MUNTHE ART MONDAY:
CAT SPILMAN
Please introduce yourself and tell us about what you do.
My name is Cat Spilman, I’m an American-born painter living and working in London. I trained in fine art, specifically oil painting, at MICA before going to the School of Visual Arts to study film. After I graduated I worked for several years as a scenic artist in film and television in New York before moving to the UK where I dedicated myself full time to my own painting practice. I consider my paintings abstracted self portraits or a visual diary. As I am an immigrant they have depicted themes of distance, separation and belonging, but also portray my experience as a woman and a mother.
Cat is wearing our BIMO PANTS and NERMA ACCESSORIES.
Can you name some other female (artist) that inspires you and explain why they do so?
My mother is an artist and when I was growing up I felt she was able to do anything - she could draw and paint and sculpt and her talent set the bar for my artistic appreciation. We had several original pieces by Sister Corita Kent in our house and I loved her integration of words in her work. When I started painting I had words painted or drawn in each piece and while they’ve slowly disappeared there’s still definitely a sense of the movement of my handwriting in each piece.
What would you like people to notice in your artwork?
Unfortunately the majority of people seeing my work are seeing it on a screen, and it’s impossible to convey the depth and detail of my paintings this way. Each painting has layer upon layer of line and movement which can only be seen in person. It’s these layers and details and imperfections that make the work warm and human and that’s what I’d most like people to notice about my work - the fact that it’s an invitation to bring their own story to the piece and relate to it. A painting is one side of the conversation, my side, and each viewer brings their own history and taste and interpretation which forms the other half of the conversation and brings a painting to life.
Could you explain more about how being a woman has affected your career?
My entire body of work comes from my lived experience, so my paintings are inextricable from my identity as a woman. I often paint abstracted versions of the female form as I’m constantly amazed by our bodies and what we are able to create and withstand. While being a woman and mother is one of the biggest sources of inspiration in my work, it does have a very definite logistical effect on the time I’m able to give to my practice. I’m less free to travel to openings or fairs, and have to be extremely dedicated and careful with how I structure my time. I’m lucky to work with galleries who support and respect this balance, but I do feel there’s still an expectation for women to temper their ambitions if they also choose to have a family.
What has been the most challenging aspect of being a woman in the arts?
Female artists are so often judged not just on the merit of their work, but on their age, their social life, their physical appearance and the way they represent themselves. Social media makes this especially difficult as everyone feels entitled to voicing opinions not just on the work but on the women who make it. While male artists seem able to speak and act without commentary, women are criticized for having political opinions, or for not having them, for being too outspoken or not outspoken enough. We are criticized for being pretty or ugly, for being too visible or not visible. We are under a much greater scrutiny than our male peers, and while this is not a new challenge for women working in any field, it is truly exhausting.
Cat is wearing our BRAULIA OUTERWEAR and BIMO PANTS.
