The Flowers of Evil - Scott Ketcham

 

                                                                

My recent oil paintings are freely inspired by 19th-century French poet Charles Baudelaire’s radical verses from his revolutionary collection, Les Fleur du Mal. I find stimulation in Baudelaire’s lush, seductive language conjuring jarring juxtapositions of naïveté and corruption, indulgence and malaise, vitality and melancholy. Through these works I have endeavored, like Baudelaire, to extract beauty from evil. These are not pretty florals; they are influenced by the mood that pervades these poems-- infatuating beauty mixed with quiet despair. All titles of paintings in this exhibit are quotations from Baudelaire’s poems. 

Biography: Scott Ketcham is a figurative painter with a studio at the Sandpaper Factory in Rockland, MA. He was a student of William Schultz, Clement Micarelli, and many others; he holds a Bachelor of Arts from Williams College and a Master of Fine Arts from Johnson State University. He is a Professor of Visual Arts at Massasoit Community College. His work can be viewed at www.scottketcham.com and www.instagram.com/scottwketcham