DEJLIG

Kyte Tatt: Growing up in rural Pennsylvania, I was always a creative person. I did a lot of drawing and won some art contests as a child in primary school. However, I was never exposed to contemporary art or the possibility of using art as a serious career.

As I grew older, I always found a way to feed my creativity. While traveling and living in my caravan, I sewed my own upcycled clothing for years. I was always being told to sell my work, and I was often getting offers. This planted seeds in my mind, but I didn’t want to design clothes or sew for a living. I wanted to travel and live lightly. Somehow, during those years, I always knew that my experiences on the road would add up to something. That one day, I would know what it is I am supposed to be doing.

After a decade-long relationship ended in the USA, I immediately relocated myself to Berlin and began my new journey. I found myself, for the first time in my adult life, with a place to live in a flat and the space to begin creating again. It was then that I began to paint. At that time, all my experience began to make sense, and I knew this was my path.

KT: I don’t think "becoming" an artist was ever a goal. To me, the act of creating art makes a person an artist. The act of writing makes one a writer, just as baking makes one a baker. I just wanted to live off of my work. This was accomplished.

KT: As an introvert and artist, I spend a lot of time alone with my thoughts. When I began to paint, so many things came up for me to process. I found myself constantly reliving my past and trying to understand how the pieces fit together. My art in the beginning was very cathartic, personal, and mentally demanding to create. Flowers have always been a part of my work, but there was one point in particular that I decided I wanted to concentrate on. It was a kind of way to train myself to focus on something more beautiful. Once I made that choice, I just allowed intuition to guide me from there.

KT: My work is rooted in the commonality of our experience as humans. I would say there is a sense of romance and nostalgia in my work that I tend to express. Like poetry, but with materials and form. It is a result of the things I have seen and heard, the experiences I have had, and the emotions I have felt. It culminates in work that is my own but ultimately belongs to us all.

KT: Yes and no. I think art always comes from a place of self-reflection. It's born deep in our psyche and expresses itself in ideas, material, and form. However, the actual act of creating can also be a form of mediation where there is no self-reflecting conscience. It is a place where you can transcend the babble of the mind and enter into a realm of direct action and experience.

KT: While a lot of my peers were getting educated and starting families, my school was on the road at the university of life. I worked on farms seasonally and traveled abroad in the off-season. I had the time to connect with creative communities on the west coast of the USA and involve myself with them. I found myself surrounded by wonderful people who created beautiful things. Working alongside such inspirational people impacted my life, influenced my choices, and educated my mind in creative ways. Any barriers that existed in my brain were being ripped away, and it fostered me into the person I am today.

KT: The combination of these elements evokes nostalgia and reflection in me. The abstract parts speak to the subconscious part of the brain, while simultaneously taking on an impressionistic aspect that the brain can decipher more easily. Look closely at my work and its abstraction. Step back, and flowers seem to appear and disappear. This dance is a lot like how memories behave. With those aspects, I hope I beckon the viewer inward.

KT: Nature inspires much of what I have to say in my work. The way a flower feels, the way nature explains life. The power, beauty, and diversity of it all. These things inform my work.