Ivy Walker Featurette

With childhood explorations of the urban wilds within the city of Denver, Ivy Walker attributes her affinity for nature to the early wonders of a nearby field, her Grandmother’s garden and the many outdoor experiences available in Colorado.

​The directness, flow and pauses of the multi-voiced conversation in the landscape inspire Ivy’s paintings and drawings. She uses playful marks, patterns, spontaneity and abstraction to describe the expressive spirit of the land. This loose and immediate quality of the imagery conveys the felt sense of being in the land. Through her work, she shares a joyful sense of nature’s rhythms and patterns.

​Spontaneity, curiosity and playfulness are the sensibilities she uses when she makes art with the landscape. Made with both natural and art materials, her artworks form a delicate, visual language to describe a personal conversation with nature. She photo-documents this dialogue. Among the natural forms of the land, she places paper cut outs, mirrors, yarn, ink drawings and other art materials to engage a specific site.  Weather elements such as gravity, water, and especially wind, often contribute to the dialogue. These creative interactions with the land are brief and intentionally gentle. In the resulting photographs, she is describing the wonder, fragility, strength, and spirit that she feels in the land.

She hopes to inspire viewers to connect with the poetry and power of the land that holds, creates and sustains all life.