Artist statement
Travel routes are fascinating occurrences, and there are vast systems underway that we are not aware of. My work has given me a deeper understanding of how people navigate, especially using proprioception, or the memorization of of routes through body movements; and synesthesia, or the combination of imagery and sensory information. Both of these are used by everyone in navigation to some extent, whether they realize it or not. I translate these travel routes and frequently-used location diagrams into my paintings and drawings which incorporate multi-sensory information as navigational landmarks in order to learn my way to new locations, remember the various routes I have taken, and to record what I saw, heard, smelled, and otherwise sensed while I was going to or spending time inside a place. My maps are a way for me to make sense of the world around me, and to navigate my way through it literally, also as a way for me to remember each time and place as unique and temporary. Besides the abstract recording of the lived sensory information, I also begin to consider how these routes change me, and the effect of each individual route and the time spent there.
My works are functional maps, and are records of the moment of specific periods of time and particular places, of my own life. These lived diagrams consider how I move through and between familiar spaces such as my studio and home, while others are based on the routes repeatedly walked, whose traces become the foundation of my paintings or drawings, the basis of each piece. With these lines as the beginning, I start to include other information recorded through mark making, color, texture, shape, and responding to each with another layer of visual information. As I remember each segment of a place or part of a walk or drive, I interpret it into the piece, translate it as I see it, and can share that through the elements of art, in basic forms and start to fill each with details.
My work regularly includes traditional media such as charcoal, graphite, watercolor, or acrylic, alongside nontraditional, such as collaged pieces of ephemera from my life, and other recycled materials. My studio strives to document what was around me when and where I was when making the piece, besides reducing waste, as well as giving importance to otherwise overlooked personal items. The familiarity and physicality of the subject matter of domesticity inform my work with a biological, cellular visual language, and a lighthearted, playful outlook in comparing the body with buildings, in that they both take in substances, use systems to control and maintain the whole structure, and expel waste. The way rooms of a house or a building service specific functions, organs in the body also have their unique purposes within an overall system within the body, or building. Arteries and blood veins appear in my work as moving pathways in the body between locations, just as roads carry goods and supplies.
By making these detailed maps of my most-used spaces and most-frequented routes, I have become very familiar with and more understanding of daily rhythms, and the subtle variations in otherwise familiar places. By listening closely and paying attention to our surroundings, we all can find and appreciate beauty in the aesthetics of our surroundings, architecture, or other places we use regularly.
Studio, Kansas City, Missouri
Miss Fisher in the studio, Orange, California
Studio, Orange, California
Detail, Directions to this Drawing from the Front Door
Available work
Represented by Cerbera Gallery, crossroads arts district, Kansas City, Missouri
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EDUCATION
Master of Fine Art in Interdisciplinary Studio Art
Maine College of Art & Design, Portland, Maine, 2006
Focus on Contemporary painting, drawing, installation, and Theory
Thesis: Proprioceptive Biograms, a look at wayfinding and mapmaking in art
Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art
University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, 2001
Painting Major with a Minor in Art History, Museum Studies program participant
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Moving Pathways, Leslie Powell Foundation Gallery, Lawton, OK, 2023
Vast Systems Underway, Art Reach of Mid Michigan, Mt. Pleasant, MI, 2022
From My House to the Flop Haus, The InsideOut, Sacramento, CA, 2021
Interactions with Space, Arts Council of Southeast Missouri, Cape Girardeau, MO, 2020
