About:
Kailey Mackenzie Franks is a printmaker, papermaker, book artist, ceramicist, educator, and museum professional currently based in the Ozarks of NW Arkansas. She holds an MFA in Fine Arts from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) and a BFA in Printmaking and Art History from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. In 2018–2020, she completed Master Woodblock Training at the Heilongjiang Art Museum and Heilongjiang Printmaking Institute in Harbin, China, where she became the first Western woman and youngest participant to master this 1,000-year-old woodblock tradition.
Kailey has also earned certifications in Electro Etching in Gran Canaria, Spain, and Non-Toxic Printmaking techniques in Oaxaca, Mexico. She has attended numerous artist residencies, and her work has been exhibited in the U.S. and internationally, with pieces held in permanent collections such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and Heilongjiang Art Museum.
Kailey worked as a Printshop Assistant at PAFA, the Papermaking Studio Manager at The Brodsky Center at PAFA, and as the lead Papermaker at Historic Rittenhouse Towne, the first papermaking mill in the US. Kailey has worked as a museum and exhibitions professional at the Alabama State Council on the Arts, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and at the Heilongjiang Art Museum, where she worked on translation editing for exhibitions featured throughout China, Hong Kong, Oxford University, the Tate, and the Louvre. She has taught Printmaking, Book Arts, Ceramics, Foundations, and Art History at several universities and colleges.
View CV below for full experience history
CV
Statement:
The work I create is a process of reimagining and reframing my memories of landscapes into a considered narration of what I saw, during a time when my worldview was shaped by what others told me.
When I close my eyes, the world goes black and I cannot remember specifics of what the land looked like. But I can recall there was grass and it was green and wet and the color red was present. This recollection is the foundation of my practice and drives what happens next. I reenter the memory, or allow it to collaborate with others to build a landscape image of layered color. This amending of my recollections resolves into a narrative that I now understand.
In reframing these memories, I also begin to question why they reside in this place. I am drawn to folklore, fairy tales, and fables, especially stories of other worlds. Why are other worlds’ reality questioned, yet so many feel their existence? How can we reframe memories of places we have yet seen or do not remember? These questions lead me to explore how moments become myth or legend, often through text, writing, and handmade books.
I make drawings, handmade paper, and prints in all forms of printmaking, with a focus in lithographs and woodblocks, as well as artist books, exploring memories of land and earth. Spending months carving woodblocks, graining stones, creating inks from natural pigments, growing a fiber garden, and making my own paper I develop a further appreciation for my materials and the landscapes they enable me to create.
My love for the land leads me to a place of intimacy within my memories and how I experience the world. This narration allots a comprehension of the past while recognizing the present in its totality.