Kathleen Eggert

"My current body of work was inspired by 19th century ornithological illustrations. Early pieces incorporated details such as eggs, feathers, and plant life. The work has since evolved to include a series of portraits of individual species devoid of these contextual elements. By placing them in environments that are somewhere between impressionist and abstract, I hope to call attention to the fragility of the environment and the plight of all life forms as climate change alters habitat and food sources.”

Kathleen Eggert is self-taught in the art of enamel on glass. She began working in this medium in the 1980’s, producing a line of functional tableware sold through galleries and art shows around the U.S. After taking this work as far as she could, she turned to creating a series of figurative sculptures inspired by the costumes, rituals and stories of traditional cultures. These sculptures were adorned with masks and ornaments fabricated of sterling silver which required Kathleen to become a metalsmith. She studied for two semesters with Claire Pfleger at Cardinal Stritch University, learning a variety of basic and advanced metals techniques.

By the mid-2000’s Kathleen had again reached what she considered the technical and aesthetic limits of what she wanted to accomplish and began what has been an ongoing exploration of design, technique and meaning in a new body of work focused on images of birds and their environments. Kathleen Eggert's work is in numerous museums in the U.S. including the Corning Museum of Glass and has been exhibited internationally in the International Exhibition of Glass in Kanazawa, Japan and in Europe as part of the Americans in Glass inaugural traveling exhibition.