©Kelda Van Patten, “Garden Magic,” 2023, archival pigment print on Hahnemühle Baryta Satin, 27.75” x 24.75” (edition of 3)

I was first aware of Kelda Van Patten’s work through treat gallery, a curatorial art project run by Sherri Littlefield in New York City. Each season they participate in the Affordable Art Fair. With Midwest Nice Art, I collaborated with treat gallery at this event. During my research in their curatorial process, I was enamored by Kelda’s work. So much contemporary photography work takes place solely in the camera, but re-photographing is its own art form. Kelda does not have to worry much with ideas of authorship, as the compositions are formed out of her own printed images, and the process expands from an art history perspective. Taking on the processes of collage from Cubism or Dada, still lifes with bright and engaging colors like the Dutch Golden Age, and re-photographing compositions in the styles of the Pictures Generation. The compositions alter the spaces they’re created in, creating a cacophony of visuals for the viewer. Kelda’s work is one to spend time with, exploring the colorful worlds she creates.

©Kelda Van Patten, “My Secret Garden,” 2023, archival pigment print on Hahnemühle Baryta Satin, 16.28” x 22.5” (edition of 3)

Kelda Van Patten creates disorienting pictorial spaces that utilize still life arrangements, collage, and re-photography to examine the ways in which the artificial world of kitsch stands in for the natural world. Recent exhibitions include If I had a flower for every time I think of you , at Well Well Projects (Portland, OR), Companians at The Vestibule (Seattle), Fresh at Klompching Gallery (Brooklyn) and Restless Symmetries at Foto Relevance (Houston). Kelda is a member of Well Well Projects (Portland, Oregon) and the recipient of multiple Regional Arts and Culture grants. Recent artist residencies include the Kala Institute (Berkeley, CA), the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology (Otis, OR), and Jentel (Sheridan, Wyoming). Kelda’s work has been featured in several publications including Fraction Magazine, Bloomberg Businessweek, and Talking Pictures. Kelda holds an MFA from the Pacific Northwest College of Art (2020), an MAT from Lewis & Clark College (2005), and a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute (1995). She currently lives and works in Portland, Oregon.

You can follow Kelda on Instagram: @keldavanpatten

©Kelda Van Patten, “Detail from My Secret Garden,” 2023, archival pigment print on Hahnemühle Baryta Satin, 16.28” x 22.5” (edition of 3)

If I Had a Flower for Every Time I Think of You

I seek to invoke a sense of surprise or contradiction through the consideration of photographs that occupy liminal spaces between artifice and truth and imagination and the real. The subjects that I photograph are mined from the natural world and kitsch. I define kitsch in terms of its 19th-century Victorian roots, as myth or melancholic curiosities that simultaneously evoke desire and comfort while masking denial and loss. Through the use of layers and transformation, I merge the ‘reality’ of the photograph with an imagined space. My printed photographs are often cut and re-photographed. In addition to photography and re-photography, my process involves layers of collage and drawing to form compositions where perceptions of reality and artifice are playfully shifted. Before digitalization, much of my work is done in front of a medium-format camera. As a final iteration, I sometimes collaborate with artificial intelligence. I strive to create work that exhibits discord and dissonance, celebrating what is awkward, along with small moments of beauty and curiosity. Through these photographic iterations, I reflect on the relationships between nature and the artificial world of kitsch.

©Kelda Van Patten, “If I had a flower for every time I think of you (Orange Hibiscus),” 2024, 1 of 15 archival pigment prints on adhesive vinyl (edition of 3), approx 15×20

Epiphany Knedler: How did your project come about?

Kelda Van Patten: This work, “If I Had a Flower for Every Time I Think of You,”originated from my experiences during artist residencies at Jentel in Northern Wyoming and the Kala Institute in the San Francisco Bay Area. The stark desolation of Northern Wyoming, characterized by tumbleweeds and skeletal remains, contrasted with the lush abundance of Bay Area botanical gardens, shaped the series’ visual language. This contrast—between scarcity and abundance, wildness and cultivation—is reflected through the juxtaposition of found objects, collage, and cut-out photographs. The work also mirrors an emotional response of loneliness, longing, and a sense of loss, evoked by a fractured relationship with the natural world.

