In the 1980s, Kathryn began to produce a series of much darker, freestanding and larger-scale Earthskins. These works became the basis for several museum exhibitions. The structural Earthskins, were fabricated entirely by the artist from paper pulp, clay and pigments, creating an imposing wall reaching 69 feet in length!

 

“The culmination of the Earthskins body of work was marked by a book project, called Batterers. A collaboration with Claire Van Vliet of Janus Press, Newark, Vermont, and the late American poet, Denise Levertov. The project was conceived in 1988-89, but completed in 1996. Although feminism has been a theme throughout Kathryn’s work, here it is at its most explicit. Denise’s poem about a battered woman extends into a metaphor of abuse to the earth; the cover is made from fragments of the red-toned Earthskins and inside is the shape of an Australian rock formation that resembles a figure of a woman made from pulp painting with the text included in a box made of tamarack wood, chosen for its simplicity. The colour, structure and content of the work make it a highly-charged piece of feminist art – the collaboration of three gifted women.” Sarah McCutchen Greiche, Montreal writer, curator and consultant for public art and sculpture