Katherine Duclos

Katherine Duclos I am a multidisciplinary artist based in Vancouver, BC. I got my MFA at Pratt, show across N America. She has exhibited her work in Canada and the United States.

Katherine Duclos (b. 1980, Massachusetts) received her MFA in Painting and Drawing from Pratt Institute in 2012 in Brooklyn, NY. After 10 years in New York, she moved to Vancouver, BC in late 2017 with her family, where she maintains a studio practice exploring painting, sculpture, photography, and installation. Her current work deals with themes of motherhood and its often invisible emotional tol

l. She has worked as a teaching artist for organizations such as Studio in a School in New York City and the Philadelphia

So much flesh these days. How well do you know your body and how well are your kids learning to know theirs? I’ve learne...
08/21/2026

So much flesh these days. How well do you know your body and how well are your kids learning to know theirs? I’ve learned it’s one of the most important relationships we have in this life and the majority of people take their bodies for granted and do little to aide them. The separation of mind and body in western medicine has made people think bodies are something to master instead of partner with. So many abusive body relationships out there walking around dressed as healthy ones. Check in with your tender parts and check your creases and impinged points. You need to age in THIS body, not some fictional one you will one day develop (you won’t, it’ll be too late). I watched my dad die at 73 when he didn’t need to and I’ve spent 15 months changing my fate in response. The fact more people don’t do this at my age is a sign that people my age are totally checked out about what is coming for them and how little “working out” will save you.

08/20/2026

My 普通话 is rusty now but at one point I had the memory to be fluent, but not really the tones. As a tone deaf person, maybe it was not the right language choice for me. I think so often about how my life led me there almost automatically, and how if I’d been ready at the time, I would’ve received what I know now much earlier. But I know one must be ready to gain wisdom and I was so far from wise in my twenties. I was nothing but insecure bravado back by a big brain I could not even wield successfully. I was so arrogant that I knew best (still am a bit), that I couldn’t conceive of accepting practices that I couldn’t understand. Drinking hot beverages in hot weather and cold in cold weather?! It seemed opposite to what I wanted so how could it be better for me? Because everything were taught to want in America is for someone else’s benefit, not our own. The whole country is built on replacing your individual dream with that of the American Dream, which cannot be separated from capitalism. Your body is yours and no doctor can listen to it better than you. Tune out the noise you’ve been taught to take in and start paying attention to the internal messages your body has been screaming for decades. Pain is a call that requires response, not something to be overcome.

I took these photos last winter just before my show opened. I almost put one of them in the show but resisted that last ...
08/20/2026

I took these photos last winter just before my show opened. I almost put one of them in the show but resisted that last minute impulsive to shift the trajectory or narrative. These are all actual photographs of my daughter in the lane behind our house. They were taken with my Canon 6D and they are blurry on purpose. I’ve been taking blurred photos for 20 something years and it’s because I’m not so interested in capturing humanity as we see ourselves. I think most people are really disconnected to themselves and their environments and communities. I think capitalism has isolated so many and it’s taken so long for many of us to wake up. We’ve shifted how our kids relate to each other and the world by choosing virtual/digital life instead of tactile life. We have gone so far wrong, I only hope they can survive the mess that the pursuit of wealth and its embrace has created. Stop pretending things are normal.

My whole life until I became a mother I was intensely aware of how others perceived me and my desire was always to proje...
08/18/2026

My whole life until I became a mother I was intensely aware of how others perceived me and my desire was always to project perfection, to be what the person in front of me desired me to be. I thought meeting or exceeding everyone’s expectations would bring me safety as a child and teen and young woman. It didn’t. It actually almost broke me. It alienated me tremendously and left me isolated and masked, incapable of ever letting anyone close enough to see what was behind the feigned facade, feeling like I was always on the verge of being found out for the fraud I was. When I was in high school I wore clear mascara because I didn’t feel safe admitting that I relied on makeup at all; that would be giving away the fact I was not secure as I was. Vulnerability was the worst thing in the world to me. That is PDA Autism for me and my kids. It is the feeling of being a lone wolf even when you’re in a pack because you’re afraid the pack will find out you are unloveable. And that makes a person angry and resentful after it makes them sad. If no one sees you for who you are and offers you true safety, like my husband did for me, you become hardened and trapped by your own protective barbs. These images are me not caring how I appear to others. They are me being all the things I want for my own camera. They are not feminine or pretty and they are certainly not what anyone is ever expecting or wanting really. But, they are me. My children revealing who I really am saved me from a life of pretending to be what others needed. Now, I can be what they need instead, authentic.

