an introduction
introduction to practicekathy rast is a mixed method and material textile artist and craftswoman who primarily weaves with animal and plant fibres. kathy has scaffolded her skill and scope of practice through self-directed learning and working with grassroots textile artists and craftspersons.
“for the longest time i kept my practice private as it was a place that was only mine.
as i lean into my professional practice i continue to define and refine the pieces of me that i can weave into each woven work all the while enjoying the joy of learning and protecting the pieces that are only for me.
as each piece [of me] is deliberately shared means that those purposefully pieces can be all the more present within each woven work to support an exploration of one’s own private processing experience.”
scope of practicein her practice, kathy rast is equally fixated and fascinated with everyday private processing in, and out of, the collective awareness.
in particular, kathy works to build forms that can speak loud enough to be heard without a word, whereas some works are better for the words woven within reach.
all the while, each woven work is constructed to be a conduit to connect and explore the conscious and unconscious wisdom within oneself.
“as a sea’s shell conveys the whispering waves caught in that moment of conception, so too is each work woven with a sense of soundness in its structure where the push and pull of one’s own private processing in progress can be felt. ”
theme of workswhile her practice and works organically grow with her, kathy rast has a long standing love with the circling conversations of sense of self, health, and being a part of a collective.
a reoccurring theme directly drawn from kathy’s values is the awareness of one’s perceived and real sense of agency and autonomy as framed and focused through one’s own language.
“while my words are often considered ones of whimsy and wandering, they are far far from it.
in the past i have used the common language of being obvious and direct only to be seen as tackling topics too big, too hard, too complex.
over the years, i repeatedly realised that these topics could be reached and could be explored in deeper depths when the conversations were conversed in the structured space surrounding a woven work.”