Cont., SILK ROAD Embroideries (#1-123) of Robert Glenn Ketchum

Continued... Embroideries #1-123

Silk Road - Embroideries of Robert Glenn Ketchum

The city of Suzhou, China, produced China's most beautiful silk and silk embroidery practiced by generational families for 3,000 years. My purpose in going to China starting in the mid-1980's was to turn my photographs into textiles, and this is my story. 
~Robert Glenn Ketchum

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Due to the size and quality of the photos included in this blog, and as too many photos tend to slow a blog down, we have opted to host these previous entries on a separate post in order to best optimize your reading experience. Enjoy!

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Thursday, May 28, 2015

Silk Road - Embroideries #123

SILK ROAD #123:   So, here are 2-of-the-4 panels of “Emperor Kangxi’s Inspection Tour of Southern China.” What you are looking at is about 10-1/2-feet long, and 2-feet tall; all stitched with human hair! What you saw in previous posts were details from these two panels. Post #120 (of the bridge) can be located in the middle, right of the right-hand panel. Post #122 is in the lower-right of the left-hand panel. As you can see, the detail sections I presented are barely 20% of their overall panel. Now extrapolate those minutiae of stitches across this entire piece: OMG!!! EVEN MORE AMAZINGLY, this “aerial” view is architecturally accurate. In 1986, I could still recognize bridges, historic gates, and walls, and the layout of certain neighborhoods! More than likely, the artist commissioned by the court to create this work in 1689 was in a pagoda tower, or on a hill above the city in order to correctly represent this POV.

photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2015, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd #Embroidery @WesCFA @RSSDesigns

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1968 Self Portraits of Robert Glenn Ketchum

Self-portrait in 4-F Camouflage, 1968
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd

These images were created as part of a class assignment while studying with Robert Heinecken (#RobertHeinecken) at #UCLA in 1968. These are black and white (b/w) photographs that have been highly manipulated in the darkroom, and then painted upon with oils of different transparency value. Heinecken was a very non-traditional photographer who encouraged experimental work.  He furthered my approach and thinking about the process of making pictures begun in my first #photography classes at UCLA, taught by Edmund Teske (#EdmundTeske), also a very non-traditional photographer. I know my work was also influenced by contemporary graphics as well as many of the rock star personalities I was photographing at the time.

Order From Chaos by Robert Glenn Ketchum

While studying photography with two very untraditional photographers, Edmund Teske and Robert Heinecken at UCLA (1966-1970), I was also shooting rock-and-roll bands on the Sunset Strip and spending long hours in the traditional "wet" darkroom experimenting with many forms of non-traditional printmaking. At the time, I was working mostly in black-and-white. When I added color it was usually by painting or dyeing it in.  SELF PORTRAIT IN A RAINBOW SHIRT / HOMAGE TO JIMI HENDRIX, 1967  Photograph © 2014 Robert Glenn Ketchum  For Display Use Only, No Permission to Reproduce in Any Form