

Polk portrays women and girls in clothing that hints Eisenhower is still president, with them often doing domestic tasks as traditional as the artist’s printmaking style. Some are clearly trapped in their roles, whether by the girdle worn in “Hergatory” or by the expectations that caused the woman in “Caught in the Act” to have the word “guilty” literally written all over her face. Some of Polk’s subjects toil so hard that they’ve grown an extra arm or two.

There are occasional acts of protest: A little girl runs a rolling pin over art, not dessert, in “I Make Prints Not Pies.” But most of the unusual elements are more surreal than political. One of two pink-frocked sisters, representing the artist and her sister, lacks a mouth. Fires, cactuses and the word “Christmas,” inscribed on flesh, are motifs. (Asked about the significance of the word by the gallery director, Polk declined to reveal its meaning.)

We look forward to working again with Kathryn, as a juror for the 2020 Salt City Dozen!