Derick Wycherly

Chippewa Cree Tribe of Rocky Boy, Montana

GRANTEE:  Derick Wycherly
NATIVE HERITAGE:  Chippewa Cree Tribe of Rocky Boy, Montana
LOCATION:  St. Cloud, MN
AWARD:  2022 LIFT – Early Career Support for Native Artists
DISCIPLINE: Visual Arts
SOCIAL MEDIA: Instagram
ABOUT

Derick Wycherly is an artist who specializes in printmaking and papermaking. He received an MFA from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in printmaking and a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design with a concentration in Film/Animation/Video. Between degrees he worked at Harlan & Weaver, a renowned intaglio studio in New York City. His work considers gift-giving an Indigenous technology that connects people with one another and the land base they occupy. Wycherly is currently teaching art in Minnesota. His prints on handmade paper can be seen in Hand Papermaking’s Paper Portfolio #14, “The Language of Color”.

Papermaking and printmaking are the backbone and legs of Wycherly’s art practice. Through papermaking he produces sheets of the exact color and texture that the landscape imagery calls for, even incorporating botanicals and physical elements from the landscape. He prints variable editions on rich substrates of rugged horizons, bodies of water, and rolling land installed together in a repeat pattern that echoes cyclical time. Wycherly has developed uncommon skill in creating papers that not only carry his prints, but exquisitely interact with the lines he is printing; papers that support his ideas with subtle color manipulations, absorbency, and weight. Sometimes these papers stand alone as completed works, but in the most poetic and (quietly) powerful pieces the substrate and the printed mark-making gracefully merge.

I am so thankful for being born into a family with relatives that made a living by selling art, contemporary and traditional, who mentored me as I came of age. I wish to use my experience to provide this same exemplary support to the next generation of Native artists back home.

—Derick Wycherly (Chippewa Cree Tribe of Rocky Boy, Montana)

PROJECT:

Wycherly’s LIFT project, Gifted Editions, will develop a series of prints on handmade paper of landscape imagery interpreted into pattern design. Patterned paper will be used during performance-based workshops that center the concept of gift-giving from an Indigenous perspective, as a means of honoring one another and strengthening relations. Conceptualizing artmaking as a gift, this project will explore notions of Native generosity, thoughtfully inviting members of the community into his practice.