Derick Wycherly

Name of School
UW–Madison

Expected Graduation Date:
05/13/2022

Faculty Nominator
Emily Arthur

Reason for Faculty Nomination
The craft work of emerging artist Derick Wycherly directly contributes to the Windgate initiative of diversity and advancing sustainability. Derick is a Native artist from the Rocky Boy Reservation, Northern Montana. His studio practice and craftwork brings a contemporary indigenous perspective to the American crafts of papermaking and printmaking. Derick’s work addresses the impact of climate change, specifically on water protection. Concerns of sustainability are seen in his use of recycled materials and attention to local water sources. Financial support will allow Derrick to expand his knowledge of sustainable materials. I serve as faculty chair of Derrick’s MFA thesis committee (2019 2022). I can rely on Derrick for his expertise and professional practice. Recently, his work appeared in Hand Papermaking Magazine and he received an award for excellent graduate research at UW-Madison.

Please provide a brief description of your art or medium.
My studio practice and research center the lived experience of landscape and concept of gift-giving from an Indigenous perspective. Using traditional craft methods of printmaking and papermaking my engaged research developed for the community allows participants to wrap found objects while interacting with one another, to center the idea of gift-giving.

I work in the fine art craft mediums of printmaking and papermaking. Through sheet forming and cast paper I design and construct a variety of paper incorporated into artwork and the gift-giving performances including thic cotton rag sheets, flax, and thin mulberry sheets. I experiment with paper color, weight, and various natural fibers and explore how my handmade sheets receive printmaking methods. Intaglio printmaking is my specialty but I also use relief, serigraphy, lithography, collagraph, and monotype techniques to create my work. I draw landscapes and abstraction through pattern design, its systems structure my images, and I use multiples to lay out printed repeat patterns.

Is your artwork handmade by you? If not, please explain
Yes and I teach workshops to facilitate the artmaking of others.

Are all or some of the components locally sourced?
My papermaking practice incorporates recycled fibers including old T-shirts from a local thrift shop and muslin scraps from the apparel department. Water quality affects the resulting paper, so through papermaking I get to know the water municiaplity of the place I work in. I also choose to support important small businesses in the greater Arts community such as niche art supply stores.

As in many other crafts I rely on global networks of trade and extractive industries for pigments, inks, and chemicals. Because each pigment is derived from a different location, I try to avoid colors derived from post-colonial countries where international corporations reap short-term monetary benefits at the cost of local, often Indigenous populations.

Artist’s Statement:
The Indigenous methodology of gift-giving is an old technology, a way of relating to one another and to the land in a holistic and balanced manner. Before taking anything, something should be offered, to honor our relationship with who we are taking from. By developing this technology and crediting its Indigenous practitioners, gift-giving has the potential to not only mend the land, but also end the violent conditions that so many people endure in the current system. Imagery in my work of mountains, waterways, dams, and flooded valleys refer to the altered landscape and constructs shaping society. Pattern represents the infinite; its repetition is the experience of place in cyclical time. Using wrapping paper to initiate the scenario of a gift-exchange, participants wrap objects that signify entities of Nature that we commune with daily in essential ways.

How you will use the Fellowship funds if you are chosen as the winner.
Financial support will make equipment acquisitions possible to continue my art practice and eventually to set up a studio that serves BIPOC, allied artists, and youth. As a printer I have knowledge and skills that can support my peers, to help disseminate their Art to a broader audience. Directly, the funds would be used to purchase a used intaglio printing press, fiber beater, drying system, molds, and deckles for the creation of prints and handmade paper. These essential pieces of equipment can provide for a lifetime of artmaking. Local botanical fibers from the landscape are of interest to me for making paper once I have set up an economic, environmentally-conscious, and efficient operation. Space is also essential for running workshops and housing the studio. I am currently working to win other grants and find an existing non-profit organization to work with.