I SAVED A CHAIR FOR YOU
Sometimes trauma has its way with you and you can’t un-ring a bell you saw what you saw and their pain is etched in your heart and memory
2024, Marker on paper on acid free paper, 11 x 8.5”
Run-On Sentence Series, 2022-2025
2022-2025, Marker on paper on acid free paper, 7 x 10”
$200 each
Artist Statement on Run-On Sentence Series
I’ve been doing art-as-harm reduction/art-as-wellness support work consistently for many years in Philadelphia, and specifically in Kensington for 9 years with my colleague, Lisa Kelley. Can a ‘sanctuary studio’ of creativity, connection and belonging be a ‘bridge’ to supportive services for people we care about in active addiction, many of whom are experiencing homelessness? Does any of it even make a difference? It does. Somehow. Some way.
So many of our social systems of care are broken…and therefore perpetuate a revolving door of despair for anyone wanting support. Or perhaps these systems are working as intended to keep people down, and the money machine of capitalism flowing. Ya think?
I call this on-going series, Run-on Sentence/Revolving Door, as I’ve needed a way to process my frustration, and feelings of grief and overwhelm. I return from the end of a day sometimes, and after a hot shower of transition, time with my plants and a hot coffee, I sit and write things I’ve heard and seen… a way of scribbling, of shedding… an intentional way to loosen and free my mind and body of trauma. Does it work? Sort of.
I’ve decided very recently to take a deliberate pause, a break, a shift in the new year ahead. What does this look like? I’m still figuring this out. You’ll always find me at the loom, and making art, no matter. You’ll always find me loving people.
What do you do to take care of yourself? Are you listening to your intuitive inner wondrous self?
I see you.
-Kathryn Pannepacker
William Way LGBT Community Center
1315 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107
P: 215-732-2220