ARTIST STATEMENTS
32nd annual juried show
Kristen Anderson | Pin Cherry
I am a feltmaker, creating tapestries and rugs that tell stories from the natural world. My interest in seeds from boreal forest trees and shrubs grew from wanting to deepen my relationship with the place I live. I drew parallels between seed germination stories and human growth experiences. This project deepened my ecological understanding and kinship.
Catrielle Barnett | Becoming Other
When I look around at the world, I see promise and pain. I use art to tap the world on the shoulder. There are many ways to communicate appreciation and meaning through art. Using art as a tool to reach others is my mission.
Katrina Barnett | Emerging Anew
The practice of unpacking our emotional baggage inspired a series of sculptures and prints in 2024. Self-examination brings change; the rippling effects of change are a collective experience. I create using mediums such as metal, clay, and printmaking. Exploring materials in new ways remains a driving force behind the work.
John Beaudine | 8th Street South, Moorhead, MN | Rubble
I firmly believe within each passing year that photography truly is like catching lightning in a bottle. Photographers are capturing moments in time that might not be replicated ever again. With the world ever changing, my goal is simply to photograph the now.
Mark Christy | Alisha
My art is created by utilizing vintage and recycled materials and antiques. I flatten the metal out and then hand cut and nail or glue them onto a piece of wood that I earlier had made a template. The art is made from all of the natural colors and no paint has been added. I had been focusing on birds and other animals; however, started attempting to make people whom I have seen while out (and they looked unique) and or a historical figure that had a valuable or interesting past.
Serenity Crego | Tire Pile
Serenity Crego, a Hibbing artist, is an oil painter who creates atmospheric paintings of alleys bringing a sense of nostalgia and appreciation for what life in small-town America is. Living on the Iron Range her entire life, Crego has been inspired to create paintings highlighting the beauty and sincerity of our region
Dee Croaker | Coming Home
Through art, I found a therapeutic tranquility creating “Pretties” that bring joy and confidence to others while healing my grief and trauma. Combining influences from elders, various Indigenous styles through the ages, and my surroundings, I create pieces as beautifully unique as the person who will wear it.
Ralph A. Hanggi Jr. | BAV-2-T Gerry's Dream
Gerry's Dream is a continuation of the BAV-T series incorporating acrylic paint on canvas/linen in circular configurations. BAV-T pieces are executed with pattern rich, colorful, geometric motifs, all completed in an abstract vein.
Avery Danger Hunter | In Pieces
Layers are consistent in my artwork, and I strive to reach for unknown layers within my own identity and what that means to me, and the outside world. It is now the inclusion of hallucinations, depressive episodes, gender dysphoria, and other unseen disabilities that spur on my creativity.
Paula Jensen | Redefining Luck
My art explores how we see the world by using animal symbolisms sparking conversation, challenge assumptions, and invite viewers to question their perspectives. I sculpt and cast in my studio from start to finish.
Eric Johnson | Return
Driven by a passion for storytelling through visual art, Eric Johnson continues to evolve and experiment, pushing the boundaries of his chosen mediums. His art not only reflects a profound connection to the world around him but also invites viewers to embark on a visual journey that transcends conventional boundaries. Johnson’s work in printmaking primarily focuses on the reduction method of relief printmaking. The reduction method, also known as the subtractive method, was developed in the 1950’s by Pablo Picasso along with his master printer, Hildago Arnéra, while working in studio in the south of France. This method uses one block to print a multicolored image instead of using one block for each color.
Susan Klann | The North Shore
I am interested in how color, brushstroke and form can recreate and reimagine the imprint left on me by the world and how I experience it. I am influenced by history and memory and how their presence is manifested in everyday life.
Donna LaBeau | Bear Spirit
At this season of my life, it is important to keep on painting and creating. I have painted in oil, watercolor, encaustic, pastel, and acrylic. I have also enjoyed quilting, knitting beautiful shawls, and beading jewelry. It's all good!
Diane Levar | Peonies
Working in watercolor where colors mix themselves on paper, making different textures and occasionally create surprise blooms. My paintings capture the effects of light and shadow, soft and hard edges and warm and cool colors in revealing my love of northern Minnesota.
Amy Lucas | The Hiding Place
I am an abstract realism artist. I work with acrylics on canvas. In my art I seek to understand how emotions color memory. Through my art I release negative emotions and create a serene calm for my soul to rest. I hope when others view my art they will feel the same.
