Katharine DeLamater’s handmade paper works are inspired by unconventional mending and preservation techniques, specifically those of the quilter’s of Gee’s Bend, Alabama and the boro textiles of Japan. Her interest in memory and object synthesize with the unsymmetrical, lively compositions of both of these traditions. DeLamater’s drawings and print works often begin with a gridded structure, another element borrowed from quilt tradition. The handmade paper creates a skin-like, quasi preservation method.
DeLamater works to unpack her complex relation to her family history through examination of objects. Her color palette is drawn from her own family belongings: depression glass, Pennsylvania Dutch craft, and her great grandmother's kitchen in eastern Pennsylvania, an area known for its coal production and railroad work. Rather than a nostalgic approach to these items, she works to reclaim these objects and create unconventional pairings as ‘pseudo’ objects, in the form of paper quilts and map drawings.
DeLamater holds a BA in Studio Arts from Mount Holyoke College, where she studied with Tatiana Ginsberg and Rie Hachiyanagi.
