Kathran Siegel

Born and raised in New York City, Kathran Siegel attended Bennington College, where she majored in Painting. She worked towards an M.F.A. at the University of New Mexico, but at the invitation of Newton Harrison and Paul Brach, (with power wives: Helen Harrison and Miriam Shapiro) stopped her studies to help develop the program for a new art department at the University of California at San Diego. 

Following these experiences, Siegel moved to a loft in N.Y.C. where she continued to paint. After a few years, she moved to Gainesville, Florida, where she taught at the University of Florida. Also in Florida, she developed a Sculpture/Woodworking program for Santa Fe Community College, in Gainesville, FL and built a comprehensive art program for Bartram School, in Jacksonville, which department she headed for the next 8 years.

While working on an MEd., Siegel had taken a woodworking class, which led her into 25 years of art furniture making. Amused by the ways in which she saw her furniture incorporated into vignettes created by designers and put on display at the large ACC Craft Fairs, Siegel began a series of her own “vignettes,” carving accessories and placing them alongside her furniture, to suggest some human interaction just passed or about to take place. This work led to a solo exhibition at the Jacksonville (FL) Museum of Contemporary Art, titled STILL LIFE/REAL LIFE, and also at Duncan Gallery, Stetson University in Deland, FL.  In 2005 an updated version of this solo exhibition was shown at the Pfundt Gallery of the Michener Museum in Doylestown, PA. In the years that followed, Siegel’s work became more about the carving and less about function.

Until her retirement from teaching in 2011, Siegel combined her studio practice with teaching art in and around Philadelphia, where she currently lives. Her work is in several regional museum and public art collections. She has been an exhibiting member of Muse Gallery in Philadelphia. Siegel was awarded an NEA Ventures Grant and later an Andy Warhol Foundation Grant.  She has published a monograph on the artist, Mildred Thompson, as well as articles on the arts and art education.

Most of my work, over the past 50 years, has involved wood carving. Only some of this work has been representational. I am not especially interested in the human  figure as my subject, except at times when I feel the need to stop and examine some emotional change in my life. Then I gain a lot of solace just from the act of making the piece. My only plan is to allow my instincts to lead the way. I use materials that are familiar to me and those that carry memories. When I am done, there is the advantage of having objectified the feelings for myself. Often I find that what I have expressed is something that other women find commonality with. 

PA