Radar Redux.com is expanding the traditional concept of journalism, to cover a wide array of Baltimore Arts and Culture.
Baltimore, as is often noted, is a city with one leg bent across the rough Northern industrial and the other splayed out knee deep and muddy, spanning the American South, particularly Appalachia. The recent folk music revival resonates in this city precisely because it never really went away. It is true of the craft movement as well. These days both have the good “fine art” seal of approval from such formal heavy-hitter academic institutions as the Maryland Institute College of Art and UMBC— in the process have at times been dressed up in all manner of the conceptual, attempting to offer a more ironic or cerebral take. This can be an unnecessary weight that pains, trying the viewers patience, as throngs of youngish neo-folks Etsy out all kinds of junk in hopes of making a living while maintaining some street cred. In other words, like with skinny jeans — not all nostalgia looks good on everyone.
It is within this growing and at times complicated folkie – hybrid milieu that Katherine Fahey is making her mark. A self-described loner, she comes off as candid and thoughtful, if a bit shy in person. Her work is rarely ironic or has any trace of troubling overwrought art school conceptualism. Nor is in the least bit trendy. It is evocative, tapping and transmitting the personal in a pure and intense way. It is no surprise she is enamored of Townes Van Zandt, as her visual work seems to be striving for the same qualities that make the late doomed singer-songwriter such an important cultural figure. Spare, at times slightly anguished ghost like arrangements of narrative—embedded with a sense of honest, if nostalgic, ephemera of the heart and soul. There is a lot of what Griel Marcus famously termed “Old Weird America” in her work. But Fahey is no purist; she uses technology liberally and to her advantage, creating prints by, say, combining Photoshop techniques with the traditional formats, such as woodcuts. Having recently considered that ALL new technology may just be getting in her way, when she told me of a recent retreat she had been on, and I saw some of the results, I was intrigued.
In light of her recent work, Ms. Fahey is certainly now one of the premier practitioners of her selected genre in the region. After a brief conversation in person a month or so ago, we scheduled a holiday interview regarding her fall retreat at Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.
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RADAR REDUX: Can you tell us about the recent artist’s retreat you were awarded and attended?
Katherine Fahey: I got an artists residency fellowship at Virginia Center for the Creative Arts for a month. I was there Oct 4 – Nov 4. I asked different artist friend’s opinions about residencies, and a lot of people said they liked VCCA, or heard it was a good one. I just went on the website and applied. I’d heard about residencies and thought it’d be a good way to focus on my work. When you’re there, you don’t have to go to the store or scoop the cat litter. They give you a room, studio, and cook three organic meals a day for you. You just work.
RR: Where exactly is it located, etc.
KF: VCCA is in Amherst, Virginia. It’s in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. They have about two-dozen writers, composers, and visual artists there at a time. People go for different lengths of time so there are always new people cycling in and out.
RR: Who founded the retreat and why?
KF: VCCA was started in 1971 in the Charlottesville area by two writers Elizabeth Coles Langhorne and Nancy Hale. In 1977, Sweet Briar College agreed to lease them the buildings on the grounds where they still are today.
Sheila Pleasants, Director of Artists’ Services, has this to say about it’s beginnings; “The VCCA was started by two women, Elizabeth Coles Langhorne and Nancy Hale, who had been to the MacDowell Colony and who felt that offering the artists’ community experience to the best writers, visual artists and composers was the best way to serve the arts.”
RR: How did it go?
KF: I work alone a lot since my studio is in my home. I thought having other creative people around me’d inspire me. We all got together at mealtime. Usually two nights a week there would be open studios, readings, or someone would play music. It was motivating to see how productive people were and the great work they were doing. The whole time I was there I kept thinking, “How can I make my life more like this?” How can I have a creative community but be out in nature? How can I simplify my life so I feel less scattered and focus more to my work?
I was interested in this residency especially since I would be able to get out of the city for a while. I took a lot of walks in the woods. One day I removed a stag from a large paper cut piece I was working on. Then went for a walk. I saw a huge stag in the woods. It was pretty amazing. When it saw me it started bounding away into the forest jumping at least five feet in the air. It looked so strong. It felt like I’d set it free.
