TEN
YETMAN
Ten Yetman is a visual artist born in Winnipeg, Canada. After attending the Fine Arts Program at the University of Manitoba she spent many years living in Mexico and Japan. Heavily influenced by her experiences abroad, her work explores cultural and historical expressions of death and immortality. Working in acrylic, pen, and ink she creates narrative dreamscapes inspired by her fears.
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Ten's work is a hyper-juxtaposition constantly referencing both "comforting" bright colours and patterns, candies and sweets, parties and beach scenes, and "uncomfortable" images of horror. Her most recent work has been heavily influenced by the cemeteries of Real de Catorce, Fellini Films, DEVO music videos, 80s's fabrics, and British Literature.
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Her most recent exhibitions of paintings exploring these themes were her solo exhibition "Ghost Lasers" at Katie and Gunner Gallery in Winnipeg and a group exhibition (July 16- Aug 28, 2022) at La Luz de Jesus Gallery in LA. Ten's upcoming show with artist Megumi Kimata at the Edge Gallery in Winnipeg opens Friday, Sept. 2, 2022.
I create a picture in my mind before I begin painting. I begin the process with a translucent layer of acrylic paint which I water down so that the canvas is still visible through the first layer. I then add details of acrylic colour usually following some of the natural contours and drips of the paint from the first layer. After this layer I begin with acrylic paint pens to start sketching some of the main characters that will be in the piece. I then fill them in with acrylic paint and continue to go back and forth with paint, paint pens, and watercolour markers to add shading and different tones on top of the acrylic, until the entire canvas is filled with detail. It usually looks much different than it did in my imagination, but it is completely necessary to have that original mind sketch.