Meg Ojala - Photographer

Meg Ojala

Photographer

Name:  Meg Ojala
City/State: Dundas, Minnesota
Email: ojala@stolaf.edu
Website:  megojala.com

I was born in International Falls, Minnesota. Rainy Lake was my first home. I lived in Northfield, Minnesota until I graduated from high school. I received my B.A. from the University of Minnesota and M.F.A from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. After working for a short while in Chicago in the field of bookbinding and conservation I came back to Minnesota and I have been teaching photography at St. Olaf College and making photographs for more than 30 years.

Tell me about your work? What are you currently working on? How is this different from past projects?

I’ve been making landscape photographs for many years. I often make pictures along the Cannon River near my home and studio. I like to photograph the transitional times, as the seasons are changing. Recently I made pictures with very different subject matter, at my brother’s factory. The body of work is called, “The Plant”. I have always loved the textures and layers of marks and planes at the plant. It is a rich source of found drawings and found sculpture. I also wanted to make pictures of a very particular place that has significance for the people who work there, my family, and me. These photographs reflect interests in common with my landscape work, such as the ambiguous illusion of space and a sense of time that is compressed and transitory. It is very different in subject matter but I think there is continuity with earlier work.

I’m showing a few pictures from a newer project at Groveland Gallery, opening on March 8. The pictures were taken at a site near my home where asphalt and concrete and other rubble has been dumped and grown into a small man-made mountain. I have been there several times to take pictures and will continue working there and continue trying to figure out the best way to show a bigger body of work from the site. The pictures are metaphors for our catastrophic impact on this world and refer to the theory of catastrophism.

How did you decide to become an artist?

I didn’t decide all at once. It’s been a gradual process. I’ve always loved making things and when I was a sophomore in college I decided to major in art because it was what I loved doing the most. Then I decided to go on to get an MFA in art, not because I thought it would make me employable, but because thinking about and making art was the way I wanted to spend my time. I had some good teachers and fellow students and colleagues who were models for me and helped me develop as an artist and then as a teacher. I discovered Agnes Martin’s writings when I was in graduate school and she has been one of my teachers, her work and thought a touchstone for me.


What was the best advice given to you as an artist? 

I like Mary Oliver’s advice to poets. You must be “perfectly serious” and reliable to the cautious and mysterious part of the psyche that our conscious minds need to do creative work. The “responsible and purposeful” part of us must be sure to show up regularly and be attentive to the other part. What it means to me is that practice, discipline, attentiveness and openness are really important. You have to show up!

Many artists struggle to find ways to sell their art.  How do you sell your work?  How do you market yourself?

I am very lucky to be represented by Groveland Gallery in Minneapolis. Sally Johnson and Nicole Watson sell my art. I am not a good promoter of my own work. I tell my students to do as I say, not as I do, when it comes to marketing and getting work out in the world.

http://www.grovelandgallery.com

http://www.megojala.com

Who are some of the Minnesota artists you enjoy?  

There are many. Just a few are:

Jil Evans painting: http://www.jilevanssite.com

Michon Weeks: http://www.michonweeks.com/

Keith Taylor’s Dark Matter: http://www.keithtaylorphoto.com/

Paula McCartney: http://www.paulamccartney.com/

The work of my colleagues in the Department of Art and Art History at St. Olaf.

http://wp.stolaf.edu/art/

I love the art made by teens and young adults in the Art and Autism program in Northfield, MN. The A+ Art Club meets every week at the Northfield Arts Guild. http://www.aplusartclub.com

If I were to follow you around to see art in Minnesota, which places would we go? What would we see?

I look at work in all media, historical and contemporary.

I would take you to the Walker, the MIA, Franklin Art Works, Form and Content, http://www.formandcontent.org/ , Groveland, http://www.grovelandgallery.com , The Flaten Art Museum at St. Olaf College, http://wp.stolaf.edu/flaten/ and the Perlman Teaching Museum at Carleton, https://apps.carleton.edu/museum/ .

Minnesota Center for Book Arts, http://www.mnbookarts.org/
Highpoint Center for Printmaking, http://www.highpointprintmaking.org/

In addition to www.Local-Artist-Interviews.com, where do you go online for good art resources, whether to find a new artist, or to see what is going on in the art world locally and otherwise? 

http://www.mnartists.org

I follow links to galleries from reviews and listings in the New York Times and The New Yorker.

