As a guerrilla sociologist, I make farcical, narrative assemblages, wallworks and installations that heroicize the sweaty, vulnerable, fumbling, stuttering, impulsive aspects of humanity in the face of corporate globalization and its resultant dehumanizing effects. I chew on issues that threaten our self-reliance, such as surveillance, demographic over-quantification and standardization. I do it tongue-in-cheek, crammed with worthy objects, objects with a rugged complexion and empathetic potential.

I lace these rants with my alter ego, Blotista Paradisimo, who possesses qualities that ensure sanity in a rapidly changing world. She’s there to sound the alarm against preoccupation with meaningless concrete factoids, she’s the one to spit on fashion, to save the last bits of urban nature, to rage against the FCC’s deregulation of our news sources. She is always mindful of the toll on our souls each time we cramp our impulses and bend to the whims of commercial sterility.

My process embraces my affection for Americana as a symbol of desired values – a powerful work ethic, the responsibility to be an active citizen, and attention to community. I hunt and gather antique supports, ephemera and worn objects in backroad antique malls, gutters, and auto junk yards. I use lots of text, fibers, photography, etchings, and drawings to shape bombastic tales about bad drivers, singles ads, overstimulation, our quest for privacy, impossible mall parking lots, grassroots politics, and the qualities it takes to maintain a creative life.

My art is based on a personal urgency to seek contentment as my three and a half million friends and I drive around Los Angeles, swerving against Hummers, startling at cell phone rings, cringing as the radio news grinds out soundbites about global warming and tainted spinach. I fume with notebook in lap, hoping for twenty seconds of a red light, to shape Blotista’s next adventure. I aim to describe the richness and absurdity of urban life today, to catalyze reflection and encourage everyone to tell their stories, to soften the frustration and isolation that we feel, and to infuse a poetic trance back into this impatient world.

As a self-proclaimed ‘guerrilla sociologist’, Kathi Flood offers colorful narratives about life in Los Angeles.  Her assemblages, wallworks, and installations tell stories of bloated consumerist values, driving habits, political issues, and the struggle to remain expressive in this age of electronic screens.  She has been included in over 240 exhibitions and has curated and produced visual and spoken word events.  Her website is www.KathiFlood.com.
           
Flood has been active in the spoken word community and has a solo CD of her bombastic stories (New Alliance Records, Rocky Road Peep Show and Paperhanger’s Directory Point-of-Purchase Dreams) and a creative writing textbook  (Royal Fireworks Press, Hot Words, A Student’s Guide to Writing Truth).
           
She has been an art educator for secondary and university levels for 30 years. Having attended California State University, Los Angeles and Northridge and University of Washington, Flood received her MFA in Studio Art.  She taught in the Art and Secondary Education Departments at California State University, Northridge part time for 11 years, as well as several other colleges and adult schools.  She has taught Drawing, Murals, and AP Drawing at Taft High School for 29 years, having received National Board Certification, two BRAVO nominations, an Apple Award, and Teacher of the Year 2006.
           
Flood uses etchings, drawings, fibers, text, and gutterwalk findings on antique supports to tell humorous, sentimental, goofy stories that catalogue our responses to urban life.  She works tongue-in-cheek, and crams her art with “worthy objects, objects with a rugged complexion and empathetic potential”.

www.kathiflood.com