Kathryn Clark Biography

"For me, a good painting is more than a description of a place or object.  It's about how the weather feels to me, the color of the light as it changes the shadows, reflections on water: the human response to nature.  It's also about the rhythm and tension of the abstract composition within the frame, the play of lights and darks, and the calligraphic brush strokes on canvas or handmade paper.  There's nothing more exciting than the blank canvas and the ever changing scene in front of it.  What will emerge on that surface today?"

Kathryn Clark was born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana and received BFA and MFA degrees in fine art.  In 1971, she and her husband founded Twinrocker Handmade Paper and were central to the revival of handmade paper in America.  Twinrocker is a leader in its field world wide and is respected for making the highest quality artist papers.

Most of her professional life was involved with developing and making archival, cotton rag artist papers and papers for custom, limited edition books.  She did find some time to paint, but didn't focus on that until recently when she handed the Twinrocker reins to her successor. 

During her career, Kathryn received research grants to develop archival handmade papers from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Lilly Endowment.  In 1980, she and her husband received an Outstanding Alumni Award from Wayne State University, and in 1990 a documentary movie about her and her husband's life, titled "The Mark of the Maker", was nominated for an Academy Award under documentary short.  She has given hundreds of lectures and workshops and has served on several Indiana Arts Commission Advisory Boards.  In 2008, she and her husband, Howard, reveived the John Corey Arts Leadership Award.

In the 1970's and 80's, Kathryn developed many innovative techniques for using color paper pulps to create finished art works.  She exhibited those works in galleries and invitational exhibitions throughout  the United States, Great Britain, Japan, including the Smithsonian, Exhibits USA, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Leopold-Hoesch Museum in West Germany, the American Craft Museum, a U.S. State Dept. traveling exhibition, etc.  In addition, her art work has been discussed and represented in sixty-four books, magazines, and periodicals.

When Twinrocker Handmade Paper began making watercolor paper in 1985, Kathryn began painting watercolors to test the papers.  She soon fell in love with the medium and has been painting ever since.  Today, Kathryn exhibits art works in watercolor, graphite, and more recently oil.  She now paints out of doors, directly from nature, "plein air", as much as possible.  In the few years she's focused on her painting, she's won several awards.  In 2007, she won two "Best of Show" awards, one from the Indiana Plein Air Painters "First Brush of Spring" in New Harmony, Indiana, the other from the Wabash Valley Watercolor Society.  But her paintings will speak for themselves.  Enjoy!