Visual and Communication Arts

Kathy Mendenhall
Photography
Campus Location: Dallavis
Phone: (816) 942-8400

Artist's Statement

Statues, stories and images of saints, and the Sears Christmas catalog dolls were constant companions when I was a girl. They became the groundwork for a fascination of the functions and mysteries of objects. This has formed the foundation of my work today. Childhood through adolescence I spent seemingly endless hours kneeling, sitting, or standing in church or in my room clothing and unclothing my dolls. When sent outside to play, I would hide, perched in one of our apple trees where I could make up fantasies to my heart’s delight. All were places of day dreaming and imagining.

Later, when I discovered artists Joseph Cornell, Clarence John Laughlin, Romare Bearden and Lorna Simpson, I felt a kinship with their work. I was pulled in to the surreal, dream-like imagery of Laughlin’s photography, drawn to the organization and design of Bearden’s colorful collages and Cornell’s beautiful boxes, and made a personal connection to the integration of text and concepts in the photography of Lorna Simpson. These masters are a constant source of inspiration to me.

Taking photographs is a starting point, allowing me to take images of things that exist and to alter, add to and or manipulate them to create worlds fueled by my fantasies and imaginings, companions who have stayed with me and grown as I have aged.