Letha Kelsey has been an active volunteer, hiker, and advocate for the Ice Age NST since 2000. As an artist with an emphasis in painting and drawing, Letha Kelsey’s work investigates immediate surroundings–specifically the sensory language and pictorial spaces of the Midwest. Kelsey is a member of the University of Wisconsin-Colleges Art Department faculty where she teaches Drawing, Painting, and Foundations courses.
In 2010, she received a UW-Colleges Summer Research Grant in support of her project, ON FOOT, a contemporary examination of the Wisconsin landscape via the Ice Age National Scenic Trail. During the summer of 2010, Kelsey hiked the 400-mile segment of the Ice Age NST from the eastern terminus in Door County to her home in Lodi, in south central Wisconsin.
As she walked along the trail, experiencing the landscape slowly and gradually over long days, Letha Kelsey drew every evening, recording instances of the day from memory–color relationships, movements, and shapes. She also used a medium-format film camera (a barebones Holga) to capture oddities and ephemera on the trail. Her resulting exhibit, ON FOOT, has traveled to several gallerys and art centers around Wisconsin.
Learn more about Letha Kelsey’s work at www.lethakelsey.com.