My NEA Funded Artist-in-Residence at the University of Wisconsin
by Robert Glenn Ketchum
In 1988, I was awarded an Artist-in-Residency at the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha, funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Wisconsin Arts Board. This was a small body of work created over three years, and eventually exhibited once at the university. Some images have been printed, but most have never been seen. I hope you enjoy these photographs. I think they are among some of the most beautiful I have ever taken. ~Robert Glenn Ketchum
In 1988, I was awarded an Artist-in-Residency at the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha, funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Wisconsin Arts Board. This was a small body of work created over three years, and eventually exhibited once at the university. Some images have been printed, but most have never been seen. I hope you enjoy these photographs. I think they are among some of the most beautiful I have ever taken. ~Robert Glenn Ketchum
Thursday, August 22, 2019
University of Wisconsin: Artist In Residence, #43:
Wisconsin #43: In the last post, I have worked my way to the creek that crosses the UWisconsin field station property to see last light on a clear fall day. I have visited this location many times during the multiple visits of my Artist-in-Residence, and I have made some of my best images in this particular part of the habitat (posts #7, #10, #23, #24). This evening I have bush-wacked to any area of large, overhanging trees, and as you can see (last post), the sun is behind the leaves, and the creek is barely visible. I am up a small embankment, so I thought to change my POV, I would go down next to the creek, walk under the tree branches, and shoot the the leaves illuminated in the opposite direction. “An Ecstasy of Contrasts” is one of my favorite of all of those images I made during my residency, and it has been one of my best selling prints. I thought it a great closing post for this blog. I would like to thank Marlin Johnson for getting me involved with this project, and being my congenial host and advisor while I “worked in the fields.” I would also like to thank the University of Wisconsin-Waukhesha and the NEA for providing the support for my Artist-in-Residence. I hope many have enjoyed the rich beauty of the Kettle Moraine (and all of its weeds - LOL), that I have tried to interpret here.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2019, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd
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Thursday, August 15, 2019
University of Wisconsin: Artist In Residence, #42:
Wisconsin #42: For the last two images of this blog, I give you a place much visited, and a moment of seeing it as never before. During my NEA-funded Artist-in-Residence at the UWisconsin biological field station in the Kettle Moraine, the property I have been photographing has an array of micro-niche habitats, each of which I visit and re-visit over the course of my stays. At the “high” end of the terrain are the tallgrass-oak savanna and surrounding forests, the latter of which are at the edge of this property. At the “low” end of this landscape a stream flows through in passage to the nearby lake. It is down in the lower part of the property where the presence of the water has made it more diverse, jungle-like, and hard to get around and through. For me it is that complex diversity that adds to the visual beauty, and offers layers of both color AND texture (posts #7, #10, #23, #24). For reasons of alignment, in the fall season, the trees and meadows around creekside are often bathed in the last light of the day, which provides for further visual theatrics, so I always make it a point to check in as the sun sets. Throughout all of my blogs, I repeatedly mention how the Point-of-View (POV) can dynamically, and dramatically, change a photograph, so never assume to have the shot without looking around a bit, and taking a few more images from other positions.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2019, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd
Follow Robert Glenn Ketchum's Photographic Activism Online:
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Thursday, August 08, 2019
University of Wisconsin: Artist In Residence, #41:
Wisconsin #41: Some of the oaks on the UWisconsin property stand out because they stand alone from others in the tallgrass. Others do it with their sheer size, having crowns and arching branches that cover hundreds of feet. ALL of them, however, stand out, quite literally, with their fall color show. As fall days grow more prone to rainy weather, storms that pass through with minimal winds and gentle, long rains, do not strip leaves from the trees, or flatten the grasses, and it turns the terrain of the field station into a spectacle of saturated colors, and textures. Besides being among the most brilliantly colorful, the oaks serve themselves in a different way to make their flame even more radiant. In the enduring rains that last long enough to truly soak things, the oak trunks turn so dark, as to appear black, providing a perfect foil against which the leaves glow. When all of this flows in graceful waves during a gentle breeze, it is pretty transcendent.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2019, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd
Follow Robert Glenn Ketchum's Photographic Activism Online:
LINKEDIN: linkedin.com/in/RbtGlennKetchum
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Thursday, August 01, 2019
University of Wisconsin: Artist In Residence, #40:
Wisconsin #40: This image expresses for me the richness and beauty of the oak - tallgrass prairie ecosystem. Snow has not yet come to the UWisconsin field station where I am an NEA-funded Artist-in-Residence. As a consequence, the dried remnants of the summer’s tallgrass prairie bloom are still standing tall, and I have to climb a small mound to get a POV above them. Although it is not raining at the moment, it has been doing so for several hours, very lightly. This has left me with perfect conditions - a bright overcast with little wind, and a lot of water saturated vegetation that has not been beaten down. In particular, although the tallgrass is not as dramatically colorful as the oak, the subtlety of the color tones in it, brought about by the rain, are spectacular, and provide a perfect foil to the flaming oak. It is a nice day for a walk in the drizzle, especially if you can see above the grass (this is one of the reasons Native Americans in the plains found horses to be of advantage). Tetonka!
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2019, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd
Follow Robert Glenn Ketchum's Photographic Activism Online:
LINKEDIN: linkedin.com/in/RbtGlennKetchum
FACEBOOK: facebook.com/RobertGlennKetchum
FACEBOOK: facebook.com/NoPebbleMine.photos
TWITTER: twitter.com/RbtGlennKetchum
SOCIAL MEDIA by #LittleBearProd: @LittleBearProd
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