Kathy Bussert-Webb 3DbyKathy.com
FOCUS
Assemblage with found objects & natural pigments
ARTIST STATEMENT
I explore healing my inner child and walking in harmony with nature. While honoring the child within me and the environment, I make natural pigments, hand-embroider, and create sculptures and tapestries from fabric, found objects, wood, metal, handmade paper, and other eco-friendly materials. My sustainability interests emanate from positive childhood experiences in nature. I felt peace by foraging for berries and mushrooms, making forts in the woods with my sister, and helping with my family’s garden and poultry.
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My previous art focused on my childhood sexual abuse from an elderly neighbor and my parents’ food-related health issues. My refugee mother experienced food insecurity, which she projected by having my siblings and me eat (especially meat) until stuffed. My traumas influence my practice, as I heal 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 informed my hybrid practices, such as creating assemblage, including poetry and dialogue, and translanguaging (combining languages, such as Hungarian and English). I also upcycle materials because I hoard and improvise, like my deceased parents. For instance, I incorporated a bathtub drain in the woman’s broach for In One Ear. Like a magpie, I incorporate 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 will complete an artist residency in Victoria, Canada, in March. She has initiated socially engaged art experiences and has 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, Inspiration Art Group, and two Telephone communities (Telephone International and Telephone Vermont Studio Center 2024). 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 three Caminos (Portuguese, Northern, and the English) and received Compostela certificates in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Hiking and walking provide found objects and inspire her practice, while Kathy's professorial experiences inform her research of materials and techniques.
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Abbreviated: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WnuX0Et19m12PU9IFoMbg0d2M08fSmwqZKb_x-H2Gnw/edit?usp=sharing​​​
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​​​Long CV:
Bussert-Webb long CV 4-9-25.docx - Google Docs​​​​
