We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Katherine Steichen Rosing. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Katherine Steichen below.
Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Katherine Steichen with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?
Being successful as an artist requires developing a wide variety of skills beyond those directly related to what we make, and while they are not always fun, it’s never boring! In addition to painting and creating my fiber sculptures, my day might include sawing and constructing frames, accounting, teaching, writing, photographing my work, updating my website and preparing social media posts. It’s a lot! I’m constantly multitasking and learning new skills.
My parents modeled their work ethic as they raised six children. As the oldest child from a working-class family—not a traditional springboard into the arts—I helped at home with chores, taking care of my younger siblings, and even assisted my dad in remodeling our big old house. He would come home tired from working in a paper mill and then start tearing out the walls on the second floor.
My mom encouraged me to pursue art in college, even though they couldn’t offer financial support. Nearly all the money I earned from babysitting and other jobs during high school went towards my tuition and living expenses. Fortunately, I also received scholarships, grants, and student loans, and worked part-time while studying at the university. Developing a strong work ethic while young helps keep me going as an artist.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I make abstract paintings and large-scale fabric sculptures that create immersive environments—like virtual forests where viewers can step inside the experience. My work explores environmental issues affecting forests and their ecosystems, particularly the quiet northern lakes that have shaped my artistic vision.
My connection to nature began in childhood during extended camping trips in the Lake Superior region, where my family would swim, canoe, hike, and fish. These formative experiences fostered a lifelong passion for wild places that continues to profoundly influence my art.
What excites me most in painting is getting close to the surface and exploring color relationships and texture. My paintings develop through many layers, with delicate lines drawn into wet paint to expose underlying colors. These root-like lines reference connections between forests and lakes, while other subtle inscriptions allude to aquatic life cycles and ecosystem interconnections. Vertical bands abstractly represent trees, while oval shapes suggest plants and other creatures, creating rhythmic patterns through the composition.
As my paintings grew larger, I wanted to literally engulf viewers and bring the scale of the forest indoors. This evolution led me to create installations of tree-sized fiber sculptures made from translucent fabrics. Suspended from the ceiling, these installations allow people to walk between ghost trees—encouraging reflection on forests’ vulnerability to deforestation, invasive species, and climate change.
A project particularly close to my heart is “Emeralds to Ashes,” an installation exploring the emerald ash borer beetle that is killing billions of ash trees across North America. For this work, I sewed sheer black fabric trees and embroidered abstract patterns representing this invasive insect’s destructive life cycle.
I’m constantly experimenting with materials to imagine environmental processes and responses to changing climate. Recently I’ve been using flame as a tool to burn holes through linen gauze, directly referencing forest fires that increasingly threaten our world. Even here in Wisconsin, where lakes and freshwater are abundant, thousands of forest acres have burned due to extreme drought conditions from climate change, alternating with heavy rains that destabilize trees. In other works, I use India ink – made of burned particulates – as a literal symbol of carbon in trees (and as a sign of life), often contrasting the black of the ink with white to signify decline.
Through my art, I invite viewers to reconnect with the natural world in ways that transcend mere observation. Whether through layered paintings that reveal hidden ecological connections or immersive fabric installations that surround you with phantom forests, my work serves as both meditation and warning. I believe art has a unique power to help us process the complex emotions surrounding environmental change—grief for what we’re losing, appreciation for what remains, and hope for what we might preserve.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Studying art at university revealed not just technique and materials but the depth of ideas in contemporary art and their historical basis. I discovered how art connects to philosophy, history, and science –for example, Einstein’s theories of relativity deeply influenced Picasso. Currently, the environmental aspects of my work are indebted to the research of forestry scientist Suzanne Simard and other scientists I met through artist residencies.
My four years as a member of ARC Gallery/Educational Foundation in Chicago was the most profound springboard into the art community, shortly after earning my MFA. Working alongside established women artists, I gained hands-on experience curating and installing exhibitions, writing grants and press releases, budgeting for projects, and managing volunteers. This led to incredible opportunities. As Vice-President of the gallery, I was invited to attend the NGO Forum of the UN 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing, speak on a panel, and meet artists from around the world. I strongly encourage anyone starting in a new field to get involved with organizations and volunteer!
Curiosity and the willingness to learn new things have sustained me on my artistic path. As a young, introverted artist and first-generation college graduate, I was easily intimidated and afraid to ask questions. I’m persistent and figured things out on my own, but as I matured, I learned that asking for help from others provides answers more quickly and often opens doors and forges new connections. As an experienced, mature artist, I welcome questions from younger people because I remember how difficult it can be. I sometimes call myself the “queen of questions” because I always want to understand how things work, and my curiosity enhances the art I make as I seek to understand natural processes. My advice: Cultivate your curiosity and don’t be afraid to ask questions. It’s not a sign of weakness but rather of intelligence and growth.
Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?
As an artist, my paintings and installations have been profoundly shaped by readings that connect to my work with forested ecosystems. Two books were especially influential.
At a time when my paintings were growing larger, and I was exploring forests as communities, I discovered forest ecologist Suzanne Simard, and her book, Finding the Mother Tree. I first encountered her through a lecture where she discussed her discoveries that trees communicate with each other, sharing nutrients and even warning the forest community about threats. The book takes us on a journey through the forest as a young scientist following her passion for the mycorrhizal networks that grow along root systems. We follow her sweating along forest trails and feel her fear in grizzly territory in the northwest as she visits remote forest plots to test her theories. Learning more in depth about forests as thriving sentient systems nourishes my work and underpins my ongoing exploration of the interconnectedness of all things.
Equally influential, The Overstory, a Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Richard Powers weaves together multiple characters with intimate relationships with specific trees, uniting some of these characters in the end in acts of environmental activism. Powers is one of my favorite authors. His lyrical style merges meticulously researched scientific details with imaginative storytelling, so that I am learning while immersed in the worlds he creates. I feel an artistic kinship with the way he melds poetic language with knowledge of the natural world.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.studioksr.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katherinerosing/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherine-steichen-rosing-b97b2915/
- Other: Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/katherinerosing.bsky.social
Image Credits
Katrin Talbot (Studio Shot of Rosing working)
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