Britta Kathmeyer

“Moment after moment, everyone comes out from nothingness. This is the true joy of life.”
– Shunryu Suzuki

I’m from Bremen, Germany and graduated from art and design colleges in Germany and the U.S. For many years I worked as a textile designer in the Bay Area until I discovered yoga, Chinese medicine and my passion for bodywork and became a healer.

As an artist I’ve collaborated on various projects with artists and non-artists alike, exploring the lives and stories of garment workers, retail workers, and my own family. In the past few years my focus has shifted to drawing and painting working primarily with matches, ink, coffee, and acrylics. My creative process is based on listening, sensing, and allowing the inherent nature of the material to come forth. Brushes and paint, twigs and ink, paper and wood, water and fire, are my favorite media as I strive to combine simplicity of process, form and color with play, chance and presence. The end result is often a surprise and a moment of deeper understanding. My intention is to create art that moves between ambiguity and revelation, and inspires contemplation and curiosity.

When I’m not in my studio, I work as an oncology massage therapist in Santa Rosa. And in my spare time I exchange gossip with two old hens, Henny and Jessie.

Britta’s ink and smoked paper piece, “Gossip,” can be found in “The Gossip Project,” in Issue II: More Everything. It was previously published in the West Marin Review.