I made these all in the last two days with the left over paint after my daughter asked to paint. She often only has the ...
08/18/2026

I made these all in the last two days with the left over paint after my daughter asked to paint. She often only has the attention span for a short session and I am left wanting to finish a piece and never wanting to waste paint. These are the natural consequences. I had some process fun. I really enjoyed doing these. They are 9x12” and flashe and acrylic on mixed media paper. .

This is a painted print and the original image itself was a digital drawing on top of a photo of spray painted cardboard...
08/17/2026

This is a painted print and the original image itself was a digital drawing on top of a photo of spray painted cardboard boxes as part of my process. So, I’m getting pretty meta into my own practice with my photographic work. It’s really world building and I don’t use Ai at all. My digital drawing is all done using one tool in Lightroom. I don’t know how to use photoshop or procreate and I can’t learn because it is not tactile/intuitive enough so I keep it simple in terms of my technique. I made 4 different colorways of this original digital photo and I will paint each of them differently too I think. The print is on Legacy Fiber paper and it is archival. The paint on top is a mix of acrylic and flashe. Nice to stretch my painting hand again.

Today I did my movement outside and I did an 18min sparkle flow that I will put on my blog tomorrow. It felt so good. I ...
08/15/2026

Today I did my movement outside and I did an 18min sparkle flow that I will put on my blog tomorrow. It felt so good. I feel like my body is teaching me ballet and yoga and Qi Gong all at once as I am only moving intuitively and with my breath. I could not move like this until very recently and when I did move it caused me pain during or after. I was flexible but I had limited mobility and no flow, only a series of locks I could manipulate with rhythm. I could not twist at all and did not possess this range of motion at all. I have always been a good dancer but I was mixing a handful of moves many ways before. This feels like I have unlocked new ability. It’s crazy to me how strong I am and with very little effort. Lifting my children feels easy now and before it hurt and strained me so much. I have never been able to do sports with just son because of my pain. Now I’m on the trampoline every day with him kicking balls around. I cannot believe this body I was gifted after 45 years of feeling like I’m heading downhill to spinal disaster. I’m so thankful my efforts have paid off. I’ll share the big post in stories tomorrow after I upload video.
#45

08/15/2026

I went to the studio this week for the first time since June. It’s difficult to explain why but once my obligations and commitments had all been fulfilled, I needed to turn inward. I will return at some point to making regularly, and I’ve been dipping my toes in here and there. It was nice to see the work with fresh eyes and no sense of expectation or needing it to be something it isn’t. There’s so so so so much of it all though. It’s overwhelming, like I’m a hoarder of my own expressions. I dont want to be. I want a way to get more of my work to the right homes, without it always having to be very expensive. But few people show up when I have sales or do events so I’m not sure how to get people in. My building is really closed off too, like you can’t even enter the building without a key except through the parking elevator. I have two studio spaces and they are just being wasted right now. I’m thinking about how I can clear one out and maybe do a mentorship/residency of some kind. Stay tuned.

I have taken thousands and thousands of photographs like this. Why? Because my brain likes the data. I cannot imagine th...
08/14/2026

I have taken thousands and thousands of photographs like this. Why? Because my brain likes the data. I cannot imagine things I’ve never seen well but I have very, very good photo recall. This gives my brain so much information to process in the background at all times. Flowers have long been a favorite subject for me since its color and texture harmony I am seeking and creating in my studio. Flowers do it naturally. Also, check out the eye in the center of one of the flowers, it’s crazy how much like a human eye it looks. But, I’m like that, seeing faces and eyes all the time. I’m lucky to be here.

These are the larger Lego works that are currently available through galleries as I’ve had a couple inquiries. They are ...
08/12/2026

These are the larger Lego works that are currently available through galleries as I’ve had a couple inquiries. They are not all in the same place, and there are not many. The first and 4th are here in Vancouver at Art Rental & Sales. The second (and third image) is at Heron Arts in SF and both galleries have smaller ones as well. The last one is 20x20” and is in Sweden at RÖRD Konstplats. You can contact them or me if you’re interested. ✌🏻

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