Katherine's profile
I am a storyteller, papercut artist, and puppeteer. I mainly make crankies, a form of visual art performance that involves a box containing a scroll of artwork. The scroll is attached to rods with cranks at the top. As the cranks are turned the scroll moves across the front of the box, where the viewer can see the artwork.
I'm a formally trained artist with a sculpture degree from MICA, however over fifteen years ago I started my foray into puppetry after seeing some shadow puppet shows and began to encourage my friends to make shadow puppet shows at parties. I started creating and performing crankies more seriously. I was already skilled in papercutting, but soon learned the necessary techniques underlying story telling and shadow puppetry. Most of my knowledge was learned though trial and error, practice, innovation, and collaboration.
The more I've worked on crankies, the more I've gotten interested in tales of unsung heroes and underdogs, such as a Vermont midwife, my father, the arabbers of Baltimore (itinerant produce vendors) who have a stable behind my house, and women of the past. Community is an integral part of my work. Throughout my years performing crankies, I've learned how to tell these stories to foster the amazing experience that happens after a live performance (versus exhibiting art that hangs on a wall, for instance), where people come up and share things about themselves. I've learned to choose and tell stories that cause others to think about and value their own stories.
One of my great pleasures as a crankie artist is the opportunity it allows for collaboration. I've worked with various puppeteers, but for the last ten years i have performed with puppeteer and foley artist Daniel Van Allen. Some collaborative projects include a 2019 I collaboration with Inuit Throat Singers, Nukariik, to tell the story of Sedna, an Inuit goddess of the sea. Closer to home, I worked with storyteller Robin Reid and the Baltimore Arabbers who have a stable behind my house. I've also worked with musical artists such as Georgia Beatty, Mark Jickling, Letitia VanSant, Caleb Stine, Wye Oak, Ellen Cherry, and Anna and Elizabeth.
In 2012, shortly after I started seriously papercutting, my papercut and shadow puppet work was exhibited at the Creative Alliance in Baltimore, MD. Then films of my crankies were selected to be a part of the 2014 Atlanta film festival and the New York Puppetry in Film Festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. In 2018, I was nominated, and selected to perform at the National Puppet Slam where I presented my crankie, Indigenous. I have also received scholarships to perform and teach at the National Puppetry Festival. In 2018 I was invited to the National Papercutters Guild Festival to perform, teach workshops, and present a talk.
Unofficially, I've been recognized by individuals and organizations with requests for commissions. In 2021 I was commissioned by California's Ismay Music to make a crankie* for a music video based on the folk song, Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie. In 2020 I made two crankies for Willow Garden Films for a Hazel Dickens Documentary telling the story of the Baltimore folk legend. In 2016 I built a moving panorama (a giant crankie) for a film displayed at the American Revolutionary Museum at Yorktown in Virginia. , and D.C.'s Whit's End Puppets.
I am honored to be recognized for the influence of my early work helping to revitalize the crankie community and interest in this historical art. Because of this, I have been called the "Jane Appleseed of Crankies" and the "Matron Saint of Crankies". I've been invited to teach and perform all over the country and continue to do so.
