“The Befores”
Textiles, ink, batting, thread
2025
By Kaylan Buteyn
Artist Statement: We live in an era of impending collapse and a deep concern for our future generations. As a parent to three kids, considering the world they are inheriting weighs heavy on me some days. An ancient Indigenous philosophy from the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy) tells us that our lives have rippling impacts on the seven generations that come after us. This got me thinking about the impact of who has come before me.
My intention with using collected textiles and quilts in my work has always reflected a desire to connect to the generations in my past and my familial legacy. I inherited my Great Grandmother’s textile collection and while I’m working in the studio, breathing in the dust of her old quilts, I consider those who have gone before. Is it possible for me to carry the stories, feel the impact, and be who I am as a result of seven generations of people? This work visualizes the 126 people that make up my familial DNA going back six generations and leading to me, the seventh. As I continue to build a world for my children to experience, I carry the generations before me. I am caught in a liminal place, swiveling my focus from future to past and moving through my days as a direct accumulation of many people who have affected so much of who I am and what my life has become.
Bio: Kaylan Buteyn’s work investigates physical representations of generational care through paintings, quilts, domestic textiles, abstraction and collage. She has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions at galleries that include Peep Space in Tarrytown, NY, Ground Floor Gallery in Nashville, TN, Janice Charach Gallery in Detroit, MI, Spilt Milk in Edinburgh, Scotland, among others. She has been the recipient of artist grants from the Indiana Arts Commission and Metro Arts Nashville and her work has been featured in publications including Milked Mag and Create Magazine.
In 2019, as a social extension of her art practice, Kaylan founded the Artist/Mother Podcast, sharing interviews of working artists who are mothers. Kaylan has spent the last 7 years facilitating community for artists in many forms including creating exhibition opportunities for artists worldwide, organizing a critique group program for hundreds of participants, facilitating virtual programming, in-person artist retreats and more. Kaylan is the founder of the Kinhouse Artist Residency and co-directs Kinhouse Gallery in Fort Wayne, IN. She holds a BA in Communications and a BA in Studio Art from Houghton College and an MFA from the New Hampshire Institute of Art. She lives with her partner and their 3 children in Fort Wayne, IN.
“The Befores”
Textiles, ink, batting, thread
2025
By Kaylan Buteyn
Artist Statement: We live in an era of impending collapse and a deep concern for our future generations. As a parent to three kids, considering the world they are inheriting weighs heavy on me some days. An ancient Indigenous philosophy from the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy) tells us that our lives have rippling impacts on the seven generations that come after us. This got me thinking about the impact of who has come before me.
My intention with using collected textiles and quilts in my work has always reflected a desire to connect to the generations in my past and my familial legacy. I inherited my Great Grandmother’s textile collection and while I’m working in the studio, breathing in the dust of her old quilts, I consider those who have gone before. Is it possible for me to carry the stories, feel the impact, and be who I am as a result of seven generations of people? This work visualizes the 126 people that make up my familial DNA going back six generations and leading to me, the seventh. As I continue to build a world for my children to experience, I carry the generations before me. I am caught in a liminal place, swiveling my focus from future to past and moving through my days as a direct accumulation of many people who have affected so much of who I am and what my life has become.
Bio: Kaylan Buteyn’s work investigates physical representations of generational care through paintings, quilts, domestic textiles, abstraction and collage. She has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions at galleries that include Peep Space in Tarrytown, NY, Ground Floor Gallery in Nashville, TN, Janice Charach Gallery in Detroit, MI, Spilt Milk in Edinburgh, Scotland, among others. She has been the recipient of artist grants from the Indiana Arts Commission and Metro Arts Nashville and her work has been featured in publications including Milked Mag and Create Magazine.
In 2019, as a social extension of her art practice, Kaylan founded the Artist/Mother Podcast, sharing interviews of working artists who are mothers. Kaylan has spent the last 7 years facilitating community for artists in many forms including creating exhibition opportunities for artists worldwide, organizing a critique group program for hundreds of participants, facilitating virtual programming, in-person artist retreats and more. Kaylan is the founder of the Kinhouse Artist Residency and co-directs Kinhouse Gallery in Fort Wayne, IN. She holds a BA in Communications and a BA in Studio Art from Houghton College and an MFA from the New Hampshire Institute of Art. She lives with her partner and their 3 children in Fort Wayne, IN.