Falling into Place, Carnegie Arts Center, Alliance, NE, 2019
Cell Mitosis Library, Carnegie Library, Springfield, MO, 2019
Proprioceptive Biograms, Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences, Kansas City, MO, 2013
Proprioceptive Biograms, RMTArchitects, Kansas City, MO, 2013
Proprioceptive Biograms, Husch-Blackwell, Kansas City, MO, 2013
Proprioceptive Biograms, Quintiles, Overland Park, KS, 2012
Self-Location Project, Light Box Gallery, Kansas City, MO, 2012
Proprioceptive Biograms, Kaw Valley Arts and Humanities Gallery, Kansas City, KS, 2009
Proprioceptive Biograms, Porteous Building, Maine College of Art, Portland, ME, 2005
Self-Location Project, Friedman Gallery, Maine College of Art, Portland, ME, 2004
Kory Twaddle Solo Exhibition, Studio 43, Oklahoma City, OK, 2004
selected GROUP EXHIBITIONS
Department of Art Faculty Exhibition, Stan State Art Space, California State University, Stanislaus, Turlock, CA, 2023
Response to Architecture, A Two-Person Exhibition, Cerbera Gallery, Kansas City, MO, 2023
Big Names, Small Art, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA, 2021
Spring Salon, Cerbera Gallery, Kansas City, MO, 2021
The Castle, Arthousehaus, London, UK, 2021
38th Annual Art Auction, Kansas City Artists Coalition, Kansas City, MO, 2021
Touch, bG Gallery, Gestalt Projects, Santa Monica, CA, 2020-1
Make Cancer Less Scary, UCLA Jonsson Cancer Center Foundation, Los Angeles, CA, 2020
SOSUSPS, Woodstock, NY, 2020
VOTE!!, A Mail Art Project, Heard Library, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, 2020
Art Care Package, Cerbera Gallery, Kansas City, MO, 2020
COLLECT Art Sale, Maine College of Art, Portland, ME, 2020
37th Annual Art Auction, Kansas City Artists Coalition, Kansas City, MO, 2020
Winter Salon IV, Cerbera Gallery, Kansas City, MO, 2019-20
My View from Home, Vanderbilt University Library, Nashville, TN, 2020
Winter Postcard Exchange, The Postcard Collective, Tucson, AZ, 2020
Winter Salon IV, Cerbera Gallery, Kansas City, MO, 2019-20
Postcard Perspectives, {Artspace] at Untitled, Oklahoma City, OK, 2019
August Art Salon: Daniel Brennan and Kory Twaddle, Cerbera Gallery, Kansas City, MO, 2019
The Square Faire, White Space Chelsea, New York, NY, 2019
Explorations in Abstract: Phil Strang and Kory Twaddle, Springer Cultural Center, Champaign, IL, 2019
Summer Salon, Cerbera Gallery, Kansas City, MO, 2019
Bits and Pieces, InterUrban Art House, Overland Park, KS, 2018
NAMA 10X10, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Employee Exhibition, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2018
Wish You Were Here, A.I.R. Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, 2018
The Big Show, Sky Gallery, Springfield-Branson National Airport, Springfield, MO, 2018
Trap X Art, Amadeus Gallery, New York, NY, 2018
Flat Rate Box, modified/arts, Phoenix, AZ, 2017-18
Unsaid, Florida International University, Miami, FL, 2017
NAMA 10X10, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Employee Exhibition, Blackfish Gallery, Kansas City, MO, 2016
UrbanSuburban, Jewish Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS, 2015
NAMA 10X10, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Employee Exhibition, Tom Weiner Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri, 2015
32nd Annual Benefit Art Auction, Kansas City Artists Coalition, Kansas City, MO, 2015
UrbanSuburban, Jewish Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS, 2014
31st Annual Benefit Art Auction, Kansas City Artists Coalition, Kansas City, Missouri, 2014
NAMA 10X10, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Employee Exhibition, Blackfish Gallery, Kansas City, MO, 2014
Art Faculty Exhibition, Carter Art Center Gallery, Penn Valley Campus, Metropolitan Community College, Kansas City, MO, 2013
30th Annual Benefit Art Auction, Kansas City Artists Coalition, Kansas City, Missouri, 2013
Rochester 6X6X2013, Rochester Contemporary Art Center, Rochester, NY, 2013
NAMA 10X10, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Employee Art Exhibition, Blackfish Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri, 2013
Kansas City Arts Fund Exhibition, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Spencer Room, Kansas City, MO, 2013
UrbanSuburban, Jewish Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS, 2013
Arty Party, Arts Council of Metropolitan Kansas City, Kansas City, MO, 2012
Arts in the Heart, Donnelly College, Kansas City, KS, 2012
UrbanSuburban, Jewish Museum of Contemporary Art, Epsten Gallery, Overland Park, Kansas, 2012