I look at the New York Times Lens Blog. http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/

Lens Culture. https://www.lensculture.com/

I try to keep up on recent photography books at Photo Eye. https://www.photoeye.com/

Do you have any exhibits to promote in the near future?

I am in a group show at Groveland Gallery with Clara Ueland and Denise Presnell-Weidner that opens on Saturday, March 8 from 2 – 5 PM. Duncan Hannah and Ellen Heck are showing in the Annex. The show will be up through April 19.
grovelandgallery.com

Groveland Gallery - LAI Profile

Image List:

1.  The Plant #2, (painting), pigment print, 26 x 40 inches,2012

2.  The Plant #5, (unplug one at a time), pigment print, 24 x 36 inches, 2012

3.   The Plant #6, (worlds), pigment print, 20 x 30 inches, 2012

4. Catastrophe 2, pigment print, 8 x 8 inches, 2014

5. Catastrophe 97, pigment print, 20 x 30 inches, 2014

6. Catastrophe 84, pigment print, 12 x 18 inches, 2014

Dani Roach - Painter

North Shore Rocks 1

Dani Roach

Name:             Dani L. Roach
City/State:     Minneapolis, MN
Email:             art@daniroachart.com
Website:         www.daniroachart.com
MNartist.org profile:   http://www.mnartists.org/artistHome.do?rid=8920

Tell me about your work? What are you currently working on? How is this different from past projects?
I just finished a group of paintings for an upcoming solo show around the theme Pairings/Parings. I realized that I was creating twos – a pair of paintings of the same subject matter, or a pair in different mediums, or one horizontal and one vertical, etc.  I became more intentional about it after I noticed. The paring part, stripping away details or changing them, is pretty common to my previous work. At this point, I’m finishing up an interactive piece with a friend I’ve collaborated with for years, Roxann Reisdorf.  For the last twelve years I’ve included a piece that people can touch and play with, for my solo shows. My inspiration for the interactive pieces is an older sister that became blind later in life. I still wanted to be able to share my work with her.

How did you decide to become an artist?
I don’t remember it as a decision, but I was always creating things, drawing, and painting from early childhood. Given a choice, it was the one thing that always made sense to study and do.

What was the best advice given to you as an artist?
Don’t expect to make your living from your art. Somewhere along the line in college that message crept in. It was a very practical idea – get trained in a trade you enjoy. Then, if you could work seasonally or take breaks when you needed them for the studio, you could still make a living. I didn’t end up pursuing a trade, but I ended up working in libraries – for as long as I’ve been making art.

Many artists struggle to find ways to sell their art.  How do you sell your work?  How do you market yourself?
I’m very fortunate to be represented by Groveland Gallery in Minneapolis, http://www.grovelandgallery.com/ for over 25 years now. I have a website http://www.daniroachart.com/ and maintain mailing lists. I also make sure that I participate in occasional juried and invitational exhibitions. The Minnesota State Fair Fine Arts Competition is one venue where the volume of viewers is high.

Who are some of the Minnesota artists you enjoy?
In addition to the other artists at Groveland Gallery, there are artists and friends whose work I’ve enjoyed seeing over the years.
Roxann Reisdorf http://rockdorf.zenfolio.com/
Marty Nash http://marthanash.wordpress.com/
Jody Williams http://www.flyingpaperpress.com/
Petronella Ytsma http://petronellaytsma.com/

If I were to follow you around to see art in Minnesota, which places would we go? What would we see?
You could follow me to the major local museums like the MIA, Walker and Weisman, but I’d rather you follow me to some smaller venues. We’d see a good sampling of local and regional artists (as well as some big names) and some well-organized exhibitions around interesting themes. To name just a few:

Groveland Gallery www.grovelandgallery.com/
Form + Content   http://www.formandcontent.org/index.htm
Marine Art Museum in Winona www.minnesotamarineart.org/
Katherine E. Nash Gallery https://art.umn.edu/nash
Minnesota Museum of American Art  http://mmaa.org/
Minnesota State Fair Fine Arts Building http://www.mnstatefair.org/

In addition to www.Local-Artist-Interviews.com, where do you go online for good art resources, whether to find a new artist or to see what is going on in the art world locally and otherwise?
Mnartists.org  http://www.mnartists.org/
Springboard for the Arts http://springboardforthearts.org/
MN Original http://www.mnoriginal.org/
WARM http://www.thewarm.org/
Wet Paint’s site http://www.wetpaintart.com/ is chock full of information and I enjoy Beth Bergman’s blog.

