About
Background
Kate Molloy was born in England in 1957.
After gaining a degree and spending ten years in the computer industry, she changed careers and for four years she studied textile art at the home of the Dorset Craft Guild. Her textile pieces have been exhibited in England and Europe. She produced everything from innovative pleated silk jewellery to seven-foot-square art quilts. Further studies in printmaking, drawing and painting followed, with exhibitions in collaboration with other artists.
Current Photographic Work
Since 2006 she has been developing a body of work in abstract digital photography, using fabrics and light as her media, in the same way that an artist would use paint. She regards the use of photography as a vital step forward in that it allows for greater experimentation through faster production, and for the combination of images into collages which may then be re-coloured. Single images are not, in themselves, manipulated digitally beyond tiny error corrections. Kate feels that it is so easy to produce abstract images on the computer using paint programs that it would detract from the worth of her images if she were to digitally manipulate them. The challenge has always been to produce a perfect abstract image through the lens.
One question soon arose: is it possible to make a purely abstract photograph? After all, every photograph is a picture of something, however unrecognisable it may be, whilst even the most realistic painting is still just a set of marks on a canvas.
Competitive Successes
One image was a finalist in the Evolver Cover Competition 2009.
One image was a finalist in the FOTO EXPO Photographic Competition 2009 at KUBE.
One series of images was submitted to the Pilsner-Urquell International Photography Awards in 2008, and was awarded an Honorable Mention.
Two works were chosen for Southampton City Art Gallery's Open Exhibition 2008.
Of four series of images submitted to the Pilsner-Urquell International Photography Awards in 2007, three series were awarded Honorable Mentions.
In the inaugural Digital Photographer of the Year awards hosted by 'Digital Photographer' magazine, Kate was named Abstract Digital Photographer of the Year for the image 'Waves', which is now available as a limited edition print.
Other Exhibitions and Sales
Kate's work has also appeared at:
Gallery Shop, Walford Mill Craft Centre, Wimborne 2010
'Aperture 2009' at the Peacock Gallery, Poole 2009
Art Boot Sales, KUBE 2009
Gallery Shop, KUBE, Poole 2009
'Hull Mini Print Exhibition' 2008
'Spring Into Creative Industries' at Lighthouse, Poole 2008
Publications
Kate's work has appeared in:
1x (curated website) 2009
'Digital Photographer' magazine (issue 65, 2008)
'The Guardian' (29th December 2006)
Inspiration
The biggest single influence on Kate's work is the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum in Bournemouth. From early childhood, whenever her grandmother visited her bank in Bournemouth to deposit the takings from the family firm, Kate would accompany her and they would go on to the Russell-Cotes or the Rothesay Museum. Her grandmother's enthusiasm was infectious as she explained the stories behind the paintings, and an indelible impression was left of the stunningly-decorated building full of Victorian art, antiques, fabulous objects from around the world and collections of such things as marble, shells and stuffed birds.
When Kate made an art quilt inspired by oriental mythology and symbology, it was to the Russell-Cotes's famed Japanese collection that she turned for accurate representations of carp leaping waterfalls and interpretations of significant plants, and for gold and black metalwork and lacquerware.
When she makes digital abstract images, the Russell-Cotes is always in Kate's mind. That sensation of richness of colour... draping textiles... a painting seen close-up so that the picture is lost and only the wonder of the brushstrokes is visible... the stillness of the air... the calm... the sensuality of a painting or a sculpture... the softness and beauty of light itself, combined with deep shadows which glisten here and there with gold...
Kate Molloy was born in England in 1957.
After gaining a degree and spending ten years in the computer industry, she changed careers and for four years she studied textile art at the home of the Dorset Craft Guild. Her textile pieces have been exhibited in England and Europe. She produced everything from innovative pleated silk jewellery to seven-foot-square art quilts. Further studies in printmaking, drawing and painting followed, with exhibitions in collaboration with other artists.
Current Photographic Work
Since 2006 she has been developing a body of work in abstract digital photography, using fabrics and light as her media, in the same way that an artist would use paint. She regards the use of photography as a vital step forward in that it allows for greater experimentation through faster production, and for the combination of images into collages which may then be re-coloured. Single images are not, in themselves, manipulated digitally beyond tiny error corrections. Kate feels that it is so easy to produce abstract images on the computer using paint programs that it would detract from the worth of her images if she were to digitally manipulate them. The challenge has always been to produce a perfect abstract image through the lens.
One question soon arose: is it possible to make a purely abstract photograph? After all, every photograph is a picture of something, however unrecognisable it may be, whilst even the most realistic painting is still just a set of marks on a canvas.
Competitive Successes
One image was a finalist in the Evolver Cover Competition 2009.
One image was a finalist in the FOTO EXPO Photographic Competition 2009 at KUBE.
One series of images was submitted to the Pilsner-Urquell International Photography Awards in 2008, and was awarded an Honorable Mention.
Two works were chosen for Southampton City Art Gallery's Open Exhibition 2008.
Of four series of images submitted to the Pilsner-Urquell International Photography Awards in 2007, three series were awarded Honorable Mentions.
In the inaugural Digital Photographer of the Year awards hosted by 'Digital Photographer' magazine, Kate was named Abstract Digital Photographer of the Year for the image 'Waves', which is now available as a limited edition print.
Other Exhibitions and Sales
Kate's work has also appeared at:
Gallery Shop, Walford Mill Craft Centre, Wimborne 2010
'Aperture 2009' at the Peacock Gallery, Poole 2009
Art Boot Sales, KUBE 2009
Gallery Shop, KUBE, Poole 2009
'Hull Mini Print Exhibition' 2008
'Spring Into Creative Industries' at Lighthouse, Poole 2008
Publications
Kate's work has appeared in:
1x (curated website) 2009
'Digital Photographer' magazine (issue 65, 2008)
'The Guardian' (29th December 2006)
Inspiration
The biggest single influence on Kate's work is the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum in Bournemouth. From early childhood, whenever her grandmother visited her bank in Bournemouth to deposit the takings from the family firm, Kate would accompany her and they would go on to the Russell-Cotes or the Rothesay Museum. Her grandmother's enthusiasm was infectious as she explained the stories behind the paintings, and an indelible impression was left of the stunningly-decorated building full of Victorian art, antiques, fabulous objects from around the world and collections of such things as marble, shells and stuffed birds.
When Kate made an art quilt inspired by oriental mythology and symbology, it was to the Russell-Cotes's famed Japanese collection that she turned for accurate representations of carp leaping waterfalls and interpretations of significant plants, and for gold and black metalwork and lacquerware.
When she makes digital abstract images, the Russell-Cotes is always in Kate's mind. That sensation of richness of colour... draping textiles... a painting seen close-up so that the picture is lost and only the wonder of the brushstrokes is visible... the stillness of the air... the calm... the sensuality of a painting or a sculpture... the softness and beauty of light itself, combined with deep shadows which glisten here and there with gold...