Life and Work with Ouida Touchon

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ouida Touchon.

Ouida, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My formative years, my twenties, were in California. I began making art for a living at age 21 and pursued careers in the arts until, at age 50, I shifted into full-time professional artist and educator. Here is my statement.

Art is complicated. Even though I mostly make prints, and sometimes paint, I think of myself as an image-maker. And the images that compel me are twofold. I am purely addicted to observation. I see beauty and feel I must put it down, interpret it somehow graphically. And I care deeply about women’s issues. I express those feelings through lyrical narratives about strong women and what they wear.

My work at the press, plus my activities as a college-level teacher of printmaking, enables me to work deeply, which is my passion. Printmaking is a tradition dating from the 15th century. When I work or teach, I can exert myself in a concentrated way in an ancient, demanding and technical process. I carve, ink and print; and I also strive to bring my sensibilities of beauty, sensitivity and good composition to each piece I create.

– 30 years of professional artist and teacher, New Mexico
– 2019 professional artist and teacher, Denver, CO
– BFA, Kansas City Art Institute
– MA, studio arts, University of Missouri, Kansas City.
– Associates Degrees in Patternmaking and Fashion Design
– Advanced study, artists and printmakers, Italy, Mexico, USA
– Museums: El Paso Museum of Art
– Las Cruces Museum of Art

Has it been a smooth road?
No career goes in a straight line, especially careers in Fine Art. I had my first ‘real job’ as a pattern maker and clothing designer and followed the curving path to International travel and consulting in manufacturing. This brought me all over the world and taught me many things about how art and manufacturing interface.

I chose to raise a son alone and then marry once he became a teenager and I needed some help with his path through the teen years. It was a good decision. Nothing comes easy, it’s all about how much you are willing to work for it. I am certainly no stranger to hard work.

I went back to school at age 50 to complete my BFA and then on to my Master’s degree. I had chipped away at the BFA for 25 years, taking one class at a time and keeping my world and home together for my son and myself. In the end, I committed myself to making art and beauty for a living and sharing it with others through teaching. I am a grandmother now and my son is a thriving biologist and husband to a fiercely beautiful woman.

We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I am a graphic sort of thinker and designer and focus on three areas of image making. Botanica, Birds and Butterflies and The Figure and Garment as metaphor.

My emphasis on the garment has to do with the lure of womenswear as well as western mystique and music. My approach to these garment forms is to carve the original transferred drawing in a block of wood and print an edition of gradually developing design and color onto Japanese paper. this technique is called ‘Reduction Woodcut’.
Reduction woodcut is a process of transferring a drawing onto a wood plate and selecting a number of sheets of paper to print in an ‘all at once’ edition. The first colors printed are the light ones, and then that area of the design is carved away. Each color area is then inked and printed and carved away, progressing from light to dark, and never being quite sure if you have it right until the plate is completely ruined and you stand with your edition stacked on the table, trying to decide if it’s a success or not….

I often use text to surround my images to express the feeling of the wearer, the woman behind the garment. I have created iconic kimono forms, as well as full scale dress shapes and western fantasy shirts. My newest print is based on a real life character, Rattlesnake Kate from Greeley Colorado. When I moved to Denver, I decided to launch a new body of work that would include a folk heroine and she fits the bill.

I have always gardened and so I have a really tender place in my ouevre for graphic botanical designs which I make as woodcuts with an application of collaged papers for color. This technique is called Chine Colle.

I am most proud of my design sense and my ability to meet the challenges that come from this media. That is not to say that I do not paint, I do. It’s just that there are so many painters in the world already and no one can do what I do when it comes to these particular techniques and mastering of the craft.

Do you think there are structural or other barriers impeding the emergence of more female leaders?
There is a tendency among women to find themselves entwined in threads that bind and keep them from moving freely. Sometimes this web is self-created by expectations or belief systems that a woman may ‘osmosize’ from her surroundings without even realizing it. Other times there are true bars on her cage, barriers to self-expression and autonomy that are welded into place by husbands, parents, siblings and careers. The soccer mom and the gang banger’s girlfriend have more in common than they may realize.

One big barrier to female leadership in fine art is the skill of marketing their art to the right audience of collectors. Female artists particularly tend to be introverted about making noise and speaking with a voice that can be heard. The actual financing of a small business in art is also a true challenge. So many ideas have to be set aside due to lack of funds to make them materialize.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ouidatouchon.com
• Phone: 575 635 7899
• Email: ouidatouchon@gmail.com
• Instagram: ouidaart
• Facebook: facebook.com/ouidatouchonportfolio

Image Credit:
Wendy Ewing, Studioe-photo, Las Cruces, NM

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