We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kathi Flood. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kathi below.
Kathi , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
My mission to serve as a ‘guerrilla sociologist’ implies that I can function both inside and outside of Los Angeles culture. Although I’d be the first one in line to buy a trendy pet rock and get sucked into that flurry of sentimentality, I am also an analytical cynic, getting headaches from lots of eyerolling. Three particularly meaningful projects that I have tackled include a two room installation at Barnsdall Municipal Galleries called TALK HEAVY TO ME, a commission that describes the weird underpinnings of Woodland Hills, and a 25 panel mural done by myself and my students in the Admin Building at Taft High School. TALK HEAVY TO ME portrays my alter ego, Blotista Paradisimo, as she confronts her demons and delights in a Victorian Therapy Center. The Woodland Hills commission reflects the enthusiasm of producer Rolin Jones, and tells bombastic, historical, and freaky tales of this seemingly quiet community. The Administration Murals at Taft High School took 25 years to complete, including hundreds of students from diverse ‘hoods in Los Angeles. For me, ‘meaningful’ is instructive — what patterns and conclusions can I draw about human nature in Los Angeles?
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My art in the ’60s began when I lived in Germany for a year during the Vietnam War, married to a drafted soldier. I was isolated and walked around the village until I found a lovely art store. So I holed up and started writing and illustrating children’s books, developed a style and point of view, and turned to etching soon thereafter. My work has always been heavily and specifically narrative — writing and drawing enabled me to serve up stories filled with dry humor and a muted palette. I learned much from my decade in the Seattle area at the University of Washington in the Printmaking Dept. When I returned to L.A. in the early ’80s, my sweet romantic lullaby stories from the Northwest blasted wide open, got covered in blood and smog, and became the goofy, unbalanced, exaggerated, silly, irreverent tales that I crank out today. What am I proud of? Since that time, I have taught art at secondary and university levels, written a creative writing book, performed spoken word with a solo CD, and have been in 350 exhibitions, along with lots of community projects. Being an artist in L.A. is wonderful because I’m surrounded by a robust, energetic, focused community of visual storytellers.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
Through my artmaking, teaching, and lifestyle, I want to sway people, especially young people, to pursue their individualism, quirkiness, and passions in a huge overthrow of corporate conformity. I want to inspire them to come to their own conclusions, to risk creatively and trust themselves. One side effect of emerging technology is that we can choose to hide inside their statistics and become invisible. One wall-hanging in my Talk Heavy To Me Installation advises the viewer to “Make some noise! Show them you’ve visited this planet!” My mission, as an artist and teacher, is to reignite the individualism that we used to enjoy decades ago. A lot of my work is self-therapeutic and I hope that viewers will relate. For example, I used to get upset when cars would swerve around our canyon road loudly, waking us up. Then I did a piece called Bottleneck that infused humor into the situation through exaggeration and finger-pointing to our hussly-hassly commuter hours. From then on, after expressing my frustration, I was able to turn an irritating situation into a parody of city traffic. I have a hearty sprinkling of kumbaya-we’re-all-in-this-together in my work. It feels good to counteract the hundreds of hate groups in this country by taking an every-man stance.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
Making art gives me purpose and includes me in a zillion dialogues as we opinionate about the content of the work. Looking at other artists’ work tells me more about them than a verbal conversation ever could. When I use sociology and psychology to consider contemporary issues such as surveillance, telemarketers, AI, the complexity of modern life, relationships and communication, consumerism and excessive materialism, fashion, the evolution of media presentations, politics, the quality of our medical care, psychotherapy, the development of language, school cultures and art marketing, people can easily react because they are experiencing all of this. I love to heroize the sweaty, vulnerable, fumbling, stuttering, impulsive aspects of humanity. I just get so happy when I see a fresh, well-considered conclusion that contributes to a person’s contentment in this world.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.kathiflood.com
- Instagram: kathiflood
- Facebook: Kathi Flood