Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kaitlin West. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Kaitlin, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

The most meaningful project I have worked on is my recent solo exhibition Constructed Self. This project was a cumulation of three years of research while I attended the University of North Texas to get my Masters of Fine Arts in sculpture. In this body of work I created life-size forms that blur the line between photography and sculpture while being both stable and on the verge of collapse. My sculptures are a physical manifestation of my struggle with anxiety and depression. Using materials like concrete, rebar, bricks, and other elements of building structures that are so common they often go unnoticed, I reference the components of my own internal psychic framework. My challenge with my mental health remains unseen on the surface, even when in disarray, whereas my sculptures of concrete columns and slabs display visible signs of stress. On the surface of these forms, I transfer photographic images that depict environments that are both comforting and haunting, because these are the places where I have processed and experienced my struggles with mental health.

The materials I use are physically heavy, and their weight is both real and implied. Concrete slabs and columns are vital architectural components; columns support the weight of the building, and slabs create walls that suggest an interior and exterior and indicate a sense of protection from the outside world. The sculptural columns I make show visible signs of stress on their surface, as if they are visualizing the stress endured from supporting the weight of a building. A series of three sculptures, titled Support Structure 1, 2 and 3, display these signs of stress through exposed rebar and chunks of concrete broken off the structure, yet the structure remains stable. The stress on this concrete support structure represents the toll that mental health issues such as anxiety and depression take on my body physically and mentally. At what point does physical stress make a seemingly strong and solid form no longer stable or functional?

As I started to engage in this body of work, I slowly became aware of the physical toll of working with these materials. As I was exhausting my body, making the forms, and chipping them away, I soon realized that I psychologically witnessed a sense of relief. I find the process of creating my work to be both meditative and healing; the repetitive actions of constructing and building structures and transferring photographs create time and space to process my emotions. In addition to making concrete slabs, I also construct walls using handmade bricks. The process of pressing clay into a wooden mold, one brick at a time, is very repetitive from beginning to end. These hand-formed bricks were used to construct Brick Wall, an L-shaped wall that is a visual exploration of creating emotional walls as a form of protection. However, this wall does not function as a source of protection because it is not reinforced by mortar, thereby creating a weak bond and inherently unstable structure, and suggesting its impermanence. In addition, it appears as if a force has broken through the wall, leaving the interior exposed. However, this is not necessarily negative, because I’ve realized that connection with people is vital. During depressive episodes, I create unhealthy emotional walls between myself and the people I love. The only way to break these walls down is the willingness to be open and vulnerable.

The surface of all my sculptures is covered in a photograph applied using a gel image transfer process. The photo creates a façade on the surface of the sculpture. The image transfer process is one way my work reflects the duality within the word façade, referencing architectural façade and behavioral façade. The architectural façade presents a solid front for the building while concealing the internal workings. Façade also references a behavioral front of how people present themselves publicly. The surface of each sculpture functions in some ways as an architectural facade. However, the transfer process and the imperfect surfaces of the concrete forms create a distressed, imperfect image. Depending on the surface I am transferring onto, it dictates how the image is altered. When the image is transferred onto the bricks, each brick comes together to form an image. As an effect of the process of transferring images onto bricks, the transfer is sanded down into the surface of the bricks, creating a smooth, sealed surface. This process differs from transferring onto the concrete slabs and columns, where the skin is falling off, peeling back, revealing pieces of the distressed interior, and creating a sense of vulnerability as the interior becomes exposed.

