Kathy Clem

I am a multidisciplinary artist.

For 40 years, I have worked in many mediums, including painting, digital painting, photography, collage, sculpture, and video.

From 1971 to 1979, I was employed by Eastman Kodak and went to night school. In 1977, I received my BS in Chemistry and transferred to the Research Labs. In 1979, I decided to leave Kodak and return to school to study art. I have a BS in Chemistry (1977) and an MFA in painting (1988) from Rochester Institute of Technology.

I started exhibiting my work in many places: Rochester Museum and Science Center, Genesee Center for the Arts, Pyramid Art Center, The Multimedia Gallery in NYC, The Shirley Fitterman Gallery NYC, and Artist Space NYC.

In 2012, I had the opportunity to expand my studio to the room next door at the Anderson Arts Building, Rochester, NY. This room was first going to be a storage area. After cleaning it, I saw the potential of having my experimental gallery. I hired contractors to create new walls and paint the room, and it became my art gallery. Having my studio and gallery next to each other allows me to play, make any artwork I want, and exhibit my Multimedia installations.

My life’s theme is an alphabet of 20 letters based on “the essential amino acids our body utilizes to make proteins” (McCoy et al.)[1]. “Dr. Margaret Oakley Dayhoff assigned the single letters in this Alphabet” (Balwin and Lapointe)[2].

I developed my first version of this alphabet in 1990 with a fractal program and my Amiga Computer. Please see Archives: Morphic Mind Fields and A Future Language. In 2005, I created a (16 x 7) foot acrylic painting called Memories, which represented the birth of new versions of my Alphabet. Since then, I have completed and exhibited the Alphabet letters: A is for Art, F is for Fantasy, M is for Mother, P is for Places, G is for Gourmet, W is for Word Painting, and K is for Kathy’s gardens. Most of my installations have a movie or animation that is shown at the same time and is related to a particular theme.

When my Alphabet is complete, it will be my autobiography.