Kathy Bussert-Webb 3DbyKathy.com
FOCUS
Assemblage art with found objects & natural pigments
ARTIST STATEMENT
Dr. Kathy explores healing her inner child and walking in harmony with nature. While honoring the child within her and the environment, she makes natural pigments, hand-embroiders, and creates sculptures and tapestries from fabric, found objects, wood, metal, and handmade paper. Her sustainability interests emanate from positive childhood experiences in nature. Kathy felt peace by foraging for berries and mushrooms, making forts in the woods with her sister, and helping with her family’s garden and poultry.
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Kathy's previous art focused on her childhood sexual abuse from an elderly neighbor and her parents’ food-related health issues. Her refugee mother experienced food insecurity, which she projected by having Kathy and her siblings eat (especially meat) until stuffed. Kathy’s past traumas inform her current practice, as she heals from immersion in nature and creating found-object art. Growing up with a polyglot Hungarian mother and teaching literacy methods along the US/Mexico border inform Kathy’s current hybrid practices, such as creating assemblage, including poetry and dialogue, and translanguaging (combining languages, such as Hungarian and English). Kathy also upcycles materials because she hoards and improvises, like her deceased parents. For instance, Kathy incorporated a bathtub train in the woman’s broach for In One Ear. Like a magpie, this interdisciplinary artist incorporates discarded objects to turn junk into art, a metaphor for overcoming trauma.
BIOGRAPHY & CV
Dr. Kathy, a full-time multimedia artist at Equinox Studios, Seattle, received a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in studio art from the University of Texas system (UTRGV) in May 2022. Kathy was a fellow at the Chautauqua School of Visual Arts (Chautauqua, NY), Azule (Hot Springs, NC), Art Farm (Marquette, NE), Elsewhere Studios (Paonia, CO), Joya Art+Ecology (Andalucía, Spain), Homestead National Historical Park (Beatrice, NE), Vermont Studio Center (Johnson, VE), and Mauser EcoHouse (Costa Rica). Kathy has exhibited in several juried and non-juried shows and has initiated socially engaged art experiences. She had pop-up installations at the Children's Museum (Brownsville, TX, 2021) and the International Museum of Art and Science (McAllen, TX, 2022). Her solo shows include an MFA exhibition (Edinburg, TX), the Brownsville Art Hub, the Brownsville Performing Arts Academy, Mi Tierra Vegana Restaurant (McAllen, TX), and Grande Central Bakery (Seattle). She's won awards at juried local, national, and international shows.
​Kathy is an active member of Equinox Studios, Puget Sound Group of Northwest Artists, Women Artist Network, and Inspiration Art Group. She published a photo of her ceramic piece with an accompanying poem and an article about her practice in national, peer-reviewed journals. She published two art reviews and a Jana Harper interview in Glasstire, a Texas art magazine. Kathy holds a Ph.D. in Language Education from Indiana University, Bloomington. She's Professor Emerita in UTRGV’s Bilingual and Literacy Studies Department, a Slemp Endowed Chair of Community Engagement, and a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (Honduras). She walked 500+ miles on two Caminos (Portuguese & El Norte) & received Compostela certificates in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. She is hiking another Spanish Camino soon.
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Abbreviated CV: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mt3oiGxbFqDh2ftPIPUKhPhzgHLm6R3xFzGy0Lt5dls/edit?usp=sharing
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Long CV:
Bussert-Webb long CV 4-9-25.docx - Google Docs​​​​
