Kathleen Thompson

Bio

I live in Sebastopol and graduated this year from SFAI. I received the Richard Diebenkorn Painting scholarship, and a full Gamblin Fellowship to the Vermont Studio Center. I also received the Montana Refuge Award from SFAI this year. I received my undergraduate degree from U.C.S.B.

Statement

The Pillage of the Iraqi National Museum on Mohsin Kadun's Watch

Among the images of devastation and destruction coming from Iraq since the invasion in 2003, one of the most poignant was that of Mohsin Kadun. Kadun is a 30-year-old Iraqi archeologist who had been in charge of moving artifacts into vaults before the invasion. He was present as anarchy broke out and screamed helplessly as hundreds of looters ran down the halls of the Iraqi National Museum, stealing or smashing almost 70% of the museum's repository of valuable statues, carvings, and artifacts. Treasures of 7 millennia were carted off before his eyes.

“I took off my white underpants and put them on a stick and ran up the street to the U.S. Marines. I asked them - no begged them - to help me preserve our treasures, but they would not drive down the street.”

Kaden's futile position as preserver of the past being swept away by an uncontrollable present leading into an uncertain future is the feeling I am responding to in this painting. The space in the painting feels charged with a feeling of drama, fragility and foreboding. The flower form is sharp and blade-like. Architecture and nature coincide and both seem to be slipping away. My choice of materials: Large format photographic backdrop paper and acrylic, further embody the sense of ephemerality.