Something Bright: Kati Thomson's Golden Hour

Kati Thomson

I’m excited to (finally) (accidentally) feature an artist from both my home state and my home town: Kati Thomson. Although her studio is in Clovis, California, the Central Valley town I grew up in, I first discovered Kati Thomson last fall at the John Natsoulas Gallery in Davis, California (another valley town). As part of my little west coast book tour, I read at the gallery for Poetry in Davis (see picture below). I was nervous, as always, but happy to be surrounded by such fabulous paintings while I read a series of poems about a painter and her lover. Thomson’s art was the perfect backdrop for the story I was telling. I wrote her name in the back of my book, making a mental note to include her in my Featured Artist series. And it wasn’t until today! that I looked her up and discovered her Clovis-ness. Huzzah.

**Poetry Night Reading Series, John Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, CA**
September 19, 2024

In her personal note about the show, Thomson writes: “When I began this body of work last year, I remember a pervading sense of angst in the ether. Conversations with friends and family were threaded with climate anxiety, doomscrolling, and a resignation to witnessing the decline of our society. Like so many people I felt the binds of fatalism tightening around me and I just wanted to break away. I found myself drawn to images and memories in which I was unburdened by these larger questions and focused on the moment—in the flow. Images of people in the vigor of life—dance, play, work, love, connection. Not for the purpose of avoidance—the problems of the world remain—but to remind myself of the reason we fight for a future.”

***Golden Hour Swim II***
acrylic and oil on canvas 48" x 36"

***Cat Ladies***
acrylic and oil on canvas 48” x 48”

Thomson’s solo show, Golden Hour, is figurative art re-figured. When I lived in California, the hour before sunset always made me feel better about everything. The world looks different at this juncture, and I needed the opportunity to rethink, review, and remake. (The golden hour just isn’t as prevalent in the Florida panhandle.) And that’s what Thomson’s paintings do: ask us to remember, re-envision, and re-love the human figure. It’s a practice. Practice, then remake the world at large.