See Foam

Stacks of bright pink and turquoise packing foam, unruly lengths of conduit, and piles of plastic needle caps—these materials are usually destined for the landfill. For Maureen Fritchen, they represent a precious resource. Her art practice is inspired by unexpected finds, from scavenged trash to substantial hauls of industrial waste. With a studio located in the expansive Racine Business Center, Fritchen’s been able to rescue a rich and almost unlimited variety of manufacturing and packaging waste from resident businesses.

The challenge of this approach is constant experimentation, learning to work with each new material while staying true to your artistic vision. “Play is vital to my process,” Fritchen says, and “the materials can dictate how forms emerge and lead to surprising outcomes.” For many years she worked with a largely neutral palette, exploring discarded magazines, rubber, carpet tack strips, cardboard, and more in simple, minimalist grids, blocks, and rectangles. More recently, access to stacks of bright pink and turquoise polyethylene foam has taken Fritchen in a completely new direction, with sensuous, whimsical forms that recall ocean creatures, flowers, and mammalian bodies.