Wendy Ketchum
I am a printmaker and mixed media artist residing in rural northern New England, where I work in my home studio. My art is narrative, influenced by curiosity about historical subjects and personal ancestry, as well as daily observations of the fleeting moments in the natural world around me. While having worked in multiple media, my primary focus over the past thirty years has been in printmaking. My preferred practice is working in a series, so that I can explore themes that interest me in greater depth. Rather than approach my art with a prescribed plan, my creative process is intuitive – working in an improvisational “call and response” mode. Pattern, inspired by a lifelong love of textiles, is dominant in my art and relates directly to the graphic nature of printmaking. Reducing an image to simpler shapes and silhouettes versus creating a detailed representational scene appeals to my visual interest, and this macro view is visible in most of my work. Layering is another technique I will use repeatedly to create depth and history, both in my woodcut prints and my mixed media pieces. In a desire to evolve beyond pure printmaking, I have begun to incorporate collage and mixed media into my work, using fragments of my own prints as primary elements in developing compositions. Expanding into collage has directly engaged my interest in creating ambiguity by fragmentation of images while still achieving cohesion of the whole.
I am a printmaker and mixed media artist residing in rural northern New England, where I work in my home studio. My art is narrative, influenced by curiosity about historical subjects and personal ancestry, as well as daily observations of the fleeting moments in the natural world around me. While having worked in multiple media, my primary focus over the past thirty years has been in printmaking. My preferred practice is working in a series, so that I can explore themes that interest me in greater depth. Rather than approach my art with a prescribed plan, my creative process is intuitive – working in an improvisational “call and response” mode. Pattern, inspired by a lifelong love of textiles, is dominant in my art and relates directly to the graphic nature of printmaking. Reducing an image to simpler shapes and silhouettes versus creating a detailed representational scene appeals to my visual interest, and this macro view is visible in most of my work. Layering is another technique I will use repeatedly to create depth and history, both in my woodcut prints and my mixed media pieces. In a desire to evolve beyond pure printmaking, I have begun to incorporate collage and mixed media into my work, using fragments of my own prints as primary elements in developing compositions. Expanding into collage has directly engaged my interest in creating ambiguity by fragmentation of images while still achieving cohesion of the whole.
