Kathy Hodge

This series of paintings was sparked by a visit to a small custom shoe factory in Warren, R.I. The heavy, oily,
cast-iron machines standing like totems around the perimeter of the room fascinated me and I asked
to photograph them. When I reviewed the photos, I was compelled to begin this series. But these paintings are
not at all about making shoes, rather, the machines are the vehicle which brought together many
things I had been thinking about and looking at during the last few years. These included the tight structure
and symbolism of medieval paintings, especially from the 13th century, images of fragile and most
often crashed airplanes in several Russian WWI photo albums I found in an antique store, the retrospective of
Lee Bontecou and the British war paintings of WWI and WWII. And somehow all these elements are
combining as a reaction to my feelings of the two sides of religion and ambition, the inevitability of greed and
war and how these constants are playing out in the world today.
I have now completed about a dozen paintings, some in the form of triptychs, as well many studies for future
paintings. I expect to continue working in this direction for at least another year.

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