Artist Bio:

Kimberlea Bass is a multidisciplinary artist based out of Fort Worth, Texas who has exhibited in galleries nationwide, has held a leadership role in The National Arts Education Association, and has been invited to be an artist in residence internationally. She received her BFA in Studio Art from Southern Methodist University. She then went on to run a professional photography business and became a K-12 arts coordinator and educator, each for a decade. Kimberlea is currently completing her MFA program at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Her body of work has consistently utilized photography as the basis for broad concepts within her collections. The history of photography is used to control the color palette, reference past memories, and the mechanical functions of photographic equipment and techniques such as printing with light. She uses collected ephemera to make the work become tactile pieces which take the form of sculptures, mobiles and collages. In Kimberlea’s most recent work she is using reclaimed photographs as a way to share ideas of fragmented memory. Experimentation, layering and materiality is the driving force behind each artwork.

Artist Statement: 

What defines a generation gap is not what is remembered but what is forgotten. This thesis questions the way we remember, relate, and connect through images and objects. This is explored through the use of found objects that were once treasured and are now discarded. These objects range from silver serving dishes, handmade doilies, old photographs or 35mm film negatives. The photographic materials used both reveal and hide. The color palette is a reflection of photographic processes including the blue of cyanotype, the amber of 35mm film, and the browns in faded images. Photography stops time in a moment and transforms it into an image, a small sample of the truth of the time. This thesis explores how, with the passing of time, these moments are fragmented and layered with other memories and experiences through media collages, assemblages, and mobiles. These are representations of my own intertwined experiences.