Katha Rossein
I have spent my life creating safe spaces for patients to reveal themselves...In turn, painting has given me that safe space to reveal myself
The body is my medium-I see/feel/know the body as something that gives me inspiration. As a physician and artist it is the language with which I am most comfortable. Studying Fine Arts at NYU during the late 1960's was a time fraught with political movements both from the anti war movement to civil rights to the women's movement and my training as both a painter and printmaker quickly combined using figurative expression to speak to the politics of the times.
I then went on to complete my medical degree at New York Medical College and for forty years I cared for and nurtured others to achieve their body’s best. The concentration in my artwork shifted from political to personal, from individual to universal - the new conversation embraced the hard questions of loss, turbulence and suffering as well as triumphs and change. Painting the figure had evolved from a deeper appreciation of the hidden, the emerging and finally the spoken sensuality of all bodies. Medicine and art continue for me to be intimately connected as the body speaks sometimes directly and sometimes-through innuendo but always revealing an inner joy. Ironically the politics of the current times are once again calling to me and I find my art trying to grapple once again with racism, feminism, global climate change and a worldwide health and human crisis. My art continues to be my visceral voice- the organic expression of all that compels me.
Katha, your lifelong dialogue between medicine and art suggests a profound understanding of the body as both subject and medium. How has your experience as a physician informed not only the anatomical but also the emotional and political dimensions of your figurative work, especially as you navigate between the clinical gaze and the artist’s empathic eye?
As a physician my role was to listen to the many parts of the problems facing an individual and then discover that which could make that person more whole or well. So often it was the emotions or situational strife contributing to the illness impacting their physical health leading to the themes of my work. It was this unraveling of the onion like layers of a person’s being both anatomical and emotional that has contributed to my visual abstraction and representation of the figure. Certain abstract symbolic images are usually present; the spine as a symbol of the central strength and core from which everything is suspended and the circle be it the representation of the breast as the symbol of sexuality as well as nurturing and of course the circle of life itself.
Throughout your career, your art has shifted from overt political commentary to deeply personal explorations, only to be drawn back again into the urgent socio-political discourses of our times. How do you reconcile or perhaps deliberately blur the boundaries between personal narrative and collective activism in your recent works addressing racism, feminism, and global crises?
Throughout my career my art has shifted from the personal to political to universal as inevitably every person is caught in the mire of world crisis today. My collage mixed media pieces allow me to use the printed word as found in our ever present digital space to address the reality of our world in conflict through war, oppression and literal heat and fire. But figurative expression is ever more critical because the earth will continue to live on in spite of us but the question is whether humans can resolve their own conundrum.
The tension between abstraction and figuration in your compositions seems to invite viewers into an ambiguous space where bodies emerge, dissolve, or assert themselves. Could you speak to how this deliberate play with visibility and erasure serves as a metaphor for both human vulnerability and resilience in your artistic practice?
The tension between abstraction and figuration in my compositions where bodies emerge,dissolve and then assert themselves are in fact a metaphor for vulnerability and resilience. As I live both in Mexico and Colorado and choose to travel as well I witness the universality and commonality of these human connections and my newer works are a tribute to uniqueness yet sameness of people, countries and nature. I chose to blur the images at times or present only parts of bodies because truly once you have traveled extensively the blurring of the differences in cultures become that ambiguous space where everything is the same. In reality the parts can be reconstructed to create a new and more equal whole.
Your description of art as a 'visceral voice' suggests a language beyond verbal articulation. In an era saturated with digital images and rapid-fire communication, how do you see the role of the painted body as both form and medium in restoring a sense of contemplative engagement or corporeal truth for contemporary audiences?
In this era of digital saturation and rapid fire communication we are each overloaded with information. I have been so lucky to have found a reprieve from this in Mexico by studying Yoga with a remarkable woman who is teaching me the contemplative calm of breathing and movement. It is a stillness I equate with appreciating a piece of art where for a moment the visceral voice of the artist calls to the observer to simply react.
Reflecting on your artistic formation during the politically charged atmosphere of the 1960s, what parallels or dissonances do you observe between the visual language of protest then and now? Has your approach to representing resistance or societal critique evolved alongside the changing landscape of global activism?
Probably the only difference I see between the visual language of protest over the expanse of my life is the immediate and universal access to information at this point in time. Unfortunately the language and causes have not changed and if anything sadly we are constantly revisiting the same themes. For me this was very personal as expressed in my recent painting Sister,Sister. I was in art school when Roe v Wade was passed and I produced silk screened posters celebrating this new right of health access and abortion rights for women. How ironic that I tore up those posters to incorporate into my current collage denouncing the revoking of that law. It is this layering of multiple art pieces and female figures that created this work. It is with profound sadness that my autobiographical work reflects the regressive state of the world.
Your works often embody a ‘contemplative tranquility become fraught,’ as one critic put it. How do you negotiate this duality of serenity and unrest within your process? Do you see it as a reflection of your inner state, a conscious compositional strategy, or an inevitable outcome of grappling with the complexities of the human condition?
The duality of serenity and unrest is a reflection of what it means to be human; to live life to its fullest yet be pulled back by our turbulent times. I often say that painting has given me a safe space to reveal myself and rather than it be a conscious strategy it is an inevitable outcome of grappling with the complexities of the human condition.
In Letting Go and similar works, your brushwork appears almost self-effacing, as though resisting the permanence of representation itself. How intentional is this visual erosion or wearing down of the surface? Does it reflect a philosophical stance on impermanence, or perhaps a challenge to the canon of figurative art?
My technique is a purposeful layering and then erasure or when doing mixed media covering up and then simultaneously exposing. I paint and then I blur and then I redefine. It is not only a physical stance on impermanence but a reflection of years of clinical experience of unraveling the unknown and the disguised or hidden.
As both an artist and physician, you have witnessed the body's capacity for both suffering and transcendence. How do you translate these polarities into visual form, and do you believe that art, like medicine, holds the power to heal not just individuals but fractured social or cultural narratives?
I do not believe that art has the power to heal individuals nor our fractured social and cultural narratives. Art like life is a mere struggle to make sense of the world we live in. Art however can be a powerful voice to express relevant attitudes and acrylic for connection as well as just a source of joy for people to embrace as a counter balance and mechanism to process turmoil.
Looking ahead, in a world increasingly marked by crisis and fragmentation, what do you see as the evolving responsibility of the contemporary artist? How do you envision your own practice continuing to serve as both a personal refuge and a public provocation in the years to come?
I see art activism as an essential personal process for digesting crisis and fragmentation but it is also an important responsibility as a world citizen to try and reach other people. I don’t believe in isolation but rather connection. I realize that people need personal refuge from the tumult of our world as well as something uplifting for the soul so my latest focus on exploring the human form takes its inspiration from sculpture and nature I have experienced throughout the world . It is giving my work a new dimension and a chance to celebrate rather than mourn the human condition.