A Common Treasury : Welcome

Welcome to 'A Common Treasury', the online space for the art work of Kat Blockley.

Browse the drawings and artworks and immerse yourself in the archive of images and clips which can be found under the Shoebox Files tab. Those who wish to spend time with the 'Common Treasury' may find humour alongside grave concerns and, perhaps recognition between the inky, papery folds.

If you wish to contact Kat or suggest contributions to the archive please email kat@katblockley.com.

Connect with me on instagram @a.common.treasury.

Connect with me on Facebook A Common Treasury: Kat Blockley Art.

Short Artist Statement

Kat archives the interface of tradition and modernity in everyday life. Driven by nostalgia and the ways the ephemeral and eternal intermingle, Kat maintains an evolving collection of news cuttings in shoebox files, the primary source for her work. Under the title ‘A Common Treasury,’ Kat transforms these familiar and idiosyncratic fragments into stitched drawings, songs, and illustrations. The domestic scale of her work, interwoven with their vitality of line, provides an intimate, front parlour experience. Seeking the universal within the specific, Kat quests for eccentric characters, intriguing headlines, authoritative texts, and evidence of community spirit thriving in the unlikeliest of places. Adapting to archive cultural shifts that bring new concerns and approaches to the communities served by local newspapers, her files are populated with everything from prize bulls, produce shows and food banks to changes in weather and gender roles. Kat asks how do we, consciously or unconsciously, situate and ground ourselves between old and new, past, present and future as we narrate our own life stories and model our surroundings in a rapidly changing world? What do we borrow from history, heritage, craft and memory? What do we discard, and what do we adapt? By mining the humdrum for the exceptional, Kat identifies threads of continuity between old and new. Her characters, places and events be they heroic, absurd or tragi-comic are always lovingly presented. These vignettes beguile us to consider the thresholds between what we venerate, criticise, or ridicule prompting us to wonder, to recognise, and to smile.

Click here for detailed artist statement and my CV

Purchase prints and greetings cards designed by Kat for Strandline on Bandcamp.