About Me

I am a British Canadian autistic multimedia artist. Originally from Sudbury, Ontario I now live and work in the North East of England.

 

My journey with visual art began when I was a teenager when I was handed a film camera and given access to a dark room in high school. While I continued to take photos over the next 20 years of my life I only made a real connection with the concept of being a professional artist 4 years ago when I opened up my practice to different methods. This came about after the revelation of my autism diagnosis, which completely changed how I perceived myself and therefore how I saw my art.

 

I first began creating jewellery to explore my sensory needs and doodling with ink and paper to get a window into my own head. As I’ve developed my practice I’ve become fascinated with the idea of what we as a society value and what we see as waste. In all forms of my art I am now examining how we can return value to things that society has thrown away, be that physical things or people. I combine bits of wood, leaves and natural “garbage” with technological scrap to create one of a kind jewellery. These unique pieces display the beauty and equality of the two sides of human nature. My work on ink and paper and my paintings on wooden board inspect society's tendency to disregard the views and perspectives that do not match the collective and how autistic insight into the world is an untapped resource. 

 

I am currently developing all aspects of my art including poetry, photography, collage, paintings, doodling, sculpture and jewellery at my home studio in Newcastle Upon Tyne. I am an associate member of the NewBridge Project and have attended poetry workshops with Creative Future and New Writing North.

 

If you would like to cooperate with me on a project please email me at katehilraven@gmail.com