KATHY SOSA

On the Trees of Life Series

Paintings that re-interpret the traditional folk art form, the 3-dimensional Tree of Life, into 2-dimensions, adding a contemporary edge. The paintings depict modern women integrated with Trees of Life. Influenced by the 18th and 19th century Spanish and Mexican portraiture, iconic religious images and masks are elaborate with ornamentation. Inspired by folk art, the intended effect is quirky and unpretentious. Each tree of life incorporates a set of thematic figures that represents what the woman is thinking or obsessing about at the imagined moment. 

On the Arboles Mariposa Series

Paintings that add another layer of expression to the Trees of Life concept. The paintings also depict modern women integrated with Trees of Life, but this time they’ve also been given wings of a mariposa (butterfly) as an added form of expression.

On the Huipiles Series

These paintings celebrate the intricately woven and embroidered Meso-American textiles, created in the centuries-old Mayan tradition and the contemporary American women who admire, collect, and wear them. 

On the 52 Series

A collection of 52 faces painted in a year. One face per week. This series is the culmination of that work. They are paintings. And yes they are faces, but not ‘portraits,’ as they evoke the subject in spirit only. The person is a jumping-off point for a jumble of shapes and colors that comprise the face. The inspiration for the work are friends, and friends who came to sit for me, as well as photos selected from the 14,000 photos on my phone.

Katherine Sosa is an independent marketing, political design consultant, and artist. She was the only woman on George W. Bush’s gubernatorial race in 1998, his presidential campaign in 2000, and re-election bid in 2004. Her creative work has earned national awards for advertising excellence in both television & print. Current clients include Texas Dow Employees Credit Union, Public Service Credit Union, and Sul Ross University. Prior to forming Sosa Consultation & Design with her husband, Lionel, Kathy served as president of Garcia•LKS, the Southwest’s largest independent Hispanic ad agency, which she founded as KJN in 1987. In her over twenty years in marketing, most of them as an ad agency principal and entrepreneur, Kathy has worn a number of hats, among them strategist, planner, creative director, and copywriter. In addition to commercial advertising experience on accounts from Dr. Pepper and Mexicana Airlines to Sî TV and Budweiser, she is experienced in both education-related marketing, public service communications, and is a veteran of over 25 political media campaigns. 

Kathy holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in political science, both from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio. With education an important focus for Kathy, she currently serves on the Generation Texas Board of Directors. She was appointed by former Governor George W. Bush to the Children’s Trust Fund of Texas Council, and by Governor Rick Perry to the Founding Board of The Texas Conference for Women. Kathy was named by Inc. magazine as an Entrepreneur of the Year.

A renowned artist, Kathy was commissioned by the Texas Women’s Conference to do a portrait of keynote speaker Martha Stewart, to whom the artist personally presented the work. She received national recognition for her traveling exhibition “Huipiles: a Celebration”,  which debuted at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington, D.C. as part of the Smithsonian Latino Center’s 2007 summer season before traveling to the Museo Alameda in San Antonio in 2008. Currently, she mounts shows in New York City and Tulsa. Her work has been featured on CNN, in FiberArts Magazine, in Skirt!  San Antonio Woman, Country Lifestyle, Destinations, and is available in San Antonio through AnArte Gallery and the Regalo Gift Gallery at the Museo Alameda. She is also represented by galleries in Boerne, Texas, and Charlotte, North Carolina. 

Most recently, Kathy, and her husband Lionel Sosa, created and produced the critically-acclaimed documentary titled “Children of the Revolución – How the Mexican Revolution Changed America’s Destiny,” a 20-part storytelling series that chronicles never-before-told American history of the Texas/Mexico borderland.

WORKS

ARTIVISM

Kathy states: “These works are a part of a series designed to celebrate the blended culture of San Antonio and the broader borderland region. I create these to call attention to the fact that the blending of peoples, languages, cuisines, and customs makes for a stronger community. And a stronger country.

The ideas are communicated using distinctive bilingual phrases executed on plexiglass, stickers, murals, and screenprints, in the hopes that people will participate and push the messages around the world with #KeepCalmYDreamOn.