About the Artist
"Green" Before It was Popular
"Use it up, Wear it out,
Make it do... Or do with out."
~ Annoynomous ~
A country girl, raised in the Berkshire Mountains of Connecticut and in the Hudson Valley of Upstate New York, Kathryn has a great affection for the natural world. Since the late 1980's, her award winning collages convey the world as she sees it through Nature's eyes. Using found, recycled and painted papers, she relies on memories and her photography as she tries to reflect the beauty of the disappearing landscapes.
Her father inspired her to draw at an early age and she continued into her teenage years drawing portraits of her friends and family. Majoring in Art in high school, her art teacher Reno DeRosa, made a great impression on her with his love of art and art history. She moved to the West Village of NYC studying art privately, then continued on to Dutchess Community College in Poughkeepsie, NY where she received an Associate Degree in Humanities and the Arts with honors. At S.U.N.Y New Paltz, she majored in Education and English and procured a Bachelor of Science degree. During her last semester, injured in a car accident . It took a year to re-learn and to do the many common things most take for granted. Art, and an undaunting spirit, a positive attitude and unwillingness to quit, had her back at school in no time, and graduating. As her mother told her, "A quitter never wins, and winner never quits." Upon moving to the desert of Western Arizona, Kathryn worked to obtain a Master's degree at Northern Arizona University while teaching full time. As an artist and an educator, Uster has taught from pre-school to college level, been twice, president and board member of Havasu Art Guild. She coordinated meetings, exhibits and very successful, profitable shows. Kathryn was also previously president of Alpha Delta Kappa, a women's educational sorority, and is in the process of completing a children's book. She also teaches art at her Cisco Studio, and is currently creating collage art, music CD graphic art, for recording musicians, as well as teaching students in small groups. Kathryn is a member of the International Museum of Collage, Assemblage and Construction, and has an abstract 3- dimensional piece in the permanent Fluxus collection and included in their book, The Secret Lives of Artists by collage artist Cecil Touchon. She is also a juried member of AZ Art Alliance. National Collage Society. Always with a love of the Natural, Kathryn developed her collage work in 1987-96 using the paper coming from precious trees and discarded without care, to create beauty from a disposable society. 
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Her collage Canyon Verde was shown at the Phoenix Museum Gallery at SkyHarbor International Airport in Phoenix chosen from more than 100 AZ artists. The Arizona Valentine Exhibit, for the state's 100th birthday, is Kathryn's second time being chosen for this honor. Dawn's Gilded Breeze and Surreal Goodbye were chosen by the jury for the Fish Stories Exhibit there in 2004. 
Dawn's Gilded Breeze 1998 ~ 30" x 40" Paper Collage
Also at this time, Kathryn has an Expressionistic collage exhibited for National Collage Society's 2011 Annual Exhibit at Kent State University in Ohio. In the past she has shown with the Women's Caucus for the Arts and the Artists' Colony in Scottsdale, as well as in Sedona, AZ. Early in 2007, Shining Jewel, an acrylic painting impression of the London Bridge, was chosen for the Lake Havasu City Historical Society's poster and fund raiser, and Kathryn donated the painting to the museum there.
~ Shining Jewel, Acrylic on canvas ~
Kathryn Uster's choice is a bold color palette
for her award winning collage work inspired by the Fauve Movement painters of the late 19th century. wikipedia.org/wiki/Fauvism Exhibiting her art across the tri-state area, Kathryn has received several awards for her collages from Best of Show, Peoples' Choice, as well as, first place and other awards. Her work is collected nationally and internationally. *See her television interview with Arizona Highways TV below: Interview with Arizona Highways TV on NBC Phoenix
Desert Inspiration
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Copyright 2011 - 2016 Kathryn Uster, All images appearing on this website are copyright protected and property of Kathryn Uster. Any reproduction of these images, or use thereof, without expressed permission, is a violation of Copyright Law and is strictly prohibited. Karma will also be an issue.
