Kathleen
Pompe Professor of Art
MFA, The Pennsylvania State University
(843) 661-1541
email: kpompe@fmarion.edu
Eclectic Explorations: A Photographic Journey
click on an image to enlarge....
Kathleen
Pompe
Butterfly Sanctuary |
Chichen Itza: Emerging Entities |
Cloaked Dualisms |
Falsified Flora |
From Tombstone to Santa Fe |
Kloster Eberbach: Monks' Dormitory |
Sheldon Church: Homage to Frances Benjamin Johnston |
That Which Remains |
Through Chihuly to the Smiling Angel |
Self-Portrait I |
6 Etudes |
Self-Portrait II |
Beach Image I |
Atalaya Interior |
Beach Image II |
Photography embraces many techniques and processes. On this web page, I show my digital images, Polaroid manipulations, and straight images. All are shown together to illustrate an evolutionary process but also a continuity of vision. Each process has distinct characteristics and provokes attention on it's own terms. In fact, some earlier shots provide the basis for some of the later work. For example, in Atalaya Interior, the dark atmosphere and strong light source create a mood that speaks of an ominous time and place. The image is complete and it effectively communicates without need of further elaboration. My introduction to the field of photography was through black and white image making and my love for straight images-- especially black and whites images-- remains strong.
I have worked with Polaroid materials since 1987. I find that the nature of this photographic process, the properties of the film, and the immediacy of the image-making contribute to it's ability to embrace change and transformation. My Cloaked Dualisms, illustrate the variations possible with each sheet of Polaroid film. Although the subject matter of each Cloaked Dualisms is similar, the manipulation technique makes each image unique. Polaroid manipulations logically progressed to digital images.
I began in 1995 to incorporate the computer as a participant in the image-making process. Some of my digital images started with one or several of my earlier images as a background or stage for the story to take place. Onto this background I incorporate aspects from various Polaroid images. For example, in Sheldon Church: Homage to Frances Benjamin Johnston, I start with the image Old Sheldon Church. I then add, repeatedly, selected elements of Cloaked Dualisms and Falsified Flora, changing the original image from a straight view of the ruins to one where the ruins become inhabited by spirits from the past. The first image allows the viewer to imagine the spirits that might have remained there: the second, surrealistically, brings those spirits into reality-- a digital reality.
By integrating my Polaroid images into the digital images I take my concepts to a new and unique level. While some Polaroid characteristics are lost, such as the subtle, fragile "relief" look of the one-of-a-kind Polaroid and the intimacy of a small image viewed at very close range, others are gained. For example, with the computer I stretch, layer, and distort reality to a new dimension, one unattainable in my previous manipulation process. The new fantasy aspects, now more surreal, draw the viewer even closer.
Many elements from the Polaroid images appear as thematic fragments in my digital narratives. I continue to shoot work with the intention of exhibiting images in each of the processes and techniques that I show here. I look forward to the continued journey and to my exploration of fantasy based imagery through the metamorphosis of my work.
Kathleen Pompe is Professor of Art at Francis Marion University in Florence, SC, where she teaches the photography art specialty area in the Visual Arts Program. For the past twenty years her photography has been exhibited extensively in one-person, invitational, and juried art shows throughout the United States.
BA Art: The Pennsylvania State University, 1975.
Recent workshop at the International Center of Photography, New York, NY,
(1999- Digital Collage: Altering Reality with John Paul Caponigro).Additional course work taken at Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, NY,
(1997- Desktop Publishing with Brad Freeman, and 1995 -Photoshop with Geri McCormick).
Teaching Experience.
Professor of Art, Department of Fine Arts, Francis Marion University. (August 1999 - present).Grants.Associate Professor, Department of Fine Arts, Francis Marion University. (August 1993 - August 1999).
Assistant Professor, Department of Fine Arts, Francis Marion University. (August 1988 - August 1993).
Assistant Professor, Department of Art, Moorhead State University. One year, sabbatical replacement position. (August 1987 - May 1988).
Assistant Professor, Department of Art, College of Fine Arts, Eastern New Mexico University. (August 1985 - August 1987).
Instructor, Part-time, The Pennsylvania State University, Continuing Education Division. (Spring Semester 1985).