Do you have any exhibits to promote in the near future? 

Yes. Pairings/Parings opens at Groveland Gallery on 10/25/13 through 11/30/13.  Reception: Friday 10/25/13 5-8 PM.

Groveland Gallery - Gallery Profile

Image List:
1.      North Shore Rocks 1
2.      North Shore Rocks 2
3.      Tumbling Prams
4.      Hovering Prams
5.      Red Reflection
6.      Woven
7.      Image of artist

Kathy Miller - Watercolor

Kathy Miller

Name:  Kathy Miller
City/State: Northfield, MN
Email:  kathy@kmillerwatercolors.com
Website:  www.kmillerwatercolors.com
MNartist.org profile: Kathy Miller
Facebook page: Kathy Miller

Bio~                              

Kathy Miller is a watercolor artist living in Northfield, Minnesota, who devotes a great deal of time to painting and teaching watercolor classes.  She is passionate about painting nature, capturing moments in time when the magic of light changes the ordinary into the extraordinary.  When choosing something to paint, Kathy always looks to the beauty of the world around her and is especially attracted to subject matter that portrays a dramatic sense of lighting, as evidenced in her numerous floral, landscape, and still life paintings that glow with a warm radiance.

Kathy earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in education, and spent 20 years as an elementary classroom teacher.  Shortly before retiring in 2007, she took her first painting class and since then has taken numerous watercolor workshops throughout Minnesota, as well as Wisconsin, New Mexico, and Giverny, France.

Kathy is a Signature Member of the Minnesota Watercolor Society (MWS), and her paintings have earned numerous awards, including Best of Show at the MWS Spring Juried Exhibition in 2013.   Also in 2013, Kathy received a McKnight Individual Artist Grant awarded by the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council (SEMAC) for an 18-month watercolor endeavor.

Kathy’s paintings are currently shown in various galleries in Northfield, Zumbrota, and Red Wing.   All of her artwork can been seen on her website at www.kmillerwatercolors.com.

Tell me about your work? What are you currently working on? How is this different from past projects? 

For over a year, I have been working on an extensive body of work for a project entitled "Visual Explorations: A Voyage of Discovery", made possible by the SEMAC grant awarded in March as previously stated. The impetus behind the project is a quote by Marcel Proust, "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but rather in seeing with new eyes."  It has caused a major shift in how I see my subject matter and how I portray it in my artwork.  In this new body of work, I have explored four nature themes - Peonies, Water Lilies, Reflections, and Aspen Trees - and created a series of watercolors on each from varying viewpoints that range in scope from intimate close-ups to broad panoramas.  In addition, I have experimented with alternative formats, including squares and elongated horizontal and vertical rectangles.  I have painted in sizes that are atypical for me as well, some as large as 30" x 66".  

The Capstone Event for my grant project is the exhibition "Voyage of Discovery and Reflections" at the Northfield Arts Guild, running from June 12th to July 22nd.  The Opening Reception is Friday, June 14th from 7 - 9 p.m.

How did you decide to become an artist?

In 2007 I retired from a career as an elementary classroom teacher.  One year prior to that I had a strong urge to take a watercolor class; as I told my fourth grade students, "I feel that there is a painting in me somewhere."  Upon taking the class, I instantly fell in love with the medium.  This has evolved into a new career that involves painting daily and teaching watercolor classes in communities in and around Northfield

What was the best advice given to you as an artist? 

Keep painting!!!!!  Don't give up!

Many artists struggle to find ways to sell their art.  How do you sell your work?  How do you market yourself?

I began by doing local art fairs in Northfield and surrounding communities.  I continue to do those, including the Riverwalk Market Fair that is held in downtown Northfield every Saturday from 9 a.m. - 1 p.m.  This is a wonderful opportunity to make connections with the public and to develop my presence as an artist.  Besides original watercolors, I sell cards and prints of various sizes, thus offering a wide range of price points to the public.

