Of Pickles and Tweets

By Colleen Gundlach
Peter Ketchum likens the penny postcard at the turn of the 20th century to the social networking system, Twitter, today. The exhibit of his paintings this month at the Norfolk Library centers on this premise and on the sometimes subliminal and often glaringly conscious messages disseminated on postcards of the past.
A person who used to begin every morning by writing a minimum of five letters a day to family and friends, Ketchum was intrigued by the similarity between postcards and Twitter. “The idea for this new series started because of Twitter,” he says, “which is defined as ‘a short burst of inconsequential information’ and also as ‘chirps from birds’. So using no more than 140 characters, twitterers communicate in short bursts, or tweets.”
He points out that penny postcards served the same purpose in the early 1900s. Messages would contain greetings, news and satire, much as Twitter tweets do today.
Ketchum began collecting postcards two years ago and found that the images and double entendres that were acceptable in days past would not be used today in such an overt, often mean-spirited fashion. “While they look gentle and comical, the underlying message of some of these postcards was deadly serious,” he says.

Peter Ketchum gathers up paintings he will have in his April show at the Norfolk Library.

He points out that the cards reflected the societal attitudes of the day toward race, gender and social class. “Many of these attitudes, sadly, have survived into our electronic age, he commented. “It is this idea that interests me most – the longevity of intolerance.”
Ketchum studied art at Colby College, where he received a fine arts degree, and also at the School for Visual Arts in New York City. Ketchum’s roots, however, are in Northwestern Connecticut, where his father was the Editor-in-Chief of the Torrington Register (now the Register Citizen) and his grandfather was the founder of the Torrington Historical Society.
His family moved to New York City in 1963, which lead to Ketchum’s eventual employment as a Senior Vice President at Harcourt, Brace and Jovanovich, a large publishing firm. He later started the film division there and his love for prose led him to writing scripts.
In 1986, he and his wife, Robin, bought a home in Norfolk and Ketchum returned to his love of art. His work is now in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Institute, Colby College and the Norfolk Historical Museum. His work has been shown, among other places, at The Brooklyn Museum, The Bushnell, The Springfield Museum of Fine Art and Norfolk Library. He has also been an independent curator for many years, including founding and curating the Gallery on Dean in Brooklyn.
Ketchum admits that some of his work is controversial. He comments, “One of the local papers did a big piece on the upcoming library show and said I had taken the library to court over one picture in a past show. Not so. I think the article was referring to my comment that only once did the library balk over one of my pictures.”
Ketchum’s exhibit at Norfolk Library, titled “Oh Pickles! and Other Tweet Nothings (B.C.)” runs from April 3 through 30. He comments that The Gala Reception for the artist will be held on April 11 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the library. The B.C. stands for “before computers”. Don’t miss it.

Photo By Bruce Frisch