Lyda Kathryn Fortson is a Georgia native born in Americus. Soon after her birth, her family relocated to the Atlanta area. Upon completing high school, Kathryn attended Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida with an emphasis on Painting and Illustration. Later, she broadened her studies and attended Portfolio Center in Atlanta to explore Graphic Design. Over the past fourteen years she has won numerous awards, participated in many juried shows and exhibited throughout Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee. Selections of her work is published internationally. In the past couple of years, Fortson has brought forth a new series of mostly abstracted pieces. She mixes an "earthier" palette and paints on larger canvases that are rich with textures and layers of colors. Her work has taken a turn in style and technique. Artist Statement: Typically, I would develop an ideal for a piece and strictly maneuver the foreseen outcome. With my newest series, I approach the white canvas with vague expectations of "what" will be revealed and instead allow the process to manifest an end result.... It is a big challenge to relinquish controlling the form. Instead, to create paintings born of movement, muse and unpredictable application.