Passion Flower
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by Kathleen Cammarata

I create drawings and mixed mediums on paper that explores the beauty and complexity of the human form. This kind of art, the depiction of the body, can never be neutral like the drawing of a chair.

The practice of drawing from a nude model did not develop until the fifteenth century in Renaissance Florence. It coincided with the availability of cheap paper manufactured for the newly invented printing press. This paper allowed artists to make exploratory drawings. The sketchbook was a byproduct of this period.

Beauty of Symmetry 1
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What ensued in painting was a routine exploitation of the female body as a signifier of erotic desire. In the time of the European nude the painters, spectators and collectors were men. The "Venus of Urbino" by Titian and "Olympia" by Manet are two examples of a large number of works.

Portraits Gloria
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In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries artists emerged, many of whom were women, who depicted all aspects of the body. Their drawings and paintings acknowledge the body's physicality. Contemporary works express feelings, pain, and disease. Two known artists in this category are Louise Bourgeois and Marlene Dumas. And an extraordinary example of this genre is Frida Kahlo. I create work in this category.

Beauty of Symmetry 4
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In my drawings the body reveals interior thoughts and experiences. Figures have an attitude. Hands gesture with feeling. Faces are absent or in shadow rather than having a flirtatious look in the eyes or on the lips. The figure is never laying down on the couch. The figure is now a body. The drawings are a testimony to the human condition.

Beauty of Connections
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Kathleen Cammarata has been drawing and painting for 40 years. She taught drawing, painting and printmaking in two museums. She was the Printmaking Professor at UMass Lowell. She has won over two dozen awards and grants. She has had 24 solo shows including the Belles Artes. She will be having a solo exhibition at the Museo de Arte de Queretaro in February of 2025. She is in collections in the USA, Canada, and Mexico.

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