Cathy Wild

For a long time, I’ve sensed a disconnect between the way we are taught to live and what we intuitively know to be true. It is this tension that begins a crossing from one way of being to another: the moment when something no longer fits, yet the new direction has not fully formed.
Working primarily in charcoal and gold leaf, I create restrained figurative drawings that sit at the threshold of transition. The work explores the internal shift that occurs before visible change, and the role self-trust plays in allowing that movement.
Animals and insects appear throughout the drawings, as recurring companions to themes of transformation and emergence. Foxes, birds and butterflies are often depicted in moments of orientation, the pause before movement, or the instant of lift. Their attention is frequently directed beyond the frame, suggesting a turning toward something not yet visible.
Each drawing is built through restraint: allowing space, resisting overworking, and trusting when the image is complete. The surrounding white space creates stillness and pause, while gold leaf is used sparingly to mark moments of illumination or activation within the work.
Created intuitively rather than from predetermined plans, the drawings reflect an ongoing practice of trusting instinct and allowing what is emerging to reveal itself in its own time.