Katharine Leigh Simpson is a painter, performer, fiber artist, and moving figure. Simpson captures in her work the intensity and simplicity of the raw nature of human emotions and the impermanence of life through line and form. She attended the Katherine K. Herberger College of Fine Arts and graduated with a BFA in Painting in 2005. She has exhibited work in her native state of Arizona at Art One, Monorchid, The Hive, The Lodge, and Frontal Lobe Gallery. Her works where also shown in New York at the Art Students League, while attending a residency under scholarship.
In 2010, Simpson began exploring the fleeting moment through performance art. She has brought her performances to Film Bar, Alwun House, Monarch Theatre, Playhouse on the Park and The Ghost Lounge inside Hotel San Carlos. She has taken classes in belly dance, swing, tango, and burlesque. She has training in art modeling with the ability to hold poses over an extended period of time. She is one of the original performing members of Vraja Productions, a Gothic Vaudeville now in its 6th season. Simpson designs all her costumes which are customized specifically for her live performances. Each costume employs elements of change to express transformation embodied in all her art.
In her fine art practice, Katharine creates installations that employ paper and fibers as mediums for their fragile and transformational properties. For her solo show “ The Eye of the Storm and the Process of Peace” in November 2014 she created a physical storm made entirely out of paper. The viewer traveled through the white, black and gray storm to emerge out the other side greeted by a beautiful blue wave. Simpson recently collaborated with Mark Hughes and Justin Winters, projection artists, to create "From the Ashes, She Arose" for ARTELPHX4, a multi sensory experience for the viewers, combining projection and performance art.