South Carolina Arts Commission, Project Grant: Individual, July 1997-June 1998. (Grant to work with vintage photographs and negatives from the 1930's-1950's Dune Stabilization projects on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.)Photography Awards.Sabbatical Leave: "A Rephotographic Survey of the Dune Stabilization Project on the Outer Banks," with Jeffrey Pompe, Spring, 1997.
Faculty Research and Development Gran t, Eastern New Mexico University, 1986 - 1987. (Grant to photograph in Eastern New Mexico.)
Purchase Award, "Southeastern Juried Exhibition 1999," Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL,1999.
Honorable Mention, Pee Dee Regional Art Exhibition, Florence, SC, 1998.
Second Place Award, Miniature Art Show, Florence Mus, Florence,SC, 1998.
Honorable Mention, "Southworks," Watkinsville, GA, 1998.
Honorable Mention, Miniature Art Show, Florence Mus., Florence, SC, 1997.
Best of Show, Piccolo Spoleto, Charleston, SC, 1996.
Honorable Mention, 17th, 12th and 11th C&S Bank-Florence Museum State-wide Exhibitions, Florence, SC, 1995, 1990, 1989.
Third Place Award, Pee Dee Regional Art Exhibition, Florence, SC, 1994.
Second Place Award, "Southern Visions," Museum of York County, Rock Hill, SC, 1992. (Jerry Uelsmann, juror)
Second Place Award, "Southern Visions," Museum of York County, Rock Hill, SC, 1990. (John Szarkowski, juror)
Honorable Mention, Pee Dee Regional Art Exhibition, Florence, SC, 1990.
Honorable Mention, Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, State College, PA, 1989.
Cash Award, 38th Annual Show, Guild of South Carolina Artists, Spartanburg Arts Center, Spartanburg, SC, 1988.
First Place Award, Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, State College, PA, 1983.
Honorable Mention, Women in the Arts, William Penn Memorial Museum, Harrisburg, PA, 1981.
First Place Award, Greater Harrisburg Arts Festival, Harrisburg, PA, 1980.
Selected One Person / Two Person / Invitational Exhibitions.
One Person Show, Museum of Marion Co, Marion, SC, 1999.
One Person Show, USC-Beaufort, Beaufort, SC, 1998.
One Person Show, Southern Light Gallery, Amarillo Col, Amarillo,TX, 1997.
Members' Show, The Light Factory, Charlotte, NC, 1998, 1997, 1996.
Invitational, Professors Select Students (Two Universities), Florence Museum, Florence, SC, 1996.
One Person Show, Red Barn Visual Arts Center, Florence, SC, 1996.
Two Person Show, Atlanta Photography Gallery, Atlanta, GA, 1995
"Centennial Celebration," Invitational, South Carolina State Museum, Columbia, SC, 1994.
One Person Show, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 1993.
Two Person Show, Lander University, Greenwood, SC, 1992.
Four Florence Photographers, Florence Museum, Florence, SC, 1991.
One Person Show, Virginia Intermont College, Bristol, VA, 1991.
Two Person Show, Columbia College, Columbia, SC, 1989.
"Midwestern Invitational," The Rourke Art Gallery, Moorhead, MN, 1988-9.
One Person Show, Smith University Center, Francis Marion University, Florence, SC, 1993, 1991, 1989.
"Art Goes Fishing," Group Invitational, The Rourke Art Gallery, Moorhead, MN, 1988.
Two Person Show, Augusta College of Art, Augusta, GA, 1988.
One Person Show, New Mexico Highlands University, Las Vegas, NM, 1987.
"100 Years of Art," Faculty Invitational, Moorhead State University, Moorhead, MN, 1987.
"Dreams and Memories," Two Person Show, Eastern New Mexico University, Portales, NM, 1986.
One Person Show, Eastern New Mexico University, Portales, NM, 1985.
"Moments and Transitions," Group Invitational, Art Alliance, Lemont, PA, 1985.
Pennsylvania Artists Exhibition, American Wind Symphony Orchestra's Floating Arts Center, Point Counterpoint II, Pittsburgh, PA, 1981.
Women in the Arts: Invitational, The Washington offices of the Governor of PA, Washington, DC, and the Commission for Women, Harrisburg, PA.
