Jack Ketchum
Painting · Drawing · Sculpture
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Work Phone: Call 651-605-5568
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If I were to describe myself three years ago it would have been very “normal” sounding. Maybe a little too “normal.” Like someone had given me a script to fill in the blanks and read. Something like, “My name is Jack Ketchum; I grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota; I’m studying architecture at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and am seeking a job that is challenging and innovative.” Today I would describe myself very differently. I’d say, “I am a recovering artist who almost smothered their passion for art to work a conventional job and have a “normal” life.”
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Image Gallery
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Conceived together these twin paintings represent two opposing forces of the universe, balance and chaos. The moment you feel like everything in your life is coming into alignment might be the moment just before everything is thrown into chaos.
Image title: Into Alignment, New Beginning
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This is a portrait of David Lynch, the filmmaker. When I look at his art I feel that he is channeling so much of himself and his experience into my conscience. I have great appreciation for his work and yet I know very little about his life. I have left the drawing “unfinished” to express how an artist can deeply engage with their audience despite parts of their life remaining essentially unknown.
Image title: David
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Devoid of color and no end in sight, this landscape (or seascape) fills me with a sense of dread at first. But then as I surrender to the long road ahead I feel a sense of peace wash over me and I start to take in the beauty within its bleakness. Sometimes I can even find a silver lining.
Image title: Long Way to Go
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With this artwork I am grappling with the existential question, “What makes people do evil things?” which led me to, “What exists inside of me that could lead me to do evil?” could not come up with anything concrete. So, I reached into the pit of my stomach and with my imagination brought violence to the action of painting. What came out of the moment feels and looks supernatural. Like a mysterious portal from which evil extends. Sometimes evil things happen without a clear explanation. Not knowing why brings me the most fear.
Image title: Mark of Evil
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This painting happened incidentally. Meaning, I used it as a work surface (to paint edges and mix paint). It was made completely unconsciously and yet fantastic images came out of the process.
Image title: Untitled
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This artwork confronts the practice of building roadways over burial sites. The destruction of sacred sites through the building of our roadways continues today. We do so much harm just so we can die a little every day we sit in traffic.
Image title: Eve's Puzzle
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I drew these three people because they each played prominent roles during the Civil Rights Movement of the Sixties. It was the nature of their roles which led to their untimely deaths. Each used their visibility to stand firmly against war, racism, and economic inequality, and all three were murdered at the height of their respective struggles for justice. Their deaths are a reminder of the power of division and hate which we are still up against today.
Image title: Robert, Malcolm, and Martin
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This canvas was originally a work surface for architecture modeling. I had probably made a thousand cuts on it before I started thinking about the violence of it. The accumulation of scoring showed me how much abuse the board had seen by my hands. Then, my imagination made a leap to the way the land has been cut up by railways and roads we have built and how violence has been used to make this possible; past and present. The more I come to understand American history, the harder it gets to enjoy leisure after all that has happened to afford me the privilege.
Image title: Passing Time
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This is a cacao tree almost totally stripped of its fruit. Toni Morrison writes about the taking of a mother’s milk as one of the greatest crimes. Taking resources is like taking the milk from the land; it strips people of their livelihood. Americans enjoy the fruits of someone else’s land and labor, often a child’s, nearly every time we eat chocolate. It’s cheap, so we don’t ask questions and enjoy it even though it’s completely unethical.
Image title: Took Her Milk
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Image title: Panopticon
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Image title: Maintaining Innocence
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Image title: Lost Religion
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Image title: Rage
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As a practice of healing I’m trying to cultivate positivity through difficult challenges. This is the energy of love I hope to carry with me. Each painting is an abstract expression of an individual at a specific moment. They are bodies of light and energy captured in time. They have not yet been presented because they are newly completed. However, I have included them because they have become important in my own search for healing.
Image title: From the Depths, New Day, Starting Over
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Image title: New Day
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Image title: Starting Over
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Image title: Road Signs
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