Envoi
2000, 42″ x 80″, oil and alkyd on wood; 2 sections

Kathy Keler has been active as a painter for over 20 years. Born in Budapest, Hungary, she has lived most of her life in the United States, while also traveling extensively. After receiving her B.A. from Bryn Mawr College, Keler moved to Washington DC in 1980. Since then, her work has been shown in numerous group exhibits, both in the US and in other countries, including France, Germany, Hungary and India. She has had solo exhibits at the District of Columbia Arts Center and the Montpelier Cultural Arts Center, among others. She received an individual artist grant in 1995 from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. Keler has participated in artist residency programs at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington DC, and ArtsAcre in Calcutta, India.

Artist’s Statement

This current cycle of work began in late 1996 and is still in progress. The theme of these paintings is revisited loss. In seeking to access the past, I am both reliving and transforming it: memory becomes myth, and grief becomes a rite of passage.

Gathering women artists, healers, veterans, and survivors from across cultures and disciplines, Women Artists/Women Healing:  Multicultural Artistic Narratives of Trauma and Survival is a five-part narrative series featuring literary readings, performances, exhibitions and facilitated discussions, showcasing the resiliency and expression of the human spirit, seen through the lens of female artists and speakers.

Join us every Tuesday evening this March at Centro Nia in Washington, D.C.  as we explore the connective tissue of humanistic themes  such as surviving the ravages of war, strife, crime, poverty, and oppression; finding refuge from displacement/cultural survival; voices of survival; and the struggle for psychic health, and healing the body.

In celebration of Women’s History Month, this powerful series has three goals:

1.        Explore the many dimensions of women’s experiences of trauma

2.       Give voice to women’s resilience and survival

3.       Validate and build upon the healing capacity of the creative process and the collective experience of support and community.

Women Artists/Women Healing is produced by Elizabeth Bruce, author of ‘And Silence Left the Place,’ stage actor, playwright of ‘Sheila’s Iron,’ and art teacher, in addition to Associate Producers Alivia C. Tagliaferri, author and documentary film-maker of Ironcutter Media, and Timothea Howard, Photographer and Director of CentroNia’s Community Schools Program. 

Each program begins at 6pm with a light reception, art exhibit and performance, followed by a facilitated panel discussion at 6:45pm.

Audiences are encouraged to interact with the artists, performers and panelists to learn how lives are transformed through artistic, creative and personal expressions, faith, healing and empathy as an entry point in creating art and expression, and how justice and healing is promoted from within and beyond one’s own personal experience.

Women Artists/Women Healing is funded in part by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, an agency supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, and hosted by CentroNía (1420 Columbia Road, NW, Washington, DC 20009).

For more information, please contact Elizabeth Bruce at elizabethbruce@hotmail.com or Alivia Tagliaferri at alivia@ironcuttermedia.com.