For artists, finding one’s chosen medium can feel like falling in love. Such was the case when Kathleen Hope began experimenting with cement. For so long, “I wanted this texture that I just couldn’t achieve with any regular art material,” she recalls. But with cement’s endless textured pliability, “I could finally create what I envisioned”—bold, graphic abstract pieces where color viscerally crackles and undulates with life.

Understanding cement’s impact on color, capable of pristine smoothness and wabi-sabi imperfection, is foundational to Hope’s art practice.

Having spent years as an architectural color consultant, the Fountain Hills-based artist is sensitive to hues. The work depended on her finding just the right shade to create the desired emotional atmosphere for a space. “All mediums take color differently,” Hope explains. “So, I had to know how industrial products would behave.” Intimately understanding cement’s impact on color, capable of pristine smoothness and wabi-sabi imperfection, is now foundational to her art practice.

Each piece starts with a thin overlay of cement on a wood board. From there, the artist plays, favoring geometric designs, grids with occasional birds and flowers, and abstract faces. She alternates between painting and hand-pouring on more coats of creamy cement, using squeegees to create relief patterns. She scrapes away wet layers with wood tools and razor blades or even a belt sander when dry, while handmade papers buttered with cement serve to build texture. Bright paints are always tempered with glazes in earthy, grounded hues, “which creates more depth, revealing other colors,” Hope explains.

Hope’s process begins with smoothing cement over a wood board.

Hope’s process begins with smoothing cement over a wood board.

She then layers upon that with such media as concrete acid stain, more cement, ink or paint.

She then layers upon that with such media as concrete acid stain, more cement, ink or paint.

She finds inspiration in a multitude of art forms, including ceramics and kanji writings.

She finds inspiration in a multitude of art forms, including ceramics and kanji writings.

“I want people to wonder what the heck it is,” Hope says of her works. That mystery “is seductive.”

“I want people to wonder what the heck it is,” Hope says of her works. That mystery “is seductive.”

Hope's work explores depth and dimension.

Hope's work explores depth and dimension.

Each material she chooses to integrate into the pieces responds to the cement in distinct ways. Inks, concrete stains and loose pigments seep into the porous surface, but unadulterated acrylics glide over, maintaining saturated vibrancy. Meanwhile, acid stains are a “pure chemical reaction,” the artist describes. Carefully applied while wearing gloves and, as Hope refers to it, a “Darth Vader mask,” the solution morphs into rust, charcoal and verdigris hues. Layer by layer, the pieces become embodied with textural depth and dimension. Such physicality only deepens in her collaborations with artist and architect Troy Axelrod—her partner in both life and work—combining her cement motifs with his monolithic sculptures. 

The final effect of Hope’s work baffles the eye—recalling a natural phenomenon, a modernist architectural element or something ancient excavated from the earth. “I want people to wonder what the heck it is,” the artist says with a laugh. That mystery “is seductive,” she adds. “People want to touch it.” For Hope, creating these works is imbued with that same sensuous joy, as every new swirl of cement promises tangible potential. “I’m always learning,” the artist says. “The possibilities are endless.” 

 PHOTOS: BRANDON SULLIVAN