Kate Protage

Continuing with my obsession with perception and phenomenology, this post is about the art of Kate Protage, who seems to have studied architecture or urbanism, she seems to perceive the world as an architect does, feeling moments in space-time. This is very apparent partly because she works from blown up photographs that she takes on her travels, she blows them up to ten times its original size and extracts a detail from it. She remembers how a city feels and works, and tries to translate these feeling and perceptual moments into oils on canvas.

This is the kind of work that, if I had an office, I would hang it in the lobby.

Artist's Statement
"I have a love/hate relationship with the cities in which I’ve lived. Everywhere I look, evidence of planning and structure exists simultaneously with chaos and unpredictability. Depending on the time of day, there are two worlds that exist in the same physical space: streets that appear gritty, dirty and depressing by day turn into an environment infused with a strange kind of lush, dark beauty and romance at night. Taking it all in can be both stressful and exciting, and I feel compelled to capture these moments and remember them.

What interests me most is the junction between sensation and fact—the way different objects come together, a combination of colors, lines and geometric shapes working together in a lyrical fashion to form intensely vivid, sometimes quite abstracted compositions. The origin of individual shapes becomes unimportant as color and texture take over, and different emotions emerge.

My paintings are the beginning of a story—a space that is somewhat recognizable and familiar, but leaves room for the story of the viewer’s choosing. Whether it feels magical and beautiful, or oppressive and ominous, that’s up to the viewer; but the plan is to take people to another place, one that’s part memory and part imagination, and provide them with a momentary escape.

I seek visual harmony, order and polish—in a tumultuous world, these are the things that keep me balanced, and they are the tools for my escape. I choose to pursue beauty."

Source:
Kate Protage Studio