Faces + Spaces: Catie Moore
Art is not always a Vincent Van Gogh painting hung in the Louvre or an interest exclusively for the elite. Art is made for everyone, and for Northwestern sophomore Catie Moore, art was made for her.
At 9 years old, Moore’s mother enrolled her in extracurricular visual art lessons hoping that it would spark an artistic flame. It was here that Moore gained her technical knowledge of painting and drawing, learning about important concepts like value and color.
“I took formal lessons until eighth grade,” Moore says. “It really taught me more about the art classics and basics.”
As she grew into adolescence, Moore ravenously practiced illustrating the human face by copying portraits from magazines, newspapers, billboards and anything else she could find.
“I used to rip pages out of Vogue magazine and try to replicate their faces in my drawing,” Moore says. Once she reached high school, Moore could identify the moment she transformed into an artist.
“At that point, my art became a lot more about not necessarily learning how to draw a face the right way or how to translate a photo into a drawing or a painting, but how to take that knowledge of technique and then turn it into something that showed my voice in an original way," Moore says.
Moore enjoys all sorts of art: drawing, painting, collages and more. Regardless of the form, most of her pieces involve human subjects. She often searches for interesting faces as a jumping off point for any given piece.
“I use images of faces and build off of them so it becomes less about my work being a portrait of a face, and more about my work serving to represent a face or a larger meaning,” she says.
With her own artistic voice and perspective, Moore often takes inspiration from beliefs and experiences she holds as an Asian American woman.
In a recent piece she created, Moore focused on feminist scholar Anne Cheng’s theory of Ornamentalism and the intersectionality of misogyny and racism toward Asian American women. Moore is half-Chinese and found that Cheng’s theory resonated deeply with her own lived experiences, giving her inspiration for this particular piece.
“As an Asian woman, I took a lot of the ideas [Cheng] explored and wanted to create a portrait that expressed Asian femininity,” Moore says. “I think it is my favorite painting I have made.”
Representation of marginalized voices in the Western, white and patriarchal art sphere is important to Moore. Lately, synthesizing the westernized version of art she was taught and the Chinese motifs and symbols in her life has been one of her artistic goals.
She also enjoys portraying femininity and the female form in her pieces for the same reasons. Western art often involves a male artist depicting or objectifying women and their sexuality. Moore wants to change this narrative
“I feel like the female figure can be used by male artists as a way to sensationalize their art and create a response,” Moore says. “I want to reframe the female figure from a woman’s point of view in a way that is not sexualized or objectified.”
As a fellow member of STITCH herself, Moore has always taken note of the crossovers between fashion and art. In fact, one of her artistic hobbies has been painting on various forms of denim to create something new.
“Painting on clothing or reworking old clothing is such a great way to explore the artistic side of fashion,” she says.
Moore describes all of her work as an “idea collage.” She believes the key to her process lies in piecing many separate parts together until they create a cohesive whole. Moore says that creating outfits is just another idea collage. What is fashion if not collaging pieces of clothing to create an organic whole, an outfit that speaks without using words?
“Putting together an outfit is such an idea collage. There is such art to creating a look,” Moore says. “Fashion and art are more interconnected than they may seem.”