In the Studio with Connie Saddlemire
by Ashley McLain
This article originally appeared in the Summer 2025 issue of Art with Altitude.
Stepping into Connie
Saddlemire’s creative world is an experience of layered depth,
visually and philosophically. An artist with an unwavering commitment to abstraction, she navigates between mystery and intentionality. From years immersed in printmaking, Connie has refined a practice that balances technical precision with impromptu discovery.
Working in collaboration with Sue Oehme, Master Printer at Oehme Graphics in Steamboat Springs, Connie’s process transforms everyday forms into captivating compositions. Using altered photography and printmaking, she currently turns photographic images of corrugated Corten steel into colorful, layered solarplate prints that capture randomness, and imperfection. Connie’s artwork pays homage to the mundane, an aesthetic that aligns with the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi.
Connie’s journey into art began with the gift of a sketchpad in Taiwan at age seven. Living overseas and then moving to New Mexico, she absorbed the contrasting visuals of East Asia and the American Southwest. These early experiences imprinted an aesthetic sensibility that continues to influence her work to this day.
During her teenage years, Connie’s family lived near Washington D.C. and her mother, an art lover herself, enjoyed taking her daughter to art museums. “The first time I saw an abstract work of art was back in 1964, when I was 16 years old, and I was totally captivated by this small etching by Paul Klee entitled The Twittering Machine.”
Connie majored in fine art at St. Lawrence University. “In my undergrad art classes, I tried various styles of imagery, mostly representational. It wasn’t until I started making colorful abstract silkscreen prints that everything clicked, and I felt like I had found my visual voice. The parameters of representation were too limiting for me and with abstraction, my imagination was set free.” She went on to earn her Master of Arts in studio art with a focus on lithography at SUNY Albany.
For five years following grad school, Connie continued printing her own fine art lithographs, until she began her next adventure: motherhood! Life brought her to Steamboat Springs and when her son was grown, a serendipitous encounter set her back on the path to making art.
“I first met Sue Oehme during the Steamboat All Arts Festival in 2010. I walked along Yampa Street perusing the booths until I came to the last booth. Most of the art pieces were etchings, and they were surprisingly good, so I started chatting with the woman working at the booth and learned that she had printed the pieces on her own etching press. As we continued discussing the prints, she told me about her background as a printmaker, noting that before moving to Steamboat, she was a Master Printer at Tyler Graphics. Tyler Graphics! I knew what that meant—I learned about the printmaking studio in grad school—it was one of the best fine art printmaking businesses in the USA, probably in the world! The woman was Sue Oehme, who opened her fine art printmaking business, Oehme Graphics, soon after.”
Connie began making prints at Oehme Graphics by taking monotype workshops. After Sue instructed Connie in a couple of workshops, she suggested a direct collaboration. Sue recommended that instead of monotype, which can only be printed once, Connie try solarplate printing because the plates could be used multiple times.
“Sue saw I had a clear vision. Before long, she wanted to represent my work, which is a tremendous honor.”
Together, they have produced multiple distinct series, pushing the boundaries of printmaking through meticulous experimentation with colors, scale, layers and the dynamic nature of ink on paper. One of Connie’s most striking series originated in an unexpected place—her outdoor shower. The lower roofs of her Steamboat home feature corrugated Corten steel, a material which is traditional for Territorial New Mexican houses. When designing the shower, she decided to use the same material because she liked its striated geometry and rusted patina. “I photographed a single, square, close-up section of the steel wall, and then altered the images to create a series of striped lines that have varying widths,” she explains. “The results were mesmerizing. It became a meditation on form, color and repetition.”
Connie describes her process as “intentionality with mystery.” While she enters a series with a vision, she allows for randomness and happenstance, trusting that serendipity will reveal unexpected harmonies. “The adjacencies, the layering—they create moments I couldn’t plan if I tried. That’s the magic of it.” This balance between control and surrender is what gives her work its richness.
Her deep-rooted dedication to abstraction led to her involvement in Why Abstraction, the first show in Steamboat of local abstract artists in a non-commercial exhibition space. The exhibit challenged Steamboat’s predominantly representational art scene. “I wanted people to see that abstraction isn’t some strange new thing that’s hard to understand and has no connection to their own lives. Abstraction has been around since 1906, almost as long as Steamboat has been an incorporated town.”
This summer, Connie’s work will be included in Steamboat Art Museum’s new exhibit The Art of Printmaking: Process and Passion, organized by Sue Oehme. She will also continue to participate in shows with W Gallery in Steamboat, SPACE Gallery in Denver and Laffer Gallery in upstate New York.
Now in her 70s, Connie remains committed to reinvention. She is revisiting her photo archive, selecting new images to expose onto fresh plates, ensuring that her work continues to evolve.
“I’ve worn out some of my plates, which means it’s time for something new. I like that challenge—extracting beauty from the overlooked and elevating the mundane into something profound.”
Elevate the Arts: Connie’s art is an invitation to slow down, to look closer, to embrace imperfection as beauty. Whether through the rhythmic rusted grooves of Corten steel or the swirling forms of a hay bale, take a moment to see the extraordinary in the ordinary. In a world that often moves fast, pause, absorb the colors, lines and textures, and see the world anew. AM
