Gallery + Previous Series

The miniseries, "Onward" by artist Kat Furtado is a digital mixed media collage series printed as originals on canvas. This series features abstract figurative work very loosely describing specific seasons within a single life.  They portray a quest for authenticity and resilience. The first portrait, “Running Out,” features the untamed emotions of an adolescent and young adult searching for comfort, meaning, and a sense of connection. The wild brushstrokes and loose writing mirror the enormous danger and fear the subject feels as she moves through a time when she has little to no control over the trajectory of her life. The second portrait, “Onward,” shows a vulnerable adult female, post-partum, yearning for validation and hope she isn’t seeing in herself or others. Dejected, depressed, and isolated, she seeks to find answers within herself but falls short. Still, the act of her conscious vulnerability is enough to carry her through to whatever comes next. By the third portrait, “Resilient Spirit,” our subject has discovered a sense of peace and resolution. She works tirelessly to provide a safe space for her children. She has fostered opportunities for them to have a sense of independence and autonomy, allowing them to be whoever they need to be to feel safe. They know they are loved. They are validated. They are comforted. They are home. The subtle confidence her children have in her gives her the chance to see herself through a different lens. She moves onward into the next season of her life, working to be the best possible version of herself for them. 

Kat Furtado’s series,  Things My Kids Will Never Hear Me Say examines the ways in which society forces its perception of girls and women upon children from a young age. Furtado utilizes circles as symbols of continuity, generational trauma, and whole person perspective. The circular forms represent the resolution of spirit in those who have been judged too early, too often, and too loudly. The layers in her work impose a physical sense of interruption-a metaphor for the disruptive and impossible expectations imparted upon the bodies of women and girls. Unwelcome commentary on a person’s physical attributes is a commonplace form of violating consent, and each work in this series has been paired with and titled by painful, damaging, unsolicited comments from real life. Furtado juxtaposes soft textures and hard lines, transparency versus opacity, and movement versus stability. This requires the onlooker to confront the complexity of the choices we make with our words, and the equally nuanced ways in which our communication can be interpreted. This series also represents the fortitude and insight required to break harmful cycles and maintain a strong sense of worth in both selfhood and parenthood. "Things My Kids Will Never Hear Me Say" beckons each viewer to identify the cycles they perpetuate or by which they have been victimized. In doing this, each onlooker can begin to rewrite the narrative of their own self-worth.

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The "Small Moments" collection captures the universal moments in life that provide us all with a sense of connection and comfort. 

Themes within the artwork include thunderstorms, laughter, beachy waves and the ocean, sunsets, moody skies, and colorful rainbows. Happiness. It was created with the hopefulness of time spent with loved ones and time cherished. These are moments and emotions which were particularly poignant throughout the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

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