RR: Well, your work already has this sort of folkie meets shamanism thing going on, and I say that as a compliment. It is a combination which I find interesting and connected. It sounds like the solitude mixed with the communal situation brought that out even more. In what ways did it change the work you are currently doing or how you are living?
KF: I am from Virginia. My brother and I spent a lot of time in the woods growing up. It felt familiar. I thought of things I hadn’t thought of in a long time. It’s funny because I use a lot of nature imagery in my work generally, but the longer I was away, the more Baltimore became the subject of my work. Then near the end of the residency I started working a large paper cut of a bear. I did take a lot of photos on my walks there that will probably appear in my work sooner or later.
Since returning, I am spending less time on the computer in general and drawing more. I am using some of the imagery I collected while I was there. I exercise every day now. I’m going to more art openings and am thinking about getting a studio outside my house. I met a lot of great people who I’d love to see again. I have been in touch with an artist and an author/songwriter. I saw one of them this week in New York.
RR: I always wonder why artists are awarded these retreats. It is a romantic notion I guess. But, don’t you think everyone – not just artists, would benefit from yearly quiet retreats. You know, not talk for the whole time and have no lights. Or am I just being reactionary to all the tech and media we are barraged with?
KF: That’s an interesting idea. I’m always surprised how relieved I am when my cell phone is broken or I can’t get on the Internet for a while. It gives me perspective to get away from my every day life. The residency was even better than a vacation because I had a lot of time for myself to work and think. I do wish everyone could go. I hope to do it again.
RR: The most recent work you have completed looks like a direct result of the retreat after your return. Walks in the woods, the bear, animals. It looks less ambiguous and more direct emotionally. Would you agree?
KF: It’s good to hear you think my recent work feels more direct emotionally. Different mediums allow me to express myself in different ways. Growing up in Virginia I remember this old woman who would come around to fairs every fall and cut paper silhouettes by hand. I was so captivated watching her. I’ve been getting more and more into working with cut paper this past year.
RR: You are involved in the local folk and neo-country music scene, including playing guitar and performing yourself. How does this influence your visual work?
KF: My involvement playing music and making artwork for others’ music is inspiring for me. I get excited about story telling in songs. I draw a lot of imagery from them.
RR: Do you make a distinction between the images you create for posters to promote musicians and the work you create for yourself? In other words do you make a distinction between “fine” and “commercial” in your own art?
KF: Usually I make work specifically for each person’s music. I try to get across the feel and the identity of each band. I am not a graphic designer so the work I do for bands sometimes does blur the lines between art and design.
RR: I once asked you why your work often had a sense of the nostalgic, what that meant really, and you said you said you didn’t know but would think about it. Here on the first day of 2011, have you thought any more about the “essence” of your work being nostalgic? If so what does that mean to you.
KF: I have given this some thought. My work has always had a nostalgic feel. Even when I work with modern materials it has a feeling of the past. I grew up a little in another time. My folks were much older than all my friends’ parents. I watched a lot of old movies and listened to old music. The only saw bands I saw were in church or at fairs (which was usually country or bluegrass).
I have had a lot of conversations with people about this topic. Some people say they are looking for something more meaningful or genuine, some roots, or for some it’s a rebellion against our technological age. People long for a time when they could understand how things worked or had more of a sense of community and belonging. I definitely feel a resonance with old songs and craft …but why I’m not sure. Maybe it feels more real to me. Maybe I’m just being myself.
Katherine Fahey
http://www.katherinefahey.com/
Virginia Center for the Creative Arts
154 San Angelo Drive Amherst, VA. 24521
434-946-7236 • vcca@vcca.com
What a pleasure to see your work, so reflective of our beautiful Virginia countryside. Thanks, Kathy, for helping us all appreciate the magic that a residency month can bring: solitude and comraderie. Good combo.
January 5, 2011 4:07 pmTake care and hurry back to VCCA, Suny