Peter J. Ketchum
Art with a Colorful Attitude: Paintings, Collage, Prints
New York

Most of my work is about personal and societal
attitudes as reflected in our ephemera: found
photographs (pre-1950’s), ads, menus, postcards.
Because most of the found visual bits and pieces I
use  were mass produced, the broad acceptance of and
interest in the ideology inherent in them is
underscored. Before "political correctness,"  society
happily perpetuated stereotypes.

This is true of “humorous” materials produced about
women, Jews, people of color, Native Americans, fat
people, gay people, Arabs, and other minorities. In
little bits and pieces negative views were approved at
the cash register, sent worldwide through the mails,
and displayed at  home.  These popular images shaped
some of our current attitudes as a society: ideas
about beauty, woman’s work, body image, social
acceptability, masculinity, sex, measures of success
and morality.

I am also interested in our perpetuated cultural myths
and lies:  war as a given, for example. I am
interested in our sports, religious and political
leaders’ misadventures with truth and morality. I am
interested in moral standards as reflected in our
icons and popular imagery.

I wonder if our societal soul is nothing more than an
Ebay collectible. Will the coke bottle be the fossil
index of modern culture, and the tabloids our dead sea
scrolls? Are the bits and pieces of pop culture true
milestones in our trip from here to there, or barriers
to a meaningful journey?

My painted found photographs in particular  are about
the loss of meaningful continuity in our personal
histories, and in the history of our nation.

The black and white photos-- I think of them as  Lost
Souls-- were found on ebay and in  junk sales across the
country (California and Florida are particularly lush
sources.)  Lost souls  buried under Tupperware, 8
track tapes and  Kathie Lee Gifford bios.

To give these disposable lives new life, I  color them
and put them in vibrant settings.  I add to, edit,
repair, color, and fool with the original black and
white images: snapshots, photos, postcards, tin types,
carte de viste.  The repaired image  is then
rephotographed, blown up, cut out and pasted on an
invented background. The whole is then reworked with
acrylics, photo dyes,  oils, pencil,pen and, in rare
lapses of taste, glitter.

These Lost Soul paintings  are collaborations with
unknown photographers and subjects who  lived long ago
in a time and place as impermanent and ethereal as
yours and mine. Like all of us, the Lost Souls smiled
bravely at the camera-- CLICK-- and were gone.

 

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