1000 Words is a podcast that paints a picture about the creative process. This is a lens to focus on the unique perspective of a specific artist. Hopefully drawing insight into inspiration as we brush up on how imagination provides a groundwork for artistic exploration. We continue that journey today with Kate Tillman-Craig! Kate Tillman-Craig was raised in Bremen and studied art at Ball State University, graduating with a BFA in Photography. Tillman-Craig went on to Chicago where she worked in her uncle's photography studio, along with the required by all young artist- waitressing at a restaurant. After school she was a little burnt out from making art, so she wasn't making much work but was always dabbling in something creative. Tillman-Craig wasn't sure how to justify making work, submitting , and paying to submit work to shows, with no return, and very little space to store it! Eventually she saw on an artist submission website that they were accepting submissions to an art fair in her neighborhood. She really had never witnessed an art fair outside of Leeper Park in South Bend. Her mom took her there almost every year that she could remember when she was young, but she never really connected that these artist were not all local. Being accepted to the Glenwood Art Festival in Rogers Park opened the door she had been looking for. That show was a learning experience, to say the least. She sold one print. But, found an outlet to sell work that she wanted to make. She also found that this art show thing was real. People were out there selling art, like as a job, for money. She wanted in! "You travel to different cities, see many of the same faces, make some great friends, sell the work you want to make. It's been some great fun, A LOT of work, but exceedingly satisfying. It sounds fun, but it's not for the faint of heart." Tillman-Craig's work has changed substantially since then, she has refined lots of points of the work she sells, the presentation of the work, and the shows she attends. However, the base of the techniques she uses are very similar from how she started. All of her images are film based, some color, but mostly black and white. She is a big fan of creating texture in an image, either through material, or manipulation of the image itself. She has a body of nudes that are all made of cut apart, medium format negatives that she glues back together onto plexiglass, and hand manipulates, either with sandpaper, or other mark making techniques. From there, she scans and prints them. This is a technique that she started using at Ball State, and further refined in Chicago while making new work for shows. They have a very obscure painterly quality to them, which she really loves! Her more recent work also had a start at Ball State, while studying in an alternative process photography class. This class experimented with several different types of printing processes, Van Dyke, Cyanotype, and the one she still uses - liquid emulsion. Liquid emulsion is essentially the material that is on black and white photo paper that makes it light sensitive. So, she gets it in a gelatin form, melts it and uses it on sheet metal. It's a pretty labor intensive process, but it gives her the look she is going for. Tillman-Craig has always been a fan of old photographs, antiques, creepy, eerie.... everything. So these images she make, they aren't for everyone, but she get a lot of props from photo enthusiasts, other artists, and collectors looking for something new and different. It's been a real honor having her work appreciated by the public and to feel like she made some sort of an impact on people that enjoy art.
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