Today we’d like to introduce you to Gretchen Warsen.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
I grew up in rural Maine, supported by the many creative people in my family, where the weather and raw landscape made their impression on me. My parents and a few friends started an tiny alternative education school where invention and exploration were encouraged–my best memories of that school were writing and performing our own plays, sledding for hours, singing folk songs, and making what seemed like hundreds of valentines for my friends. I discovered a love for piano and through my teen years, I dreamed of becoming a professional musician, but after an honest conversation with my piano teacher at Bates College, I ended up majoring in studio art and spent a blissful semester at the Tyler School of Art in Rome. After the birth of my first daughter, I left a graphic design job to become a full-time mom but made art a priority ten years later. As a painter and occasional graphic designer, I live in Westford, MA with my husband, two teen girls, a nervous Bernese Mountain dog and a sassy calico cat. The art I’m making now feels like the kind of work I could do forever–like a return to those carefree and creative days of being a kid and the possibilities are endless.
Please tell us about your art.
Currently, I make abstract, mixed media paintings on paper. It starts with something I’ve seen or heard outside the studio, (I’m perpetually on the hunt for the interesting and beautiful—especially small, insignificant things) that has made me stop and think—a shadow, a line, a phrase, a place where contrasting colors meet. Once I have faced the empty paper and gotten some marks/colors down, my process becomes more intuitive and responsive—using gestural marks, wet-on-wet painting, playing with transparent and opaque paint, wiping out and painting over the ghosts of marks left behind, and lines… so many lines. I use the lines as a tool for making connections, creating structure, texture, and moving the eye around the piece. My current love affair with paper stems from the non-preciousness of it that seems to foster experimentation, mistakes, and mapping out of ideas. I often play with the idea of mixing organic shapes and textures with architectural or mechanical elements. Sometimes I think, “How would God design a mailbox or a powerline? What would a cathedral look like if it grew out of the ground?” Yes, there is a spiritual element to my work. I try to honor, copy, and hold on to truth and beauty that can only come from a loving and brilliantly imaginative creator. Other influences: Star Wars and outer space, phrases Krista Tippet says on her podcast, “On Being,” insect wings, weather, kites, bridges, my dad’s engineering drawings, and instruction manuals.
I’m right-handed, but I draw and paint with my left hand–sometimes both hands at the same time!
As an artist, how do you define success and what quality or characteristic do you feel is essential to success as an artist?
For me, success as an artist is having the opportunity to get my ideas and inspiration fleshed out on paper. If someone else is moved enough by a piece to want to buy it and look at it every day, then that feeling of success is complete.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
I have a group show coming up at Zullo Gallery in Medfield this summer, but you can always find my work on Instagram (@toddyponddesigns) and online at www.toddyponddesigns.squarespace.com.
Contact Info:
- Website: toddyponddesigns.squarespace.com
- Email: toddyponddesigns@gmail.com
- Instagram: @toddyponddesigns
Image Credit:
Gretchen Warsen
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