Kat Kinnick: Memento Vivere

“Loss can be a compass, and nostalgia can be a process of re-encountering what we grieve, miss and treasure,” says northern New Mexico-based artist Kat Kinnick. “As we engage with what we miss, the memory begins to change and remembrance becomes a creative process in itself.”

Born in Los Ranchos de Albuquerque and now living and working south of Santa Fe, Kinnick’s work as a painter, illustrator, printmaker and ceramicist often celebrates the abundant diversity of the wildlife and wilderness of the high desert. Her upcoming show at Hecho a Mano represents a shift in Kinnick’s artistic philosophy. “I’ve felt so saddened by everything that’s happening in the world right now,” she says. “It feels as if all the time and energy and creativity we’ve put into making the world a better place was for nothing.”

While her 2024 show at Hecho a Mano, A Benevolent Force, celebrated “the energy of resistance in battle and powerful forces, unflinching amidst the darkness,” Kinnick now feels a profound sense of fatigue. Still, she’s using her artistic practice to process this feeling of hopelessness. She describes walking in the desert near her home when a voice popped into her head that said, “All is not yet lost.”

This show sprang from that gentle voice: a vision of a path forward in recognizing “the tangible vitality in our lives, plant life, the days of beautiful weather, animal sightings, and the reality that we have food and shelter and a vibrant community of kind, creative allies who care, and the legacy of activists and artists whose footsteps we continue to walk.”