Kate Burnim is a Vermont based artist + illustrator who draws inspiriation from mid-century design + other periods of days gone by, wee creatures, the natural world, and the wild places within. She is stirred by the long needles of the red pine, the song of the morning dove, melody of the spring melt + the many forms of moss + lichen. And there, within her, is juxtaposed a love of the industrial- metal, train stations, rust, concrete, bridges, water towers + old brick factories. She works out of SnapWhistleStudio, in her Montpelier home where she dances the home studio dance, meeting and greeting the comings and goings of Rip-Sticking kids, big dog stalking little dog, harp blowing husband and twirling back into the colors and forms she is moving and shaking with at that moment. Kate lives with her partner in life Jacob Rogen, of Rogen Design Build, her daughter, her son, a german shepherd, called Sasha and a yorkipoo, who goes by Reuben. These are the Lil’Buddies. Each one is unique. Each figure different but the same. Every Lil’Buddy gazes forward with two eyes. Every Lil’Buddy wears a hood. Every Lil’Buddy holds a heart. My work is an attempt to engage with raw human emotion using line, texture, patterning and repetition of form. Informed by the weathering of human experience, the passage of time, the building up of layers and the scrapping away, my works looks to celebrate tender imperfections and juxtapose solidity, directness and vulnerability. The repetition of form is an integral part of my process. The parameters I set allow me to freely explore media and style but also subtleties, differences, personality, and feeling. There are many Lil’Buddies. For me, the Lil’Buddies have to do with solidarity, with offering, with the force that is the human heart.
