Joan Waltemath

Carter Ratcliff wrote of Joan Waltemath, saying, "Joan Waltemath draws with colored pencils on strips of mylar, a see-through material. Thus she sets opaque imagery afloat on expanses of translucency. Yet the contrast between image and support is not as great as this description makes it seem, for Waltemath's images have a kind of luminosity. Working with a white pencil on surfaces measured off by grids, she lays down textures smooth enough to reflect the light--and grainy enough so that one feels that the light is being caught, gathered in, diffused through the whitish field. Graphite squares and rectangles catch and hold the light in their own, complementary way. Because the surface of these drawings are gridded, one thinks of Minimalism. Yet these grids are not regular in the Minimalist manner, and so one thinks as well of the syncopations built into the architectural facades of our times. Invoking buildings in the International Style, Waltemath's images also suggest the urban sites such buildings occupy. Allusions to the contemporary city are seconded by her mylar sheets, with their blackline patterns. Pinned to the wall, these drawings have about them the air of the drafting room, the architectural office, even the city planning commission. Waltemath makes art from the very atmosphere of urbanity."