MALIBU'S KATHERINE KOUSI: AN ARTIST TO THE CORE

You know the saying about how it is hard to define pornography but you know it when you see it…well, the same can be said of an Artist. It is not easy to define an Artist, but you know one when you see one. Make no mistake, Katherine Kousi is an Artist. I have never met a more full bodied definition of one. She never escapes it’s manifestation. She wears it like a skin. It defines her.

I don’t know enough about Art to properly define her style and technique. I know that she is known for her large scale “paintings” which feature impressionistic butterflies and other “bugs” on a backdrop of muted pastels, light sea foam greens, pale lavenders, and different creams of white…..with texture, and gloss. Almost never a bright or rich color, and only sparingly a warm color, no garish, strong reds or oranges or yellows; there is a reason for that though I don’t know for sure.

She told me that she doesn’t use colors in her Art that she wouldn’t wear in her clothes. That is another thing--- Katherine designs clothes and textiles. Everything is thoughtful….no thought-less expressions.....or colors, even. My definition of an Artist, though I probably stole it or heard it from someone else, is that an artist is someone who feels things more deeply than others….emotions, images, activity, visuals, expressions, etc., penetrate more deeply…and they are processed, perhaps, more exquisitely, and expressed, more frequently and articulately…the expression is almost mandatory…the Artist, as Katherine most certainly is, down to the ubiquitous paint that can be found on her hands most days, must express her interpretations of life…her often glorious and layered, and textured interpretations of life. It is like she has 4-D glasses in a world where the rest of us are wearing 3-D. She could no more easily stop producing art than a wave could stop breaking on the beach. I suppose we all have different saturations of “artist” in ourselves…..with Katherine, her saturation is almost drowning; she is barely functional. Mozart was that way, as was Van Gogh, and some others who we call Artists……they were “cursed” on first glance, but ”kissed by the Gods” on deeper study, barely functional, but genius. That is Katherine.

On a recent visit to her home I saw what was shockingly one of the most riveting artistic expressions I have ever seen. Off in the distance of a room were the drawings, mounted with duct tape on a canvas--- a series of drawings, that were made of her ailing father, who very recently passed away after years of illness. Her drawings were amazing on the merit of their artistry alone, but the experiences chronicled through sketch and accompanying narrative made it a beautiful marriage of poetry, fine art, grieving, catharsis, examination, and many other things that I could not even interpret in one gulp.

Katherine’s Titan of a father (that is another story) was dying, quadriplegic, with bodily systems failing, and she processed it in the only way she knows how…through Art, and love. I am confident that this tapestry of her work will be assembled into a book one day soon. It is that profound….and compelling. She owes it to the rest of us.

Katherine Kousi is one of the most genuine and caring people I know in this, or any, town. She always asks me first how I am, even when her present world is as a tornado….as it chronically has been of late. Her 5 dogs of all shapes and sizes don’t make it any less turbulent. One of her animals she insists to be one of her 5 dogs but I know it to be a familiar farm animal, for sure. It is a pot bellied pig that she has mistaken for a dog….oh well, an artist can do anything with imagination and whimsy. Now, add 3 highly energetic kids…Aidan, Truman, and Fergus, and you have critical mass.

In doing some quick research online on Katherine I discovered that she was an accomplished actress in the 90’s. The remarkable part of this is that Katherine has never told me that…..I have known her for 3 or 4 years and she hasn’t seen that as a significant part of her resume, apparently. She is moving forwards, always moving forwards, zero posturing.

Her artwork will be featured this summer in Art Festivals in Aspen, New York, and Basil, Switzerland. Her arc as a (known) artist is just beginning it’s ascent. It’s long overdue.

I’m proud to call her a friend.