Katrina Niswander

Katrina Niswander is an internationally exhibiting and collected fine artist, interior designer, and life coach working out of her home studio in Toledo, Ohio. She has a fascination with the feeling of home, what we choose to surround ourselves with, and what we leave behind. In her fine art practice, she uses her vast collection of found photographs as inspiration. Her mixed media paintings are a collaboration between past and present. She takes fuzzy black-and-white snippets of time and intuitively adds graphic color in an attempt to wrap her head around the complexities of time, memory, nostalgia, and loss in a playful way.

Artist Statement

My artwork begins with my collection of found photographs. I transform fuzzy black-and-white snippets of time through my intuitive practice. As I paint, I contemplate the lives of the subjects and weave them a new story. It's meditative and collaborative—integrating what they have chosen to share about themselves in the photo with what I can add with my paintbrush. It bends time, celebrates these ghosts, and adds another layer to their existence. We take photos as a way to capture a memory, but even photos fade and crumble; even the digital can become corrupted or lost. My mixed media paintings are a collaboration between past and present that manufactures new memories for us to share.

Contact

www.katrinaniswander.com
katrina@katrinaniswander.com
@katrinanart

Interview

How does your mission as an artist influence the work you create?

My mission in all my work is to help others see more beauty in the everyday. In my fine art, I rescue discarded photos—snippets of time that were once celebrated memories. I then intuitively "collaborate" with these figures from the past, adding to the photos with my paintbrush, celebrating them, and giving them new life. I infuse playful color and vibrancy back into forgotten memories, choosing images that feel relatable. My aim is not only to honor these overlooked figures but also to create new shared memories we can enjoy together. I want my work to inspire us to live in the moment and make the most of our limited time on this earth.