Meet Katherine Fraser | Fine Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Katherine Fraser and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Katherine, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
Pursuing a life as an artist is all about risk! It’s obviously a financial risk, it’s a hard way to make a living, without a doubt, but it’s also an emotional risk. I firmly believe that it takes courage to make art, to show up in the studio on a regular basis, to face the blank canvas, to confront your doubts, to express vulnerability, and ultimately to put these expressions out in the world to be judged. It’s a huge risk, but very rewarding!

Dogged commitment has been the most important thing that has helped me succeed. A successful artist doesn’t wait for the muse to arrive before going into the studio, the muse comes when you are working. You have to show up every day and just put in the hours. From that place of integrity, good work will emerge. Since I usually put a year and a half of work into a solo show, time management is also very important. People will often say something to me like, oh your show is eight months away, that’s so long from now, and I say, noooooooo! I have to really stay on top of it to make sure that twenty to thirty paintings of equal quality all get done in time.

The way I balance working hard in the studio, and the rest of my life takes place over the course of a year rather than each day or each week. If I have a show coming up I can spend all day, every day in the studio with almost no days off for six months, but then after the show I might take a whole month to travel and totally shift focus and recharge. That balance suits me.

I pursued an art career because I didn’t feel there was any other choice for me. I have always loved art, I have always been making things. When I was in high school I was pretty serious about ballet, and I was a good student, but when I asked myself, what is the thing I can’t live without? Art was the answer. That’s how I decided to go to art school. I’m so grateful that I thought to ask myself that, because it has absolutely turned out to be true. I’ve been a professional artist for twenty years and I have never thought of anything else I could imagine making me as happy. My advice to young people considering going to art school is to only do it if you feel it is pulling you so hard that you couldn’t possibly do anything else. Thomas Mann said, “A writer is someone for whom writing is harder than it is for most people.” If you take your art seriously it is an incredible struggle. My best advice about making a life in art is to be clear about it being the number one priority, and to make compromises accordingly. Live simply, keep your expenses low, and make choices that suit your needs rather than what society or friends and family might expect from you. Put off having a family. Make art your religion and your baby. Hustle like crazy. Don’t have a plan b, and don’t give up!

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I attended a very traditional, academic art school, where I learned to (try) and paint like the old masters, but my work landed somewhere between traditional and conceptual. While I come from a tradition of life-painting, which is painting what you see in front of you, I am not interested in recreating life, I am interested in creating feeling. I think of myself more as a storyteller than a documentarian. I think that people respond to my work because it shows skill, and it’s thought-provoking, but it’s also personal, and emotionally engaging. I’m trying to create paintings where the viewer will walk up and emotionally engage with the character in the painting, and then project their own story onto the image. I use suggestive props and narrative elements, to create images that are intriguingly open-ended. I also use the titles as a way to add even another layer of intrigue. I often have my own story in my mind as I am creating the paintings, but I really want people to be able to see their own. I used to be reluctant to talk about the work because I didn’t want to limit what people would see in it, but over time I learned that the opposite is true, that telling my story gives people permission to make up their own. This communication aspect is probably my favorite part about making art, and I truly feel that the process is incomplete until the paintings can go out into the world and people can relate to them. I feel really lucky to get to spend my time doing something that I find so endlessly interesting and challenging, and that I love so much.

Right now I am working on a body of work that will be more thematically linked than any before. This has been a big challenge for me, and something I’ve always felt my work lacked, so I’m very excited! I hope it will be my strongest show yet. The theme is going to be around parties, celebration, excess, and… cats! Stay tuned 🙂

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My shoutout is to my Mom, Vicki Fraser, who is an amazing creative person, on many levels. I watched her sacrifice art for most of my childhood, but during the times that she carved out to do it I saw the joy that it brought her. She has always been 100% supportive and encouraging of me making whatever sacrifice is necessary to pursue my dream. I am so grateful for her example, and her support.

Website: katherinefraser.com

Instagram: @katherinefraser

Image Credits
the photo of me is by MB Vargas