Catherine Mackey

Artist Statement

Visual urban archeology - I document the effects of the interaction of people with their built environment. Old and abandoned industrial buildings interest me. Their utilitarian architectural style is honest and refreshingly devoid of the decorative trickery of residential and commercial structures. Their story is told not with stick-on accessories but by the scars of past retrofits and the accumulation of paint, sign writing, posters and graffiti. The beauty which results from these layers of history is inadvertent and often surprising. This visual simplicity extends to the smaller scale artifacts of the urban environment: fire hydrants, hand-painted signs, public phones, sliding hooks outside a commercial laundry, and bicycles – all of these have featured in my work. My paintings are often structural assemblages of different wooden panels with many layers of collage and paint.  This patchwork multi-panel technique reflects the visual fragmentation and rhythm of the city around me.