KATHY CORNWELL
Location:
Fairfax Station, VA, USA
ARTIST BIO
Kathy Cornwell is a printmaker and mixed media collage artist based in Virginia, USA. She creates collages with her prints using both machine cutting and hand ripping.
An enthusiastic daily hiker and world traveler, Cornwell has a strong attraction to the natural materials and shapes that she discovers throughout her hikes, travels, and daily life.
Self-taught in midlife, Kathy Cornwell entered the art world running in 2022. She has since participated in eighteen juried group exhibitions and been featured in art publications including New Visionary, Women United Art Magazine, Suboart Magazine, The Purposeful Mayonnaise, Reverie, and Clover + Bee. She was a finalist for the Women Art United Art Prize in 2024 (collage) and 2023 (printmaking) and her work was shortlisted for the 2022 Contemporary Collage Magazine awards. Cornwell participated in a juried artist residency in 2024 at Wildacres Retreat. She is represented in the Washington, DC, region by Broadway Gallery.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Ever since childhood I’ve found visual “surprise treats” strongly compelling, from advent calendars to lockets to panoramic Easter eggs. My art practice indulges this obsession, and the result is artwork that serves up delightful surprises for me as well as the viewer.
My process involves three techniques that work harmoniously like a happy thruple: monotype printmaking, paper cutting/ripping, and collage. I love to collage onto a monotype and then cut it again, randomly trapping interesting details and mini-shapes into the cut collage piece.
My work aims to balance excitement with calm, indulgence and restraint, motion and rest, introversion and extroversion, stress and recovery—balances we all strive to achieve in modern life. I hope that the viewer, like me, sees something new each time they look at my work.
