Professor Kate Hawkes has always been interested in art. During her undergraduate years, she pursued architecture, but found that her true passion was art and chose the path of photography during graduate school.
Hawkes finds that there is a common link between environment and creativity. Her graduate studies took her to the opposite side of the country, and she claims it was “like being on the moon,” but Hawkes felt that her new situation pushed her to make new kinds of art that she maybe wouldn’t have been inspired to do before. She commented that comfort level equates with creative laziness with the familiar, and that feeling out of place can energize and inspire new creations.
Hawkes’ feelings about an environmental creativity inspire much of her work. As a child, she lived in Western Samoa in the South Pacific. As an adult, she returned to experience and photograph the island in its realist form.
Several of Hawkes’ works from the South Pacific are being featured at an art exhibit in Winona, entitled How to Disappear. The multidisciplinary exhibit features pieces centered around the theme of erasure. Hawkes said the exhibit is unique because the artists are thinking in the same way, but not working in the same way. The curator and Hawkes’ partner, Roger Boulay, had a similar exhibit at UW-La Crosse last year, but he said he wanted to pursue the idea more extensively with this show.
Other pieces in the show take on many forms and mediums. A video installation shows the artist disappearing as he paints himself black to match the wall in the background. Boulay described it as a frightening gesture, but also a relief.
One of Hawkes’ favorite pieces is from artist Tina Tahir. She created a stencil pattern on the floor. As people walked through the gallery, the pattern began to alter and erase. Hawkes said she liked the way the piece evolved throughout the night.
“Our world is changing, and it doesn’t matter what side of the issue you are on because it’s happening,” Hawkes said.
A dance company performed at the exhibit, choreographing solos to certain art pieces. Similarly, a creative writing class wrote poems using erasure techniques about the pieces.
“I like that ideas can translate across mediums,” Hawkes said. “I wish there were more of that.”
Hawkes confessed that she had never thought of her art as being erasure until it had been contextualized that way. “Being part of an exhibit like this makes you realize something about your own work,” Hawkes said. “I like to think of my work as being torn emotionally between two things. You’re not quite sure if it’s disappearing or emerging.”
Hawkes teaches all photography classes at UW-L. She encourages every student to take at least one art class because she claims, “photography is as ubiquitous as writing now-it’s everywhere.”
Hawkes loves that the critical thinking involved in art is directly applicable to every other field.