Katerina Cespedes

Lives and works in San José Province, San José, Costa Rica

Artist statement

My work explores the ways living beings carry memory, adapt to their environments, and exist within systems of connection that are not always immediately visible. Working primarily in watercolor and drawing, I use representational imagery as a point of entry into questions of perception, ecology, memory, and interdependence. Animals and botanical forms recur throughout my practice, not simply as subjects, but as individual presences within larger living systems. I am interested in what becomes visible through sustained observation: the individuality of an animal, the structure of a leaf, movement within water, or the traces of experience suggested by gesture and form. Watercolor is central to this investigation. Its transparency, fluidity, and unpredictability allow control and uncertainty to coexist. Pigment moves through water, accumulates, disperses, and leaves traces on the paper. This process parallels many of the systems that interest me—memory, adaptation, growth, and the continuous exchange between organisms and their environments. Recent works move between marine life, animals, and botanical structures. In Elephants / Memory Study, memory and social bonds become a way of considering collective experience. Works such as Sea Turtle, Jellyfish, and Koi extend this inquiry into aquatic environments, where movement, vulnerability, and interdependence become particularly visible. Monstera / Living Forms shifts attention toward growth and the organizational patterns...

Artwork