I also have a website (www.kmillerwatercolors.com) and send out a bimonthly email newsletter to nearly 300 email addresses that I have gotten from those who have signed my guest book at art fairs.

My work can also be see on Northfield's local art website, Arts Town (www.artstown.us) and Mn Artists (www.mnartists.org).

Who are some of the Minnesota artists you enjoy?

Charlotte Laxen (www.charlottelaxen.com)

Dan Weimer (www.danweimer.com)

Karen Knutson (www.karenknutson.com)

Fred Sommers (www.fredericksomers.com)

If I were to follow you around to see art in Minnesota, which places would we go? What would we see?

Of course, at the top on the list has to be the Minneapolis Institute of Art; it's been a favorite place of mine since high school and college.  I never tire of revisiting the artwork of the classics from all time periods.  And for contemporary art it would be the Walker Art Center and the University of Minnesota's Weisman Art Museum.

And then, I also love going to the local exhibits at the Northfield Arts Guild.  The shows   feature the works from local and metro artists, as well as our local high school and colleges (Carleton and St. Olaf), including potters, fiber artist, jewelers, sculptors, and a broad range of 2-D artists.  (www.northfieldartsguild.org)

Another gallery that I enjoy is Groveland Gallery, located in a beautifully restored 1890's mansion on the edge of downtown Minneapolis.  The gallery features the work of contemporary Midwest artists and specializes in representational 2-D artwork.  A number of local artists from the Northfield / Dundas area hang their pieces in this gallery. (www.grovelandgallery.com)

In addition to www.Local-Artist-Interviews.com, where do you go online for good art resources, whether to find a new artist, or to see what is going on in the art world locally and otherwise? 

- The new Northfield Arts Town website (www.artstown.us)

- Fine Art Views Newsletter - (www.fineartviews.com)

- MNArtists - (www.mnartists.org)

-  Minnesota Watercolor Society (www.minnesotawatercolors.com)

Do you have any exhibits to promote in the near future?

Fast approaching is the Northfield Arts Guild exhibit "Voyage of Discovery and Reflections" that I mentioned earlier (June 12 - July 22); this will consist of about 27 new pieces of work, as well as the photography of Rochester photographer Ena Cisewski.

After that I will be showing about 40 paintings in Aberdeen, South Dakota, at the Dacotah Prairie Museum.  The show will run from August 24 to October 4 in the Lamont Gallery.

Kathy Miller

Northfield Art Guild

www.northfieldartsguild.org

Image List:

1.  "Serenity, in Monet's Garden"

2.  "White Peonies"

3.  "Pink Peony"

4.  "Final Days"

5.  "Leafscape"

6.  "Looking In"
7.  Image of artist

Charles Lyon - Painter

Clear Choice

Charles Lyon

Name: Charles Lyon
City/State: Minneapolis, MN
Email: pietown@aol.com
Website: charleslyonart.com
MNartist.org profile: http://www.mnartists.org/event.do?rid=327804
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/charles.lyon.902

Bio~ 

Before settling in Minnesota in 1994, Charles Lyon spent over a decade living in the high Arizona desert where he taught photography, rock climbing and kayaking.  As he developed an interest in color, he set aside black and white photography and began to work in textiles and later, pastels. After his move to Minneapolis, Lyon returned to school to study painting and received his MFA degree from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 1999.  In 2005, Lyon was chosen to be an Artist In Residence in Badlands National Park. In 2007, Lyon painted an ornament representing the park for the White House Christmas tree. Most recently, Lyon was awarded a 2009 Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board for continued work on his paintings of snow in the city. In 2012 Lyon was invited to stay on a ranch in the North Dakota Badlands to paint the Little Missouri River Landscape.

"I am attracted to particular flowers because of their rigorous structure and formal delicacy. Like architecture, flowers have to "stand up" and function. Although flowers appear decorative, their complex structures are for attracting the right insects and reproduction. Roses, dahlias and peonies all share an architectural quality, which is expressed through the way light and color create their unique and ethereal spaces. The opacity, translucence and transparency of the flowers' petals are forever fascinating to me, and consequently challenge me as a painter in oil and watercolor."

