Kathy Cornwell
Fairfax Station, VA
Kathy Cornwell's art practice is a happy thruple of monotype printmaking, paper cutting, and collage. Her work revels in the beauty and magic of shapes.
Message
Kathy Cornwell is a printmaker and mixed media collage artist based in Northern Virginia. She has participated in numerous juried group exhibitions and her work has been featured in international art publications including New Visionary, Women United Art Magazine, Suboart Magazine, The Purposeful Mayonnaise, Reverie, and Clover + Bee. She was a finalist for the Women Art United Art Prize in 2024 (collage) and 2023 (printmaking) and her work was shortlisted for the 2022 Contemporary Collage Magazine awards. She is represented in the Washington, DC, region by Broadway Gallery.
Statement
The intention of my art practice is to discover, create, and explore fascinating and unique shapes and joyfully share them with the viewer. In doing so, I encourage the viewer to revel in the beauty and magic of shapes while doing so myself.
My mixed media art invites the viewer to join me on a journey of discovery and serendipity. Ever since childhood I’ve found visual “surprise treats” strongly compelling, from advent calendars to lockets to panoramic Easter eggs. My art practice has evolved to indulge this obsession, and the result is artwork that serves up delightful surprises for me as well as the viewer.
My process involves three techniques that work harmoniously like a happy thruple: monotype printmaking, paper cutting/ripping, and collage. I love to collage onto a monotype and then cut it again, randomly trapping interesting details and mini-shapes into the cut collage piece.
My work aims to balance excitement with calm, indulgence and restraint, motion and rest, introversion and extroversion, stress and recovery—balances we all strive to achieve in modern life. I hope that the viewer, like me, sees something new each time they look at my work.