My Statement!

I am Kati Braverman, a 2-D acrylic painter who started her journey by painting portraits of people and animals. I\'ve always employed Pointillism as a main element of my style, having been influenced by Impressionistic painters like Georges Seurat and Vincent van Gogh and painting primarily on canvas. However, I have become more enthralled with incorporating texture using pastes and gels to create a more vintage quality to my work, and the amount of texture I use requires a more stable panel than canvas, so I started painting on plywood and birchwood. Then I began to experiment with metallic paint, gold leaf foil, and very fine glitter, thanks to the influence of Gustav Klimpt's ghost, and collage materials, courtesy of National Geographic and Banksy. I found myself moving away from human and animal portraiture and exploring conceptualization using trees, abstract themes, and music, the latter of which makes perfect sense as I studied music in my youth and am married to a musician who occasionally enjoys "soundtracking" me while I stiple a panel.

The stipling process that I use to create the dots is very satisfying for me; I\'m not what one would describe as a patient person; yet, the stipling is very calming for me and helps me to focus on color, light, value, and detail. I want my paintings to move with the available light, so many of my \'dots\' are very highly texturized, and I often thicken the paint with fine glitter to enhance texture and light-catching ability. Stipling is a very large part of how I paint!

I usually begin a panel with a base of crackle paste, sometimes mixed with paint, to create a vintage, weathered look. Then I plant myself in front of the finished panel and look for shapes an images formed by the cracks created by the crackle paste. Then I use whatever my brain decides I need or feels like using to create the focal point, then building around that focal point to create a story that changes with light and with whoever is viewing my work.

I feel that, since 2017, when I started taking art classes at the Hudgens Center for Art and Learning, I\'ve grown and have expanded my range as an artist, and I credit Elizabeth Stallings, my teacher, for helping me to find my style. Artists need community, and I\'m a part of a small community of artists who continue to meet for open studio time at the Hudgens while Elizabeth takes a summer-long, well-deserved break.