By JOHNNY JASZCZUROWSKI, News3 Reporter
MACOMB, Illinois (NEWS3) – Kait Steward is an emerging artist from Carbondale, Illinois who has had her work displayed regionally and nationally.
Steward held an event at the Annex Art Gallery at Western Illinois University and talked about the meaning behind her work.
“Playing with that idea of how can I influence memory through overlapping,” Steward said. “I started thinking about how I can make a moment feel as complex as a memory is, and I have multiple layers. We have very different landscapes stacked on top of each other and trying to use the space. The smaller pieces, the mile marker series, became these little moments of clarity and moments I felt like I was really able to cling to a moment or memory for what it was.”
Steward puts lots of work into each painting. She talked about the process of picking which painting is the right one.
“So for every image you see on the wall, likely ten variations of it that I have on my computer,” she said. “That’s when I pick and decide which one is right or feels right. I make them into super small thumbnails and just stare at them for a second. The one that catches my attention is usually the one that I think has the best color connection of if it’s me, and I really like neon colors. I’m going to go with the one that has neon colors.”
Each of her paintings mean something different to her. There is one painting called “To Feel Small and Human” that stands out to her.
“We did this view at Glacier Park,” she said. “If you’ve never been to Glacier National Park in Montana, it’s just this straight shot through a mountain, and there’s something that happens when you see something so massive and so unmoveable that you just feel small, and it’s very humbling and it’s also so crazy to know that nature does not care.”
