Catharine Fichtner’s acrylic paintings grapple with how we find meaning and interpret fragmented, camouflaged, and coded information. She shares that she has always been fascinated by things in life that are shattered and how we process this information to make it whole, or at the very least, find some meaning in it. This includes the uncertainty of our memory and how we construct personal and cultural stories, most likely half-truths, about our lives to piece together the world.
Fichtner’s earlier paintings have included random images (much like hieroglyphics) and subliminal messages that must be deciphered. She is influenced by her ancestor’s Pennsylvania Dutch history of quilt making who saved every shred of fabric to create something beautiful. In her last series, Alterations 2019-2022, she uses clothing pattern schematics as inspiration and armature to hang disguised narratives. Informed by this ancestral craft such as tatting, quilt making, and sewing, she incorporates lace and pattern schematics to symbolize family and lineage. With little bits of realism, such as carefully rendered animals and plants, Fichtner’s work offers the viewer entry points into her work. The result are paintings that, on the surface may appear soothing, but at a deeper look reveal something more unsettling.
Her current work is evolving into an exploration into the unclear messages and the shattered, sometimes deceptive, images in our digital world. The scraps of fabric eluded to in her prior work are becoming more akin to analog test patterns and blips on a screen. She shares that we are bombarded by images that are not to be trusted or distorted by digital interference. She believes that life is becoming more of a puzzle due to easily manipulated technology which must be deciphered.
Fichtner’s artistic practice is much about experimentation and creative insecurity. As she shares, “I don’t like the feeling of being uncomfortable or off balance with a painting but I know that this is where I need to be.” She looks to other contemporary painters to find specific guidance: Charline von Heyl for courage, Amy Sillman for playfulness, Jacqueline Humphries for narration, but her inspiration is more likely to come from a passage in a book, a phrase, or a computer screen. Her paintings build from chaos to specifics as the meaning of the painting becomes more clear to her. Towards the end she pushes it to a loose narrative and titles it to help guide the viewer into the final work.
BIO
Catharine Fichtner earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from Carnegie Mellon University, after receiving a bachelor’s degree from the Rhode Island School of Design and Tyler School of Art. Her work has been shown in Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia, the Delaware Museum of Art, and are in numerous private collections. Her work is represented by the James Gallery in Pittsburgh, PA. She lives and works in Wilmington, DE.