Group Invitational, opening exhibition for "Women Center for the Arts," Boulder, CO, 1976.
Selected Juried Exhibitions.
"Southeastern Juried Exhibition 1999," Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL,1999.
"Contemporary Southeastern Photography: A Regional Juried Exhibition," Crealde School of Art, Winter Park, FL, 1999, 1994, 1993.
State-wide Annual - Florence Museum Exhibition, Florence, SC, 1999, 1998. 1997, 1996, 1995, 1994, 1992, 1991, 1990, 1989.
"Texas National '98," Nacogdoches, TX, 1998.
"Southworks," Watkinsville, GA, 1998, 1997, 1996.
Miniature Art Competition, Florence Museum, Florence, SC, 1998, 1997,
1996, 1995.
"16th Annual Alexandria Museum Art Competition," Alexandria, LA, 1998.
"Fall for the Arts, " Sumter, SC, 1998.
Pee Dee Regional Art Exhibition, Florence Museum, Florence, SC, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995, 1994, 1993, 1992, 1991, 1990.
"Masks and Magic," Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, IL, 1996.
"Vivace," Myrtle Beach Convention Center, Myrtle Beach, SC, 1996.
"Magic Silver," University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA, and Murray State University, Murray, KY, 1996, 1993.
"Illuminance," Lubbock Fine Arts Center, Lubbock, TX, 1995,1992.
"Art on Broadway," Broadway Gallery, Myrtle Beach, SC, 1995.
"Festivale '95," Woodside Conference Center, Greenville, SC, 1995.
"Southern Visions," Museum of York County, Rock Hill, SC, 1994, 1992, 1990, 1988.
"In the Spirit of Jefferson: A Photographic Essay Competition," Muscarelle Museum of Art, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA 1993.
Tenth Anniversary Henley Southeastern Spectrum, Sawtooth Building Galleries, Winston-Salem, NC, 1991.
National Exposure Photography Exhibit, Sawtooth Building Galleries, Winston-Salem, NC, 1990.
Connecticut Yankee Photo Exhibition, Elmira College, Elmira, NY, 1989.
Central PA Festival of the Arts, State College, PA, 1989, 1985, 1984, 1983..
South Carolina Arts Com.- Annual Juried Exhibition, Columbia, SC, 1989.
"Alternatives '88," Ohio University, Athens, OH, 1988.
"Dwellings," County College of Morris, Randolph Township, NJ, 1984.
Women in the Arts, William Penn Memorial Museum, Harrisburg, PA, 1983, 1982, 1981, and 1980.
"New Photographics '83 and '81," Central Washington University, Ellensburg, WA, 1983 and 1981.
"Imagism," The Light Factory, Charlotte, NC, 1981.
"American Vision 1980," New York University, NY, NY, 1980.
Second Annual "Pictures" National Photography Competition and Exhibition , Concord, CA, 1979.
Third Annual "Freshworks," Hermitage Foundation Mus., Norfolk, VA, 1978.
"Faces of Women by Women," Denver, CO, 1978.
Boulder Annual Festival of the Arts, Boulder, CO, 1976.
"Photography: A Woman's Show, " (4-State, Regional Exhibition), Denver, CO, 1975.
First Annual University of Colorado Photographic Show, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 1975.
Photographs In Publication.
Pompe, Jeffrey, "The Development of Dewees Island," South Carolina Policy Forum, Vol 8. No 3. Summer 1997, 6-16.Hirsch, Robert. Exploring Color Photography, third edition. Dubuque, IA: William C. Brown Publishers, 1997. (Also publ. in second edition, 1992)
Pompe, Jeffrey. "The Nature of Sand: South Carolina's Shifting Shoreline." South Carolina Policy Forum, Vol 6. No 3. Summer 1995, 4-12.
Steffensen & Johnson. Trigonometry with Analytic Geometry . Harper Collins Publishers, 1993. Cover photograph.
Levey, Marc B., and Lloyd, James. Thinking in the Photographic Idiom, A Book of Perceptual Exercises. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1984. Contributed 7 photographs.
Fergus, Chuck. "Mayhew." Research/Penn State, September 1983.