kaitlyn porter - reflective prints

REFLECTIVE PRINTS

2024-2025

statement:

My work is an exploration of memory, identity, and how time changes our understanding of the past. Using prints that include images from my childhood and family, specifically from the ages of 3 to 6, I reflect on how some memories are hidden or distorted over time, shaped by repression and the way we process emotions.

The linear patterns in my prints represent the barriers we create around our memories. These lines act as both a structure and an obstruction—sometimes making memories more difficult to access or understand. The lines reflect the ways in which my memories of family and childhood have become incomplete or hard to decipher. They highlight how distance influences perception and how we unconsciously decide what we see, what we miss, what we choose to remember, and what gets hidden.

The process of printmaking relates to the idea of revisiting these same images from my past in order to better understand how they influence my life now. The act of carving, manipulating, and reworking the image disrupts its original form. The repetition parallels how we revisit memories over time. Just like how memories can shift or change upon re-examination, each print becomes a re-engagement with the past, offering new insights or, at times, greater distortion with the manipulation of the original image. With each print, I’m working with different relationships and places that are understood in a new capacity as I’ve gotten older.

This series also reflects the distance I feel from my younger self and how my view of the past has shifted. As relationships and places evolve, so does the way I see them. When the images are viewed up close, they are hard to read. But as you step back, the image comes into focus, becoming clearer with distance though still not fully resolved. It frustrates the eye, since proximity typically reveals more detail. This mirrors how, over time, we can better understand the past with new knowledge, but it always feels just beyond full comprehension—as if it could slip away at any moment.