©Kelda Van Patten, “If I had a flower for every time I think of you (Pink Lily of the Incas),” 2024, 2 of 15 archival pigment prints on adhesive vinyl (edition of 3), approx 15×20

EK: Is there a specific image that is your favorite or particularly meaningful to this series?

KVP: One of my favorites in this series is “My Secret Garden,” a still life composed of cut-out images set against taped sheets of green construction paper. One of the cut-outs depicts my hand holding an iPhone while photographing a red rose, with an AI-generated bee hovering nearby. The composition also includes cut-outs from the rose garden, along with ivy and ferns. The title embodies the kitsch concept of a hidden, magical space for nature’s healing, provoking a sense of nostalgia and longing. I was reflecting on the increasing artificiality of our natural experiences, our fast-paced digital age, and wondering whether our reliance on devices creates barriers or connections with the natural world.

©Kelda Van Patten, “Still Life with Scoria and Still Life with Skull,” 2023, archival pigment print on Hahnemühle Baryta Satin, 27.75” x 20.75” each (edition of 3)

EK: Can you tell us about your artistic practice?

KVP: My artistic practice explores the interplay between reality and artifice through still life arrangements, collage, and re-photography. I’m interested in the intersections of the natural world, kitsch, nostalgia, contemporary image culture, and the emotional complexities of our increasingly digital world. I’m also influenced by surrealist techniques, and I often work quickly and spontaneously, in an attempt to draw from my subconscious.

©Kelda Van Patten, “I dream of deer in an enchanted forest,” 2023, archival pigment print on Hahnemühle Baryta Satin, 20.75” x 27.75” (edition of 3)

EK: What’s next for you?

KCP: I’ve been making new work for my upcoming exhibition at Well Well Projects in Portland, Oregon, integrating animation and video with photography and collage. This work explores the complexities of the aging body, particularly the invisibility often imposed on women, examining the interplay of artifice and societal beauty standards through photographs of body parts. I’m excited to see how it develops.

You can read more about Kelda and her work in Create! Magazine, issue #48, Talking Pictures, Fraction Magazine issue 149, Berm Magazine issue three, and see her work in an exhibition coming up next year at Well Well Projects (Portland, OR) in May 2026.

©Kelda Van Patten, “Botanical Specimens,” 2023, archival pigment print on Hahnemühle Baryta Satin, 27.75” x 20.75” (edition of 3)

©Kelda Van Patten, “Deep Inside the Bushes with the Bones of the Dead,” 2023, archival pigment print on Hahnemühle Baryta Satin, 20.75” x 27.75” (edition of 3)

©Kelda Van Patten, “Another Sting Altogether,” 2023, archival pigment print on Hahnemühle Baryta Satin, 27.75” x 20.75” (edition of 3)

©Kelda Van Patten, “Still Life with Roses,” 2023, archival pigment print on Hahnemühle Baryta Satin, 27.75” x 20.75” (edition of 3)

©Kelda Van Patten, “Still Life with Oranges,” 2023, archival pigment print on Hahnemühle Baryta Satin, 20.75 x 27.75 (edition of 3)

©Kelda Van Patten, “Peaches in Heavy Syrup,” 2023, archival pigment print on Hahnemühle Baryta Satin, 22.56” x 17.62” (edition of 3)

©Kelda Van Patten, “Peaches and Perfume,” 2023, archival pigment print on Hahnemühle Baryta Satin, 23.75” x 20.68” (edition of 3)

©Kelda Van Patten, “If I had a flower for every time I think of you,” Exhibition at Well Well Projects, 2024

Epiphany Knedler is an interdisciplinary artist + educator exploring the ways we engage with history. She graduated from the University of South Dakota with a BFA in Studio Art and a BA in Political Science and completed her MFA in Studio Art at East Carolina University. She is based in Aberdeen, South Dakota, serving as an Assistant Professor of Art and Coordinator of the Art Department at Northern State University, a Content Editor with LENSCRATCH, and the co-founder and curator of the art collective Midwest Nice Art. Her work has been exhibited in the New York Times, Vermont Center for Photography, Lenscratch, Dek Unu Arts, and awarded through the Lucie Foundation, F-Stop Magazine, and Photolucida Critical Mass.

You can follow Epiphany on Instagram at: @epiphanysk