Short Bio
Ms. Roe’s mother believed that “idle hands are the devil’s playground” and taught her to embroider when she was in kindergarten. She was sewing as soon as she was tall enough to stand up to her mother’s Singer Featherweight. Ms. Roe earned a B. S. Ed. in art education at Northern Illinois University. As a teacher, and later a principal, and education professor, she taught incarcerated juveniles, on a Native American reservation, and in high poverty areas. She instituted a “principal’s purchase award”, where student work was purchased, framed and displayed in conference rooms and board rooms. As a college professor, she taught pre-service teachers how to integrate the arts into “regular” classroom subjects. Ms. Roe endeavors to honor her mother, and the needlework of women everywhere by using fiber to create unique pieces of contemporary art. Kathryn Roe can be reached at roeka@networkidea.com.
Statement
I like to believe my fiber art pays homage to the, often anonymous, work women have created throughout the centuries. I was taught these skills at a very young age by my mother and grandmother who believed “idle hands are the devil’s playground”.
It is exciting and sad to rummage through thrift stores and find stitched items someone spent hours on. We usually do not know who made these items, and they are often dismissed as ‘busy work’ or ‘craft’. While I want to honor those anonymous women of the past, I also want to tell today’s stories with fiber.
I work with wool, silk, and cotton fabrics recycled from thrift stores. I layer wool fibers and adds thread sketching and hand embroidery to build wool “paintings”. Much of my work merges needle-felting, applique, machine thread-sketching, hand embroidery, and crochet in both representational and non-representational work. The landscapes show glimpses of Iowa’s highways and back roads. Other pieces represent dreams and personal stories.
Biography
Kathryn Roe’s fiber art pays homage to the work women have done throughout the centuries – the often anonymous work created by women using needle and thread, yarns, and fibers.
Roe’s work features the skills she was taught as a very young child by her mother and grandmother. Both of these formidable women believed that “idle hands are the devil’s playground” and taught Roe to embroider and sew at a young age. Along the way she learned to appreciate the way these often ignored skills create beauty out of nothing.
Ms. Roe’s work is also influenced by the fact that her father was in the Navy. She, therefore, has lived all over the U.S. and on the island of Guam. Roe has traveled to places as far-flung as the Philippines, Japan, and Germany. These experiences have opened her eyes to the work of diverse artists and craftspeople.
Ms. Roe studied art, women’s history, and education at Northern Illinois University. These classes were not the only things that have influenced her thinking and art. There she also encountered blatant sexism. She was told, for example, by a professor that she really did not need to put forth much effort in his class because he could tell she was there to earn her “M.R.S degree”. Outside of classes, she was immersed in women’s art and the feminist movement. Her efforts to break into the gallery scene were met with admonitions to make her drawings and prints “look less like a woman did it”.
Discouraged, she focused on a career in education, teaching art in juvenile corrections and on a Native American Reservation. She eventually became a principal. All the while, Roe was honing her art skills and contemplating the intersection of art and craft.
Ms. Roe works with wool, silk, and cotton recycled from thrift store finds. She combines needle-felting, applique, machine thread-sketching, hand embroidery, and crochet to create both representational and non-representational work.
The landscapes Roe crafts show glimpses of Iowa found along the state’s highways and back roads. Other pieces represent dreams and personal stories. She also creates more whimsical pieces that are based on her sense of humor and imagination.
Kathryn Roe can be reached at roeka@networkidea.com.
Resume / CV
M. S. Administrative Leadership and Supervision in Education, University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, 1993
B.S. Ed. Art Education, Northern Illinois University, 1975
Accepted two entries to Iowa State Fair, Fine Arts juried competition, 2022
Iowa Fiber and Beyond exhibit, Urbandale Public Library, 2022
Iowa Fiber and Beyond exhibit, West Des Moines Public Library, 2022
Honorable Mention, Iowa Artists Region 11, 2022; https://www.iowaartists.us/awards--recognition.html
Exhibitor and Demonstrations, ArtFest MidWest, Des Moines, IA, 2021
Iowa Artists 50th
Anniversary Traveling Show (two pieces), 2021-22; https://www.iowaartists.us/traveling-art-show.html
Blue Ribbon, Iowa Artists Region 11, March 31, 2021
Honorable Mention, Iowa Artists Region 11, March 31, 2021
Finalist, Art Room Contemporary Online Gallery, Colors International Juried Art Competition, February 2021; http://www.artroomgalleryonline.com
Honorable Mention, Iowa Artists 50th Anniversary Online Art Competition, February 2021
Finalist, Fusion Art’s 3rd Annual Women Artists Juried Online Exhibition, September 2020; https://www.fusionartps.com/3rd-women-artists-art-exhibition-september-15-december-14-2020/
Fine Arts and Cultural Events (FACE) of Mahaska County members exhibition, December 2018
