DENISE DEKEMPER ART | STUDIO 2042

Denise DeKemper’s studio on the second floor of the North Wing at Lowe Mill ARTS & Entertainment is full of color. Silk scarves, paintings, and fabrics of every imaginable color drape the walls of her studio. Walking into her studio is like walking into a rainbow.

Denise DeKemper Art is all about color. “The colors were what really got me because I love color,” said DeKemper surrounded by colorful art she created. “After I discovered painting while living in Albuquerque, I just kept painting. The sky is so blue in New Mexico, it’s a cerulean blue because of the altitude,” says DeKemper. The colors of the West fill DeKemper’s studio, reflecting her travels.

Working with pastels, stained glass, drawing and sketching and fashion design DeKemper brings those techniques and color to her current work with fabrics. In her silk paintings, DeKemper uses a Resist art technique that uses several layers to expose or define a design in negative space on her paintings. Her brightly colored silk scarves hang on the wall, every color in the spectrum jumping off the white walls inviting folks into the sunlit studio space.

DeKemper also does Nuno Felting, a wet felting technique where wool or fiber is embedded or entangled with and through an open weave fabric such as silk chiffon or silk gauze. DeKemper likes to use vintage things she finds at estate sales for her Nuno felting, creating ephemera from vintage items. “In both a practical and spiritual sense, the idea of taking things that were tossed aside once they were no longer considered beautiful or fashionable, or became broke and giving it a new life, creating something beautiful, has a very strong appeal to me.”