Local Artists

Kathryn Pettitt

List of local visual artists and images of their best work.

Artist Information

The idea of a preserved corpse repels and attracts, fascinates and horrifies. Our world is one in which people are obsessed with the bodies both living and dead. The body represents a continual process of decay and regeneration and skin is our first and most essential vestment. Concealed under clothes, it acts as a mediator between one's inner self and the external world outside: class, religion, ethnicity, gender and consumerism

Footprints, the traces left behind of our journey provide a metaphor for our lives. Usually transient phenomenon, easily eroded and obliterated by time and place, they occasionally remain preserved and hidden uncovered only by archaeology. Once discovered, they enable us to reveal captured moments of our past and to ownership of our progress.

Jewellery reflects the human body; it possesses something of the physical, only reaching its full potential when touched. Jewelled relics provide a tangible insight in to the past, offering clues about distant values, material and aesthetics. My work is intimate, shaped and formed around myself. Through casting my human self it makes solid something transient and enables a complete physical connection with the body. The fragility and preciousness of physicality is explored in delicate enamelling; this provides a second skin, which giving light, reflection and opulent warmth.

Drawing on the influence of European jewellery designers such as Gerd Rothman, Peter Chang, Katinka Kaseline, Birgit Jurenssen and Hilde de Decker, I challenge the site and utility of jewelery.

Working with the freedom of mixed media I have recently produced work that includes enamel and embroidered textiles. Reflecting traditional ideas of beauty and longevity, my work explores the limits of the profile. My work is made to be touched, moved and worn.

I am currently teaching part-time on community based work, which includes adults with learning differences and other special groups such as, teenager mothers. I enjoy working on special projects.

How to view the work

Contact me to find out about current exhibitions of my work. Some of my work is on long term exhibit in Solihull Arts Complex and Central Library Stairwell.

Contact Details

1410 Warwick Road
Knowle, Solihull
West Mids.
B93 9LG
Phone: 01564 200946
kathryn.pettitt@btinternet.com
ARBSA and chair of SAF

For further information, please contact: artsideas@solihull.gov.uk

Phone:0121 704 8138