My paintings are my artist's statement.                                                             

Kathleen Fitzpatrick was born and raised in Wisconsin, but traveled widely to NYC, London, and Madrid, among other cosmopolitan cities where she studied art and culture. Subsequently, she studied studio arts and biology at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Since 2008 she has lived in the Bay Area.  Ever since she was a child she has been curious about nature and science and how everything in the world around us works. She enjoys using unique geometric shapes and bridging her two passions: art and medicine. Kathleen has turned to art as a way to balance her logical scientific side with her creative desire and move into the abstract world. She finds that her art creates an indescribable balance and satisfaction that is not achieved in medicine.

My work is strongly influenced by my career in healthcare and my study of medicine and biology. Throughout my career as a student in the life sciences I frequently saw beautiful patterns and images of various forms of life in nature. The natural patterns and fluidity found in both nature and medicine fascinate me. I enjoy using clean, strong lines with bold colors that invoke a celebratory sense and a feeling of inspiration when viewing my work. I love finding art within science and visualizing it through my paintbrush.

I believe in continuous observation, experimentation and change.  Change is an integral part of nature.  The only way to have change and possibly progression is to experiment and even let accidents and mistakes happen.  From every accident and even mistake there is something to be learned and from each learning experience new elements and forms emerge which can bring about progression. 

I have enjoyed being a professional graphic designer in San Francisco for over 20 years. A couple of years ago I received my certification as a Traditional Chinese Medicine-based Feng Shui Practitioner. My practice helps individuals and businesses with health, wealth and relationship issues. I have always been very spiritual and have recently aligned my faith and principles with my everyday life. My "life's work" is sending a message that life can be great for anyone because we all deserve it and are all equal. This I convey with more clarity and simplicity as days go by, and is apparent in my design, feng shui and art work.

 My new "Sun On Earth" series consists of wood stain paintings on wood boxes. The process includes many layers of stain to produce the effect of dimension. The entire surfice is flat. Many think it looks carved or weaved. The title of the series comes from the idea that the sun is everywhere, shining it's rays on earth. This inevitable act of nature can't be changed or stopped.  It just is.  We are connected to this as we are to everything that exists. We are one. We are not separate. Look deep into these images and find your place of peace.

“I delight in the unforeseen, the happenstance, the incongruities of things!”
—The Impoverished Landscape Painter Reflects on Art, by Carla Sweet Chlouber

The fragility of life and its ever-changing nature, both beautiful and tragic, sometimes ugly, compel me as to explore what gives us meaning and hope.  Over the last ten years, my work has considered our relationship to other animals and the earth, exploring ideas such as communication, compassion and sustainability.

My most recent body of work is a “collaboration” backward through time, inspired by the writings and poetry of my mother, Carla Chlouber, and her father (my grandfather), Arthur Sweet. Within my mother’s papers we found a trove of her and my grandfather's unpublished poems and writings, which were hidden in old trunks and file cases—scraps of family history.  Using fabric and embroidery, along with printmaking, encaustic, acrylic and oil paint, these mixed media pieces hold for me a haunting beauty and a transformation of family, love and loss.  

Exploring their writings has made me see the past differently, not as something that ends, but as ever continuing. 

Belinda Lee Chlouber 

My goal is to go beyond likeness to capture the soul or spirit; emotion reflected in the subtle nuance of facial features revealing the essence and character of the subject at the moment in time.  The art I aspire to is painting humans, not just people, in the context of life.