Kat Schroeder Mora

My work is centered in my experience as a survivor of interpersonal abuse. In 2019, I left a 5-year abusive relationship. My art practice became about becoming a person again after being isolated and minimized for so long. I found myself doodling patterns everywhere: in my planner, in my notebooks, on my handouts. These patterns were grounding, a way of releasing anxiety and preventing dissociation. They began to appear in my paintings, overlapping and mixing with figures in an attempt to depict the feeling of being simultaneously overwhelmed and disconnected. The patterns became the most important part of my paintings; the figure became segmented and eventually disappeared completely, leaving behind a highly patterned, brightly colored corner space. This corner space functions as a visual representation of the experience of the survivor: none of us chose this identity, and we all exist within this “space” in unique ways.

My current body of work illustrates this evolution.It begins with two formal self portraits, one created before leaving my abuser and one created right after, both of which have been revisited and reclaimed by layers of marker and colored pencil patterns. Next, it includes two corner spaces I created for myself and a series of these spaces created for other survivors of sexual abuse. In revisiting old paintings and constructing new corner spaces, I reclaim my experience through the act of making: building the space, mixing the colors, drawing the patterns, and sitting with other survivors are all grounding activities. My paintings, in their final states, illustrate and reclaim the lived experience of the survivor. However, it is in their making - in their function as a concrete tool I use to cope - that they become a part of that lived experience. No longer separate, the process of making the work is recognized as something as important, if not more so, than the final piece.

Corner Spaces: ongoing series

Talking to other survivors of sexual abuse has been an enormous part of my healing. For this series, I sit with a survivor and hold space for them to share their experiences with me while I create a corner space for them. The finished pieces function both as a documentation of our time together and a visual representation of my love for the survivor, but this series is really about the connection between two survivors; similar to the rest of my work, the act of making is more important than the completed piece. I intend to continue this series indefinitely; included in this show are the first six corner spaces.