Kathy Suder

The New Yorker, commenting on an exhibition at Bruce Silverstein Gallery in 2004, stated that her boxing photographs "owe more to Caravaggio than to Sports Illustrated." An ARTnews review observed that "they hint at the artist's history as a painter ..." They also have been likened to boxing paintings by George Bellows, and their attention to chiaroscuro connects them to Renaissance art. Beyond their visceral quality, they suggest the human condition. Commenting on the relationship between her boxing paintings and photographs, Andrew Marton for Fort Worth Star-Telegram observed, "These highly affecting photos, freezing the ring's ritualistic choreography, serve as Suder's essential sketching in preparation for her boxing paintings. The stylistic bridge between Suder's photos and paintings is in the blurred representations of the boxers' bodies, impressionistic masses of flesh with roughly drawn appendages attached to blots of color symbolizing boxing gloves."

After returning to Fort Worth, she worked in a studio offered by a friend, Bill Bostleman, and found a supportive group of artist friends, including Nancy Lamb and Dan Blagg. In 2000, while at the Anderson Art Center, she met photographer Eikoh Hosoe, who encouraged her to focus on photography.

In 1995, Suder began to suffer from migraines. While working at the Anderson Art Center in Snowmass, Colorado, she rediscovered one of her boxing photographs which became the inspiration for her first boxing painting. The painting, Get Up!, also served as an embodiment of the painful migraines.

Around 1994 in Fort Worth, Suder started painting in oils while also studying art at Texas Christian University and attending art workshops. She also took some of her earliest boxing pictures at this time of Paulie Ayala, whom her father managed. Inspired by a high chair she designed, Suder started a children's hand-painted furniture business, FUN-iture, which she closed in 1997. Afterwards, she started working on oil painting, but abandoned her early motifs of landscapes and still lifes.

After marrying Jon Suder in 1982, the two moved to Washington, D.C., while her husband finished law school. She routinely painted plein air while living there. After graduation, they moved to Fort Worth and started a family.

In 1982, while Suder was working in New York at Glamour, a coworker shared a chicken recipe with her. After serving it to her boyfriend, the two were engaged soon after. Several other coworkers also got engagement proposals after serving the dish to their boyfriends. Engagement chicken earned its name when the recipe appeared in the January 2004 issue of the magazine.

One of three daughters, Suder was born to Scott and Selma Sherman in Fort Worth. Her father was a five-time Golden Gloves champion from 1949 to 1954, boxing manager, and auto parts entrepreneur. Suder credits her artistic interest in boxing to her exposure to the sport while growing up in Fort Worth. At seven, she trained as the only female in Fort Worth's Panther Boys Club boxing team. Around this time, she started showing an aptitude for art. While attending Paschal High School, she served as Fort Worth United High School representative and basketball statistician.