Debra Ketchum Jircik

 

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Debra Ketchum Jircik

Studio Location:: Eagle River, Wisconsin

Title of Piece: Ephemeral Herbarium

Materials Used: Artist made paper, plant inclusions, stitching, Indigo dye from sukumo vats, made from persicaria tinctoria, grown and created in northern Wisconsin and also in Japan.

Price: $600

Primary Techniques: Handmade paper, konnyaku applied for strength, and fermentation vat dyed.

Type of Vat: Sukumo fermentation vat

Other Applications:

Artist Bio: Debra grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but has lived her adult life in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. She lives on a lake at what used to be an old resort surrounded by gardens and trees. It is there where she grows plants for natural dyeing and for fibers and food. She works primarily in hand papermaking and has been growing Japanese indigo for eleven years. Getting to know this plant – experiencing the wonder in the myriad shades of blue contained inside the leaves – has led her on a path she never expected.

Artist Statement about Piece: I work with hand papermaking, natural dyeing, and cloth. The process of foraging and growing plants for paper and dyeing connects me with the natural world. I gravitate towards physical processes and tactile materials. Abstract collage and paper constructions, incorporating my hand dyed handmade papers and stitching, are inspired by a lifelong love of textiles. Work in this exhibit reflects on beauty in impermanence, the passage of time, and the stages of the indigo vat as it passes from yielding the darkest blues to those that are lightest and eventually, its return to soil, completing another natural cycle.