Catherine Altice - Artist's Statement

I find myself swimming around in a deep undercurrent of emotions: subconscious worlds break through the vain outer surface in visceral, unapologetic misshapen forms, brazen drips and vibrant stains, all alluding to bones and entrails. The work is rooted in raw fecundity. Organic images pour forth and float in small puddles and pools on my tarp-covered studio floor where they are squeezed, pressed, absorbed and repelled on top of or into the papers and fabrics. The paint, ink and dyes naturally ooze and seep into the surface creating “stains”. Deep below our epidermal layers exists a flourishing world of fluids, organs, muscle, mucous, bones and blood. This is where my sensual beauty resides. It’s not pretty nor is it sentimental work. I find the poured stains in my work be as much about ugly mishaps as they are about the “happy accidents” in life.

Hand-stitching and embroidered threads serve as sincere tender, caring gestures, which are handled in a somewhat awkward, absurd and even humorous manner. It’s my loving attempt to embrace, heal, care for, celebrate and elevate those precious emotions attached to bodily organs that, while not so outwardly pretty or socially acceptable for public viewing, are truly things of beauty (take for example: lungs, intestines, arteries, bones, sex organs, sinuses, gums, and everything else from head to toenails). My work is picking up, stitching, seaming, basting, binding, cutting, tearing apart, hemming, mending, pouring, staining, and absorbing little pieces of my subconscious dream world. As if unveiled from the inside out, remnants of desire, longing, loss, disappointment, destruction, convalescence, and restoration comprise these complex layers of fabric and paper.

The final product is, ostensibly, sensual but so is the process of creating my work. It always evolves from the floor up. I find myself in an oddly choreographed Tango. I move my work around and my work moves me around the studio floor, constantly checking each other out to see who will take the lead. I find myself floating and dipping into intangible moments when sacred and profane worlds collide. It’s a repulsive and alluring dance of sex, birth, death and all the juicy stuff in-between. I tend go on autopilot in the studio and instinctively hone in on textures, colors, space and movement. My work revels and wallows in the liquidity and porosity of life. Fluidity and decay continue to draw me in for a closer look. My stains and stitches go hand-in-hand together, reminding me to “soak it all in.”