NEWS:
Memories and Dreams: Davis Orton Gallery, 114 Warren Street, Hudson, NY
Reception: Saturday, July 23, 5:30-8pm
CARLA SHAPIRO, KAREN DAVIS, KAY KENNY, RUTH WETZEL
Exhibition Dates:
July 23 to August 28, 2022
HOURS: Saturday - Sunday 11 to 5:30 and by appointment
In the Elements: Selections from the Kentler Flatfiles, Group exhibition curated by Sallie Mize
Illges Gallery at Columbus State University in Columbus, GA from July 19 - August 20
Ruth Wetzel: Artist Statement
I grew up in a swamp in the hamlet of Katonah, NY, in a neighborhood of split-ranch houses that had been built during a drought. When the drought ended, every home had to be surrounded by drainage ditches. Behind my house, there were swamps everywhere, and I spent my childhood in perpetually wet sneakers, bog-hopping, building tree forts and drawing. I have deep kinetic memories of how to navigate in swamps as well as a visual database of swamp views.
My photographs explore water as it holds, moves, and blurs spatial perception. Water is something that holds and supports like a solid but moves at the same time. In stillness, water’s surface can reveal so much of below and above.
I photograph this exploration in swamps, creeks, beaches, and swimming pools. In deconstructing expected landscape configurations, I find abstraction blooms between light, reflection, and receding surfaces. In water spaces, my formal interests combine with mystery, nuance, and spirituality. Each picture invites narrative interpretation and unfolds slowly.
FLORAL FLOATS: My Floral Floats series is about sensuality, pleasure, and our bodies in water. They are set in dream like scenes that defy gravity. I create from a point of view so that the eye-level flowers give the sensation of being in water. I can feel the gentleness of silky water on my skin as I set afloat Peonies, Hydrangeas, and Cosmos in colored water patches painted by curated reflections. I think of these tableaus of plants and water, as cinematic freeze frames in the midst of a sensual waltz. I lived with a pool for two years. I would gaze at its beauty at night and then watch the light shift over it during the days and seasons. I now “borrow” pools from friends and strangers, which extends the variety of lighting and color backdrops in the photographs.
POOL NOIR: Pools are icons of summer recreation. These photographs remove the laughter, splashing, and scent of BBQ’s. The beautiful blues evocative of respite and cleanliness, contrast against narrative scenes that hint of disturbance. My images reflect on isolation, vulnerability, and survival. As pleasurable as a pool might be, water is not human habitat. I started photographing pools in 2017, since then I have been obsessed with humans, props, and flowers, in pools.
SWAMPS: My photography is a commingling of nature’s reflections, transparencies, and perspectives, colliding to create complex spaces. It is here that alternative narratives of flora and fauna occur. I am a quiet curious observer communicating these views to others. I present my landscape work to bring attention to swamps’ aesthetic and biodiverse treasures, and thus the value of wetlands to the health of the environment. Beavers, turtles, frogs and ducks are my companions and soundtracks, and from my lower-than-normal-height point of view, I see more from an animal’s perspective.
I view the process of looking closely at nature as a form of mediation. In photographing swamps, I am immersed in the moment and my surroundings. I walking through wetlands looking to unearth or capture a perfect shot akin to a hunter or archeologist. I have to be still so the water will hold reflections clearly. I have be aware of each location’s different plant life, pollen drop, water level, and orientation to the sun throughout the seasons to plan my shots.