Kelda Martensen
Map, woodblock, monotype, collagraph, collage, 30 x 22 ′′, 2020.
“There is a specific thing that happens in the blend - something I couldn’t get otherwise. Each ink has its distinct way that it sits on the page, and the way the two separate colors are diluted and integrated into the space of one another is so beautiful.”
Kelda Martensen is an artist living and working in Seattle, Washington (USA). Her approach to color is decisive and quick, and about creating tension and compatibility in her imagery.
Kelda’s printmaking work encompasses making puzzles from plywood, printing textures inherent in the plates, discovering surprises through imprecision and finding the right woodgrain. Her tactile and layered works are created mostly through woodblock and monotype printing processes, and she also works with collaged prints to create edges and motion in her compositions. Currently Kelda is finishing prints and an artist book for a solo exhibition at J. Rinehart Gallery.
How does color represent or support the mind space of your work?
I rely on color to ground the work in an environment that feels familiar - water, earth, sky. In the northwest, this often means grays, blacks, greens and blues. But also very hot oranges and yellows that represent brilliance and heat and wonder, I use high contrast relationships - like white against black - to illustrate narrative and movement.
Where do you reside between technical and intuitive in your work as an artist using color?
I listened to an interview with Joanne Greenbaum that changed how I think about intuition when making. She talks about how when we talk about intuition we are actually talking about a series of deeply informed decisions that feel instinctual only because of the thousands of hours spent thinking about the work, the innumerable trials, errors, and knowledge gained by lived experience working with and analyzing those color choices, those compositional strategies, those ways of mark-making.
So on the scale of technical and intuitive - I lean on this definition of a considered and informed intuition. I don’t ever want to take this for granted - this ability to rely on “intuition” as a direct way of accessing that knowledge and experience.
Starting Again, woodblock, monotype, collage, 30 x 22 ′′, 2019.
“I rely on color to ground the work in an environment that feels familiar...[and] I use high contrast relationships - like white against black - to illustrate narrative and movement. ”
What can printmaking ink achieve regarding color in your work that no other material can?
I am a sucker for blends/rainbow rolls/gradients, or ombrés, as my students call them. There is a specific thing that happens in the blend - something I couldn’t get otherwise. Each ink has its distinct way that it sits on the page, and the way the two separate colors are diluted and integrated into the space of one another is so beautiful.
I also love to print flat monotypes and then take away the ink with solvent. The stained paper that results from the ink being pressed and then removed so quickly is something I haven’t been able to achieve with other mediums.
Moonbow, woodblock monotype, solvent transfer, collage, 30 x 22 ′′, 2020.
Turning Toward You, woodblock monotype, solvent transfer, collage, 30 x 22'“, 2020.
If you could eat a color for dinner, what color would you choose and how would it taste?
Kelda and her daughters answer:
Turquoise, it would taste like blueberries with frosting. (Inez, age 7)
Pink, it would taste like pizza. (Sonia, age 3)
Yellow-orange, and it would taste like summer, with salt. (Kelda, age 40)