Tied Between Two Places is an 8-foot slab balanced vertically by utilizing the tension of ratchet straps pulling in opposite directions. The slab divides the space in half, and the viewer is invited to walk under only one side of the sculpture. The scale of the slab is confronting and unavoidable, which is intentional, since I work on a life-size scale, at precisely the size of my body or slightly larger. So, in a way, these sculptures are like self-portraits. My concrete columns become a stand-in for my body and become figurative in their form. Support Structure 3 stands six feet tall and is visually divided in bodily proportions while surrounded by chunks of concrete that have been broken off. The top of the sculpture mimics a human head on the verge of falling off the somewhat stable body.
Tension is another important element of my work, and like weight, it is both real and implied. My sculptures toe the line between stability and destruction by utilizing unsettling installation methods. I use ratchet straps in multiple works to create surprising and disconcerting ways of suspending the forms. In the work Leaning Slab, the façade is trapped on the wall by the tension of the ratchet straps. The slab leans off the wall toward the viewer, allowing the viewer to see behind the façade. Looming Shadow is a concrete slab hung parallel to the floor from ratchet straps, hovering nine feet in the air. An image of urban space masks the surface on the underside of the slab, inviting viewers to step underneath the imposing form. This work is a metaphor for the suppressed fear of losing control of my mental health and the danger of those fears crashing to the surface. That fear is now experienced by viewers, who may feel that the sculpture could come crashing down on them when they walk below it.
The Shadow That Never Leaves You contains two slabs that are masked by the applied image to look like one unit. Two freestanding concrete slabs rely on each other to remain balanced. A chunk of concrete has broken off and fallen to the ground. Because of the sculpture’s proximity to the corner of the gallery, there is barely enough room to walk around it freely, creating a spatial tension between the viewer and the work. The two opposing slabs are physically touching but not connected; they are visually joined by the imagery covering the surface. The photograph wraps around both concrete forms and creates a skin-like covering to display a sense of internalized conflict as the two sides interact. The front side of the work is wrapped in a photograph containing a brightly colored blue sky and a collage of urban buildings. The backside uses darker imagery to suggest a trapped, uneasy feeling; it has a sense of placelessness. All the imagery in this work is from a single geographical location within an urban environment, captured from multiple perspectives. These environments pictured are industrial, urban, empty places where I go to be anonymous and alone in my thoughts. I photograph these places to reclaim control over those moments. Revisiting those memories through these photographs can be both comforting and haunting.

This body of work visualizes invisible thoughts and feelings and the physical and emotional tolls that I have suffered during my struggles with my mental health. The time and physical effort involved in creating this work has brought a lot of healing and growth, and I have learned how to communicate and convey the interior and exterior of my emotional self in visible terms. It has allowed me to release myself from confined emotions and the emotional weight of traumatic memories. Through this process, and the physical labor of creating Constructed Self, I have created a more unified sense of self.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Kaitlin West is an interdisciplinary artist who blurs the line between photography and sculpture while creating stable sculptures on the verge of collapse. Kaitlin constructs damaged concrete columns, slabs, and hand-formed bricks used to create walls inspired by architecture’s support structures to convey my internal psychic framework. The surface of her sculptures is distressed but still depicts photographs from urban space. Kaitlin explores how to communicate and convey the interior and exterior of my emotional self in visible terms while bringing me healing emotionally through the process of creating work. Kaitlin recently graduated from The University of North Texas with her Masters of Fine Arts in Sculpture. She has exhibited work in galleries such as; Craighead Green Gallery in Dallas, Texas; Alexandria Museum of Art in Alexandria, Louisiana; Stephen Smith Gallery in Birmingham, Alabama; 500X Gallery in Dallas, Texas; Greater Denton Arts Council in Denton, Texas; Meadows Gallery in Tyler, Texas; Birmingham Museum of Art in Birmingham, Alabama. Kaitlin has work at the University of Texas at Tyler permanent collection.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding part of being an artist is finding a visual way to communicate my internal thoughts and emotions with other people. Art is a language that does not need to be verbalized. It has a way of communicating in a way that words often fail.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Social media is changing the way people find information; it allows us to contact people from all over the world instantly. While not everybody is in the position to support an artist financially, if you want to support an artist, I think social media can be a great way to do that. It allows us to create a wider community through social media and in person.

Contact Info:

• Website: kaitlinwest.net
• Instagram: @Kaitlin.west.art
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaitlin-west-932116192/

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