About Katie
“I see my work as a conduit for light.”
KATIE WHEAT PERNU is a mosaic artist who has spent most of her life teaching others about art. She holds a degree in Art Education from Northern Arizona University and achieved National Board Certification as an art teacher. For over 20 years, Katie was a full-time art teacher who also worked as an artist. In 2015, she embarked upon an important shift by becoming a full-time professional artist who also teaches. She has studios in the Tulsa area of Oklahoma as well as Ely, Minnesota. Her roots are in Arizona and California and all of these places influence her work.
It is not an accident that so many of her creations are done on vintage and antique surfaces. These items have a sense of history that Pernu finds comforting and she believes in the message they convey. They bare scars as we all do but they are here, and they still work. Not one of us gets through life unscathed, but we persevere. We keep working. Pernu has been commissioned to create pieces for the Paris Air Show, a university, a church, businesses, individuals and families. She has sold works based on people, flight, nature and spirituality as well as many abstract compositions which are installed throughout the United States.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Over the years I have experimented with many media and techniques to depict lights and darks, but when I began to work with actual light, I was home. Changing light conditions combine with glass and create magic. It is a magic that I need in my life and it is a magic that resonates with others. I also incorporate translucent minerals, beads, buttons and other finds in my mosaics. Light reveals patterns and textures in these items that can be stunning and surprising, and they combine beautifully with glass.
Glass mosaic is an art form that is as free and flexible as drawing or painting. Minute bits of glass, impossible to utilize in traditional leaded glass windows, are at home in mosaic work.
It fits the way I think.
I often place my work within antique finds such as windows, clock faces and doors. Many could be installed and used for their original purpose, yet this is not the reason I choose them. I like their inherent solidity and the scars they bare. They add a bit of human history, lives lived and home to my more contemporary images. I am a product of a family who used, re-used, passed down, repaired and enjoyed items touched by those who came before. It is part of who I am, and it is a part of my art.
I work in a variety of sizes and enjoy the monumental and overwhelming mood of a grandly scaled piece as well as the private and personal feel of one that can be held in your hand. I believe the size of a piece can change its impact as much as color or any other element.
I often must add electrical lighting in gallery settings, yet I like to make it removable, so others have the choice of natural lighting in the future. The light of the sun is the final and best finish for my work, giving it a new beginning each morning and a variety of moods throughout the day.
It brings change to my art and change is good.