NAMA 10X10, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Employee Art Exhibition, Blackfish Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri, 2012
Annual Faculty Exhibition, Gallery of Art and Design, University of Central Missouri, Warrensburg, MO, 2011
Kansas City Arts Fund Exhibition, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Spencer Room, Kansas City, MO, 2011
Art Faculty Exhibition, Carter Art Center Gallery, Metropolitan Community College, Penn Valley, Kansas City, Missouri, 2011
Arts in the Heart, Donnelly College, Kansas City, KS, 2011
28th Annual Benefit Art Auction, Kansas City Artists Coalition, Kansas City, Missouri, 2011
Self, Jung Society Exhibition, Croft Art Gallery, Waco, TX, 2010
Annual Faculty Exhibition, Gallery of Art and Design, University of Central Missouri, Warrensburg, MO, 2010
Arts in the Heart, Donnelly College, Kansas City, Kansas, 2010
Maine College of Art’s 33rd Annual Art Auction, Institute of Contemporary Art, Maine College of Art, Portland, ME, 2009
Art in the Park: A Carnival on Spring Street. Art Depot, Fontana, CA, 2007
Feria de Abril, Promenade at dos Lagos, Corona, CA, 2007
Faculty Exhibition, Fine Art Gallery, Mt. San Jacinto College, San Jacinto, CA, 2007
Maine College of Art MFA Thesis Exhibition, Portland Yacht Services, Portland, ME, 2006
Collectible Young New Artists, JRB Art at the Elms, Juried by Joe Andoe, The Paseo, Oklahoma City, OK, 2006
Momentum: Art Doesn’t Stand Still, Downtown Farmer’s Market, Oklahoma City, OK, 2004
Not-So-Silent Night, Individual Artists of Oklahoma Gallery, Oklahoma City, OK, 2003
Sunday Night Showcase Series. Individual Artists of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, OK, 2003
Civil Rights⎯Human Rights. Kim Right Gallery, Washington, D.C., 2003
Momentum: Art Doesn’t Stand Still. Stage Center, Oklahoma City, OK, 2003
Islands in a Stream: Stream of Consciousness, Union Street Gallery, Chicago Heights, Illinois, 2003
Regional Juried Art Show and Sale. Lincoln Gallery, Loveland, CO, 2002
Orphan d’Art Show and Sale. Leslie Powell Foundation and Gallery, Lawton, OK, 2002
World Festival of Art on Paper. Bled, Slovenia, 2002
Biting the Apple: Sex Machines. Individual Artists of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, OK, 2002
Momentum: Art Doesn’t Stand Still. Stage Center, Oklahoma City, OK, 2002
87th Annual Student Exhibition. Fred Jones, Jr. Museum of Art, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, 2001
Self Portraits. Lightwell Gallery, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, 2001
Fresh Raw Wild Honey, a two-person exhibition, Studio 43, Oklahoma City, OK, 2001
Senior Capstone Exhibition. Lightwell Gallery, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, 2000
86th Annual Student Exhibition. Fred Jones, Jr. Museum of Art, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, 2000
Untitled. Lightwell Gallery, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, 2000
*CIRCUS* Art Show and Music Mania. Student Union, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, 1998
Big Idea Is Dead. Lightwell Gallery, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, 1998
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Lecturer, Art Department, California State University, Stanislaus; Turlock, CA, 2023 — present
Gallery Assistant, Art Department, California State University, Stanislaus; Turlock, CA, 2022 — present
Design Consultant, catstudio; Petaluma, CA, 2017
Research Assistant, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art; Kansas City, MO, 2008—2019
Adjunct Professor, Metropolitan Community College, Penn Valley Campus, Carter Art Center; Kansas City, MO, 2008—15
Adjunct Professor, Avila University; Kansas City, MO, 2012—2014
Adjunct Professor, University of Central Missouri; Warrensburg, MO, 2010—2012
Adjunct Professor & Exhibition Coordinator, Donnelly College; Kansas City, KS, 2009—12
Education Facilitator & Camp Counselor, Kansas City Zoo; Kansas City, MO, 2009–11
Photographer, Interstate Studios; Independence, MO, 2009—10
Adjunct Professor, Grantham University; Kansas City, MO, 2009—10
Adjunct Professor, Allen County Community College; Burlingame, KS, 2008—10
Adjunct Professor, Mt. San Jacinto College; Menifee, CA, 2006—08
Teaching Artist, McCallum Theatre Institute; Palm Desert, CA, 2006—08
Guest Artist, Arts & Minds Program, Riverside Arts Council; Riverside, CA, 2006—08
Visiting Artist, P.A.R.K. At-Risk Program; Oklahoma City, OK, 2003
