Artist Statement

Kathleen Bonnar is an Iñupiaq artist working in watercolor and oil on wood panels. Her practice begins with the land, its light, its weight, its memory, and the people whose lives are woven into it.

Her oil paintings build color in thin, luminous layers. She works toward depth and richness without obscuring what lies beneath. Her watercolors work with light and negative space, letting the paper breathe. Both practices share a quality of sustained attention and intentional observation.

Her recent work centers the relationship between Indigenous peoples and their care for the land spanning millenia. Cultural subsistence practices inform this work. These are not simply methods of harvesting. They are living traditions where families gather, where knowledge passes between generations, and where a way of life is actively sustained. These practices and the landscapes that hold them are under threat. Painting the land is an act of witness.