Text from "Waterline" exhibition at Lynn White Contemporary Art, June 2013
Kathy Wesselman uses photography to explore
pattern, color and texture and the effect of time on all three. Shooting boats in dry dock, the
photographs are cropped, reduced and reassembled to create a composed abstract
image. The works interplay chance
and control by contrasting weathered aging surfaces with the selective framing
and editing of the image.
Wesselman's background as a graphic designer introduced her to the
digital printing process typically used for commercial purposes. She is using this process while
employing archival inks and printing on 100% cotton photo rag paper. The high quality of the paper and inks
give a depth to the colors resembling paintings on paper.
Wesselman has an exceptional ability to transform
the familiar to something unidentifiable yet totally engaging. The works are photographs of
subtraction, to the point of no longer recognizing the origin of the
image. Dramatically altering our
relationship to the scale and location of the original image of a wooden boat,
the photographs evade immediate recognition. What remains is a distilled experience of colors, patterns
and textures.
In another body of work included in this
exhibition, Wesselman captured the vivid colors of common household rubber
gloves.
These works are wonderfully evocative, with curving, smooth
surfaces. Like the Waterline
series, these images are modified to become unfamiliar landscapes of pure
vibrant color.