Guest Artist, Norman Arts Council; Norman, OK, 2001—04
Visiting Artist, Oklahoma Arts Council; Oklahoma City, OK, 2001—04
AWARDS
Featured Artist, The Working Artist 2, London, UK, March 20, 2021
Featured Artist, Art Hole: 10, London, UK, March 15, 2021
KCArtist Featured Artist, KC Artist Link, 2011
Maine College of Art & Design Grant, 2005
Maine College of Art & Design Merit Award, 2005
Maine College of Art & Design Scholarship, 2004
Maine College of Art & Design Merit Scholarship, 2004
Professional Basics Grant, Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition, 2004
Spring Award, Art on Paper, Bled, Slovenia, 2002
ASSOCIATIONS
Represented by Cerbera Gallery, Crossroads Arts District, Kansas City, MO
Arts KC Repository, Kansas City Artists Coalition, Kansas City, MO
American Alliance of Museums
College Art Association
Artists Space, New York, NY
Artists’ Files, Spencer Visual Art Reference Library, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO
Arts Council of Metropolitan Kansas City, MO
Artist Files Archive, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Viewing Program and Slide Registry, The Drawing Center, New York, NY
Individual Artists of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, OK
Artists Register, Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition, Oklahoma City, OK
Artists Registry, Melton Art Reference Library, Oklahoma City, OK
Big Idea Is Dead, Student Group, School of Art, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK
collections
Springer Cultural Center, Champaign, IL
Parker-Hannifin Corporation, Alliance, NE
Carnegie Arts Center, Alliance, NE
Marilyn Carbonell, Director Emeritus, Spencer Visual Arts Reference Library, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, KC, MO
Marc Wilson, Director Emeritus, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO
Kansas City Jewish Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS
Michael Smith, James Beard Award-Winning Chef and Restaurateur, Kansas City, MO
Torosian Foundation, Prairie Village, KS
Kaw Valley Arts and Humanities, Kansas City, KS
Deborah Brackenbury, University of Delaware, Newark, DE
University of Oklahoma Print Collection, Norman, OK
Reynold’s Army Community Hospital, Fort Sill, OK
Detail, Our House in the Kill Zone
Detail, Blue Springs Semi
Detail, Our House in the Kill Zone
Detail, We Are Here
Detail, Moving to Kansas City
Detail, First Floor Biogram
Detail, South Lawn in the Autumn
Detail, California Driving Series #14: Traffic Controls
Detail, Second Floor Biogram
Detail, Nerve Center
Detail, Brookside Biogram #2
biographical information
Kory Twaddle is a professional mid-career multimedia visual artist who practices painting, drawing, and mixed-media collaging and installation work. She uses traditional media alongside nontraditional and recycled elements in her works. Twaddle earned her MFA in Interdisciplinary Studio Art from the Maine College of Art and Design in Portland, Maine, and her BFA in Art from the University of Oklahoma in Norman.
Currently living in Turlock, California, in the Central Valley, she has continuously created and exhibited my work at every place she has been able to live and study, which has included the Great Plains, New England, the West Coast, and the Midwest. The variation in landscape has been influential to her work, and the actual navigation itself is especially inspirational. Her work is about mapping her most-used locations, such as her home and studio, abstractly layering multi-sensory information, with an organic visual language sensibility. These waves of experience included in the maps are from remembered visuals, sounds, smells, and other sensory combinations that allow for a closer description of that place.
Twaddle has recently been recognized as a featured artist at The Working Artist and Art Hole, both out of London, and published with George Mason University’s Phoebe: A Journal of Literature and Art. She has most recently had a solo exhibition at the InsideOut in Sacramento, and has upcoming solo shows at the Leslie Powell Foundation Gallery in Lawton, Oklahoma, and Art Reach of Mid Michigan in Mt. Pleasant.
Twaddle lives with her husband Kevin Daniel Motes (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma), a Professor of Native and Ethnic Studies at California State University, Stanislaus, where Twaddle is the Gallery Assistant and Lecturer in the Art Department. They live with their two Siamese sister cats.