Katy Mixon

My paintings are inquiries into the surface of things – namely color and texture – for their power to emote and conceal.

My studio process begins with oil on panel paintings that I build in successive layers of impasto. Once dry, I carve into the painted surfaces with wood carving tools. The harvested chips of paint are used to start new works, seeds to germinate new paintings. The perforated panels act as points of punctuation within a sequence of metamorphic studio rituals. Leftover wooden supports become raw material for new constructions, and I embroider my used hand rags into patterns modeled after scrap fabric quilting. As the graft from one painting morphs into the next, my studio is a body in the act of becoming, both decaying and procreating. Like a process of tillage, my paintings grow to reveal crops of color, pattern, and form.