Artists Bio:
Teddy is an artist-printmaker and book artist, born and raised in a small town in northeast Indiana. They hold a BFA from Ball State University and an MFA in Printmaking and Bookmaking from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Teddy currently lives and works in Milwaukee, with their cat Toes. They volunteer and make work at Anchor Press Paper and Print located in the House of RAD in River West. They will be teaching workshops there this summer.
For Teddy, drawing facilitates an intimacy with their subjects that allows them to know the person, space, object, or themself more deeply. Printmaking provides a new mode of working: a gouge in wood, a needle in copper, or with the bite of acid in metal. When turning a drawing into a print the transition of the medium and the mirrored image forces them to think differently. This opens up the work to fantastic surprises and the ability to put great amounts of energy and expression into the surface of a print.
Teddy’s 'becoming' queer is at the center of their art practice, which draws on their personal experience of shame, joy, gender, and queer identity. In their woodcut, ‘Getting Ready’ they capture a selfie of the outfit they have chosen for their ‘Night Out’. It is within the private space of their apartment and the virtual space of the mirror, that they can feel out the types of clothes, makeup, and accessories they feel comfortable in. They can play, make mistakes, be silly, and be messy until they find what feels like them. When they go out, they surround themselves with loving and supportive friends who make them feel safe. The work of feeling out one's own identity, tastes, and desires is the work of being or ‘becoming’ queer. And for them, it is the work of truly knowing and loving themself.