Kat Kinnick makes paintings, prints and pottery featuring the flora and fauna of her native northern New Mexico. She lives within sight of the smoke plumes and pyrocumulus clouds of the Calf Canyon-Hermits Peak Fire. 

Her painting, Wildfire Season in the Southwest, 2022, depicts natural predation and man-made destruction of human and animal habitat. Through her art, she invites the viewer "to strengthen a kinship withwilderness, to instill a sense of abundant beauty and a comfort of being at home and belonging. The paintings emerge from a love of wildlife, craft and reverence for the natural world. What are we going to do throughout this time of cultural and ecological erasure as we're losing species, ecologies & wilderness?" 

In the 19th century, "erasure" was a matter of policy. Bison once covered the Great Plains, 50 to 60 million of them peacefully grazing and supplying Indigenous people with food, clothing and the "canvas" for their art.

Read the Full Article in Western Art Collector

View Kat Kinnick's Works Here