Author: Joey Yates
In 2013, to help further promote its mission to connect people to art and creative practice, KMAC Museum introduced a signature event designed to illuminate the interwoven worlds of art and fashion. KMAC Couture, Art Walks the Runway, has since become one of the most celebrated fashion events in Louisville. It occupies a uniquely cultivated space for artists, clothing designers, stylists, and models to come together to push artistic conventions and to embolden new forms of self-expression. As the museum prepares to present the eight-edition of KMAC Couture on August 8, 2020, we take a closer look at one of our most prolific artists and her innovative use of materials.
Artist Wende Cudmore began participating in the showcase in 2014 where she revealed her inventive process of using pressed fruits and vegetables to produce her whimsical garments. With a background in printmaking, papermaking and fiber arts, Cudmore connects her work to other personal pleasures, such as hiking, gardening and sewing. Inspired by nature and fantastical environments, her figures invoke a world of mythical creatures from mermaids and mermen of the sea to magical beings and colossal butterflies of the forest. She uses fabric mesh, thread, wire and glue as a basis for her constructions, along with various
dyes and jewels for embellishment.
Cudmore received a BFA in Printmaking from Indiana University Southeast in 2013. She has garnered broad recognition for using pressed fruits and vegetables, with features in local magazines and on TV shows across the region. Her work has been shown at Pyro Gallery in Louisville and Seed Art Gallery in New Albany.