Martha Ives

About the artist

I’ve loved to draw for as long as I can remember. When I was a child my father would bring home paper from his office— he worked for a printing company and there was always lots of paper on hand—and I would draw ladies with big hats and beautiful dresses and dogs and cats dressed up for outings in the park, sitting on benches holding ice cream cones or flowers.

In the course of my life I’ve drawn in pencil and pastel and painted in watercolors and oils. I’ve painted landscapes, still lifes, and portraits. But it’s only recently, since I’ve taken up printmaking, that I’ve come to realize that inherent in the works which have brought me the greatest joy–and which I feel are my most successful—is the depiction of movement. 

Printmaking was the very first art class that I took as an art major at Antioch College. Many years later, in 2008, I decided I would give printmaking another try. I enrolled at the Art Students League, taking classes from Sylvie Covey, Michael Pellettieri, Bill Behnken, and Rick Pantell. Much to my delight, I discovered that I love making prints. I love the planning, the process, and the richness and feel of the paper. Being a bit of a surrealist, I enjoy using reality as the jumping off place for a world that exists in my mind. Printmaking—with its endless possibilities and unique limitations—seems to free my imagination more than any other medium.










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