by Kelsey Knott
You’ve likely seen fruit as art in still life, but what about in clothing design? Meet Wende Cudmore, a pressed fruits and vegetables artist and clothing designer!
A painter in high school, Cudmore always loved art, but it took the backburner to life as a mother and caretaker of her Vietnam veteran husband. After he passed, she moved from New York to Salem, Indiana with her partner Ron before going back to school in 2004. “In high school, I had a counselor that told me I wasn't smart enough to go to college. In the 60s, that's what they told women, especially, and I wasn't sassy enough back then. So I got married and had my two beautiful children and that was my life. Looking back, it was good and I learned a lot of life-learning skills that I needed. It shaped me into who I am now and my artwork, especially... I'm very appreciative.” Wende graduated from Indiana University Southeast in 2013 with a bachelor of fine arts in printmaking and a 3.7 GPA, proving that it was more about right timing than intelligence.
She draws heavily from her childhood and life experiences when creating. Through camping trips and forest forages, her parents influenced her love of nature and the outdoors. “I realize now what my dad was teaching us, so I think about that often when I'm working with this material. They sold veggies, they grew gardens and flowers.” Her mother was a seamstress, a title she rejects though she knows “how to sew in an artsy way.”
Cudmore calls her pieces “an offspring of printmaking.” Starting sketches often change as she processes and manipulates materials. Besides color, texture, function, and materials available, she must also consider amounts and types of fruit/vegetable beforehand, managing her time to slice, blanche, dry, ink, and press the vegetables before molding them into the damp garment. Sugar, humidity, and other elements can affect this process: “There's a fine line between the vegetable looking fine and damp to seeing mold, so I have to stay on top of that.’” Natural cellulose glues the fruit together before the piece dries and takes permanent shape.
The KMAC Couture annual “Walk the Runway” event has largely contributed to Cudmore’s success and helped her establish valuable friendships. Each year, she competes against herself: “KMAC has really pushed me, my skills, and my artistry way out of the box, way further than I ever dreamed.” Fifteen years later, she’s still learning and honing her craft as models masterfully bring her art to life on the runway.
Wende reminds us that artists have invaluable workplace skills: critical-thinking, problem-solving, time management, and staying sharp: “When I was getting my art degree, people would either say, ‘Oh, that's fun’ or ‘What are you gonna do with that?… The field of art is just a beautiful place to be. It can be anything that you're figuring out how to do. I mean, I had no idea this was even an art thing. When I started doing this with KMAC, I had to learn how designers think and feel.” Cudmore has earned respect in both art and design spaces from designers she also respects.
Wende spreads life’s beauty in an often ugly world and sees her work as a statement, not something frivolous. She hides butterflies within her pieces, always leaning into her uniqueness: “I like it to be known when somebody sees pressed fruits and veggies, they go, “Oh, that’s Wende Cudmore!”
Cudmore has two couture garments in Harrison County Arts in Corydon, where she volunteers monthly, as well as some eco-printing pieces. She collaborated with twenty artists at KMAC on a piece in their museum and has a couture garment in the Frazier History Museum.
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