Dahlia # 6

Tell me about your work? What are you currently working on? How is this different from past projects?

The current exhibit at Groveland Gallery in Mpls continues my work with flowers. There are oils and watercolors. In the oils I am working hard at finding as much color separation as possible…sometimes subtle sometimes strong. I am also thinking more about my edges to create space. Particularly in the work with the Black-eyed Susans, I have pushed this with some very blurry foregrounds and softer backgrounds. Sharpest areas are middle ground. And I have adjusted the color to compliment this. In the watercolors I am looking at it’s great ability to create transparency and translucence, qualities that are found so often in strongly lit flowers. I have had a chance to be more spontaneous, too, with my backgrounds.

Farnesina Roses

How did you decide to become an artist?

My mother was an artist, so I was introduced to weekend art classes when I was young. Also, an Italian artist came and lived with us when I was 8 or 9 and did portraits of all of us except my Dad. He was very out going and open…he had more fun than anyone else around and he was a magician with paint. The weekend painting classes at the time were more focused on abstraction and “the paint” whereas he could make representational miracles happen with a brush.

What was the best advice given to you as an artist? 

Work hard and don’t take yourself too seriously. From Kinji Akagawa: “Don’t try to create masterpieces”.

Button Dahlia

Many artists struggle to find ways to sell their art.  How do you sell your work?  How do you market yourself?

I have gallery representation here with Groveland Gallery and in Rapid City, SD at Prairie Edge Gallery. I have a website which allows people to see my work but is not set up for commercial sales. One rule I have heard for artists is that if they want to be successful, they need to spend 50% of their time marketing themselves. Well, that does not leave enough time for painting and consequently I fall into the category of a “under marketer”.

Dahlia # 4

Who are some of the Minnesota artists you enjoy?

I go to all the exhibitions at Groveland Gallery I can so those are some of the artists I know best.

www.grovelandgallery.com/

I am in the California Building and look at the work of my friends there:

David Rathman: http://davidrathman.com/

Pat Canney: http://www.pacanney.com/

Santiago Zarzosa: http://www.santiagozarzosa.com/

Suzanne Kolsmalski: http://www.suzannekosmalski.com/

Jehra Patrick: jehrapatrick.com

Others are:

Alec Soth: http://alecsoth.com/photography/

Shana Kaplow (http://shanakaplow.com/home.html)

Pam Valfer (http://pamelavalfer.com/section/92481.html)

Alexa Horochowski (http://mnartists.org/work.do?action=list&rid=4359),

Carolyn Swiszcz (http://www.carolynswiszcz.com/),

Chris Larson (http://mnartists.org/event.do?rid=206441),

Jil Evans: http://www.formandcontent.org/

Holly Swift: http://www.carbonmousestudios.com/carbon_mouse_studios/Holly_BIO.html

Peony

If I were to follow you around to see art in Minnesota, which places would we go? What would we see?

Minneapolis Institute of Art: http://www.artsmia.org/

Highpoint Center for Printmaking; http://www.highpointprintmaking.org/

Weinstein Gallery: http://www.weinstein-gallery.com/

Walker Art Center: http://www.walkerart.org/

Form + Content: http://www.formandcontent.org/

Todd Bockley Gallery: http://www.bockleygallery.com/

In addition to www.Local-Artist-Interviews.com, where do you go online for good art resources, whether to find a new artist, or to see what is going on in the art world locally and otherwise? 

To be honest, I don’t use the web much unless I see an artist in a magazine, by word of mouth or in person whom I respond to and feel compelled to learn more about. If I am traveling to another city, I will check out exhibitions before I go usually by going to museum and gallery websites.

Susans # 2

What can we expect to see from you in the future?

I have a show at the end of June in Dickinson, ND: http://www.dickinsonstate.edu/. I was invited last year to spend time on a ranch near the Little Missouri River and have developed landscape images from there and Theodore Roosevelt National Park. There will be paintings of the land, buffalo and horses. 

In December, I will exhibit at the Minneapolis Club: http://www.mplsclub.org/. They are developing an exhibition program for local artists. I will show paintings from several bodies of work in their elegant space.

And through May 4th, My work will be at the Groveland Gallery in Minneapolis.

Charles Lyon

Groveland Gallery

LAI Profile

Gallery Website