Louise Laakso Lundin | In Dreams
"Art is learned," stated Edgar A. Whitney. When I heard those words, I was struck as if by lightning. Realizing that I could learn opened doors to endless possibilities. I studied method and technique, did thousands of drawings and paintings and learned from each one. I became a "shape-maker, entertainer, and symbol collector." I have learned to not be afraid to fail, for that is how I (we) learn. I find great joy in the process of creating art; there is joy in sharing what I've learned with others, aiming to charge and/or re-charge their creative batteries. Leonardo Da Vinci stated it beautifully: “. . . for love of anything is the offspring of knowledge, love being more fervent in proportion as knowledge is more certain.”
Rick Lundsten | Secured
Living in Minnesota, we have so much beauty right in our backyards or within driving distance and much of the scenery includes water. For this reason, it is only natural to adopt the theme “Water Colors by Rick Lundsten” as the theme by which to identify what I do in painting.
Krista Matison | Relationships
I live close to nature and because of this I realize that each person has a unique creative path— honoring this creativity maintains balance and equanimity.
Erin McKillip | Lady Orchid
My series of lady drawings represent the reclamation of power and having the courage to dismantle patterns of behaviors that shape our experiences. The imagery captures the moment of awareness and sudden clarity to unapologetically move forward. While the subject matter is emotionally complex based from my experiences, I enjoy keeping the materials simple using basic pencil on paper with a little acrylic graphite paint.
Greg Mueller | Silence of the Trees III
I elevate the humble and the modest. Rescuing reclaimed metals is my instinctive and intuitive search for the spiritual within the material and a glimpse of the vertical or divine. Perhaps my studio practice fits somewhere between Zen Wabi Sabi and the animated “Island of Misfit Toys”.
Sharon Nordrum | Niigii
My art journey has been full of learning some successful and others not so much but each misstep has allowed me to grow as an artist. Through this journey I discovered painting particularly with acrylics. Blending of colors to produce shades of light and dark. The ability to push a color forward or to the background with a stroke of a brush still amazes me after so many years. My style of painting is unique as I blend both my Ojibwe and Norwegian (Saami) heritages to design a cohesive piece that tells the stories from childhood and my culture.
Tom Page | Robin
Make art not war.
Seth Peter | Argyle
Seth Peter is a woodworker, sculptor, and technology enthusiast who loves to combine all three ingredients in his work. He is currently exploring wood cushioned and tufted wood creations out of the Twin Ignition Startup Garage in NE Minneapolis.
Lynn Steiner | Early August Fireweed
Nature is my life’s Muse, so it is important not to contribute to the planet’s demise, even in a small way. As an Oil Painter, I use no petroleum- based solvents or mediums, or plastic paint (acrylic/latex). I have been experimenting with mulling my own oil paints with foraged mineral pigments often from the very area I am painting. Every painting tells a story, and I love what I paint.
Kellie Rae Theiss | Female Crow with her Simps
The existence of all creation has given me thirst for information regarding the life of the subjects I paint. From gestation, diet, reproduction, dedication, play, or war in nature, these stories are fascinating. I am deeply moved by the truth I find in their kingdom. When I choose a subject, research ensues. In formal training for painting a portrait, the first assignment is to learn everything you can about that person. The same is true for all living things. The more I learn about my subject the stronger the painting becomes. I live in Minnesota as a working artist. My paintings express a reverence for nature. They are rendered with layers of careful detail to relate to the viewer, with my own dash of surrealism, how beautiful, fragile, and brief our lives are. All of us are included in this parallel. We are responsible to observe, appreciate, and protect nature. My paintings summon reflection and create a stronger connection to our world. When the opportunity arises to make the right choices for our environment, I hope that each of us will be moved to take the high road. What is wild in this world is where true beauty is found.
Beth Vander Heiden | Brilliant Aurora
Growing up in Wisconsin, I developed a deep connection to nature, fueling my nightscape and landscape photography. I capture serene forests, waterfalls, and the majestic night sky, bringing their beauty to those who haven’t experience it firsthand. Join me on this journey, where nature and the cosmos reveal their boundless beauty.
Heidi Wanzek | Mistaking Fall for Spring
Creating allows me to translate the universal questions, wonders, and everyday encounters of the human experience. Woven into our lives are traces of change, growth, birth, death, and rebirth. Working with these cycles, through intuition and observation, I find my materials and subject matters rooted in my experience in becoming.
Eric Zuccola | She Said Yes
Eric Zuccola’s collages are covers for obscure albums that sell for four figures online. They are posters for the underground films movie nerds flock to at midnight screenings. They are ads for the off-brand products of a capitalist society in decline. They are portraits of celebrities that never were but one day might be. They are realistic depictions of uncanny things.