REBUS WORKS

The process of drawing allows me to investigate the spaces between place and memory.  Working from both photographs and remembered places, I create images that evoke maps, organic forms and landscapes.  While these works draw inspiration from natural settings, they are not of a particular location or place. I often work intuitively, allowing moments and memories to overlap and merge on the paper.

These works are created using walnut ink, watercolor, chalk and gouache on both handmade paper and art papers.  As I layer the materials, they interact on the paper’s surface in ways that mirror the forces of nature.  The space I create on the page awaits a moment of connection with the viewer, prompting reflection on how we experience and navigate ideas of place.  

The rich brown tones come from a walnut ink that I make from black walnut hulls which I collect locally.  The ink is easy to make, it requires boiling the hulls for 45 minutes and straining the ink into jars.  The homemade ink is my entry point into drawing.  Each batch is slightly different, and as I test out the ink, I start imagining landscapes and natural features.  These drawings have other types of inks and watercolors mixed in, such as Dr. Ph Martin’s; as well as white gouache (a type of opaque watercolor).  Curiosity and an openness to process moves the drawings forward.  I’m interested in how the materials interact on the paper, flowing out onto the paper, blending, and bleeding into each other.  The paper is mostly watercolor paper, but in a couple drawings I’m using a blue rag paper that I made (Inconsolation I,II).  If you look closely, you may notice the threads and rag bits in the paper as part of the final composition.

Ann Marie Kennedy is an artist and papermaker who creates works of paper, editions and installations out of her studio in Raleigh, NC (USA).  She is an Associate Professor of Studio Art at Wake Tech Community College, Raleigh, NC.  From 2001- 2004 she was a resident artist at Penland School of Crafts and is a frequent workshop instructor in hand papermaking nationally. She has also been an artist in residence at Headlands (CA), Morgan Conservatory (OH), and Women’s Studio Workshop (NY).  Awards include:  North Carolina Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship Award (2004-5), United Arts Council Regional Project Grants (2007, 2016).  Ann Marie’s artwork involves the use of natural materials and fibers to create narratives about place and landscape.  Her installations, prints, and works of paper have been exhibited both nationally and regionally in venues including: the Blowing Rock Museum of Art and History (NC), Cameron Art Museum (NC), Gregg Museum (NC), Asheville Art Museum (NC), Cantor Art Gallery (MA), Women’s Studio (NY), and Waterworks Visual Art Center (NC) and her artists’ books and editions are in many permanent collections, including; Yale University, Bucknell University, University of Iowa, Library of Congress, Tate Library.