Katerina Usvitsky - Mama

Katerina Usvitsky

My family immigrated from Minsk, Belarus to the suburbs of Cleveland in 1992, when I was 11 years old. This major transition made me feel like a fish out of water for most of my awkward teenage years and it really wasn’t until I embraced my roots that I felt like I could develop my own voice. I am a fiber artist. I use nylon fiber, thread and yarn as three-dimensional image-making tools. Seen as mere women’s work, and solely utilitarian, they were not welcomed into the gallery world. My work seeks to build on these notions of femininity, family and tradition, while introducing fiber arts into the contemporary art realm.

I feel empowered to use art-making techniques taught to me by my grandmother, and through disciplines I learned in art school, transform them and create something new. For one, I enjoy using a once-silent, “women’s art form” to create dynamic portraits of women in my life who inspire me. The slow meditative process and repetitive motion of the art form feel natural and organic and I see it almost as a form of resistance against the pace of contemporary life.