Baker Artist Portfolios

Katie O'Keefe is a Baltimore based Figurative Fiber Artist. From the age of 14 Katie has been dealing with Chronic Lyme and her experience with this illness has had a great impact on her creative work. Throughout her teenage years she studied drawing and painting at The Art Effect (previously known as the Mill Street Loft) in Poughkeepsie NY. When the Lyme temporarily limited her dexterity she shifted her practice to adapt; discovering the joys and sensuality of working with thread. She received her BFA in Fiber Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art and studied textiles abroad in Turkey. While in New York she interned at Dieu Donné Papermill, where she learned the intricate processes of hand made paper. She is currently a resident artist of the City Arts live/work spaces in Station North, Baltimore, Maryland. Between 2020 and 2021 Katie was awarded the opportunity to study multiple small scale metal smithing techniques at the Baltimore Jewelry Center and in the Summer of 2023 she became their 1 Month Emerging Artist in Residence. During which, she focused on interconnecting the skilled crafts of Metal and Embroidery. Katie has notably exhibited her work at School 33 Art Center, Towson University, Stevenson University, The Baltimore Jewelry center and most recently presented her first solo show at Gallery CA. 

Artist Statement:

Continuing in the tradition of mending with needle and thread, I stitch together layers of sheer fabric; “painting” an intimate picture of my healing journey. Each figure is formed by strategically cutting and ripping tulle fabric into shapes and layering them atop one another to blend the colors, like a painter would mix paint. Using a straight-stitch sewing machine, a pile of colorful tulle fabric and dissolvable interfacing I stitch along my hand drawn lines to build up layers of shading and line-work. Having an “Invisible Illness”, means I may look perfectly fine on the outside but I am managing various symptoms such as chronic fatigue and nerve pain. I often use the top stitched slik organza layer as a representation of how I present myself to the outside world and use the raw expresionistic nature of the sew tulle fabric to represent what is going on behind my mask. The transparency of these material offers a doorway into the marks that were made in each individual layer throughout this intricate process. The twisting threads embedded into my work mirror the *spirochetes that have etched themselves into my body. I take note of how my body has changed, is changing, and replace fear with fascination as I trace lines of nerve pain down my arm all the way to my toes. Slowly I attempt to unravel these internal sensations, contextualizing them through the repetitious process of embroidery. I reflect on the levels of vulnerability I am willing to hold in different spaces, with different people. In my work I have taken down these barriers to allow for an honest conversation around the entirety of what lies beneath the surface. In sharing the personal experiences I have had dealing with chronic illness, I hope to hold space for those that want to share their own personal experiences but hold back out of fear of being met with stigma and judgement.

*A flexible spirally twisted bacterium