Jacqueline Athmann - Painter

Spirit Pond (IMG_5418) 16x20 Acrylic on canvas

Jacqueline Athmann

Name:  Jacqueline Athmann
City/State: Plymouth, MN
Email: Jacqueline.athmann@gmail.com
Website: http://www.jacquelineathmann.com/
MNartist.org profile: http://www.mnartists.org/artistHome.do?rid=72305

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

 After not being able to finish art school I focused my energy on my corporate career and nearly forgot that I was an artist.  Doodling in meetings and succumbing to stress of the workplace and a not so great personal life,  I became ill and decided to use art as part of my therapy.  I have been painting ever since.   Painting after work, on the weekend or whenever I can, life has never been better!

It took a while after not painting for nearly 20 years to get back into the swing of things but after a year of struggling to find myself, I did it. I'm inspired by bold colors, street art and graffiti and once I worked to incorporate this inspiration into my most recent series of paintings.  My work went from, "I'm not sure who I am as an artist.... What's my style" to  "THIS is it!! HERE I AM!"

Circles   (IMG_7508) 24x24 Acrylic on canvas

"What is Art?" is certainly too big of a question to ask here, but what do you hope your audience takes away from your art? What statement do you hope to make?

 I want my art to make viewers “oohhh and ahhhh” with joy!  I want people to feel refreshed and happy after viewing my work.  So many people are afraid to put color in their life and it’s possible that is what I was put on this earth to do; introduce people to brilliant color.  I love watching people smile while they look at my work and they don't even realize it's happening.

Birch #9 (IMG_8737) 9x12 Acrylic on canvas board

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

My high school art teacher Ms. Quello consistently demanded that I sit down, stop talking and finish my work.  Well, after 20+ years of focusing my attention on a career in Corporate America, I decided to take Ms. Quello’s advice and started finishing work I started in high school.  I have been focusing on my artwork ever since and it has been paying off.

Tell me about your work space and your creative process.

 When working in my studio, I use the floor, easel, tables and anything else I can use to prop up my pieces while they drip and dry.  I  use a lot of plastic to protect the walls, ceilings and floors and have made a small investment in the stock of plastic so I never run out. 

I’m able to create work in small scale without much need of a studio, however my larger pieces demand texture and I’m more than happy to oblige.  I throw the paint liberally and lose myself in the process.  Once I’m done, I step back for a break and allow the piece to dry for the next layer of paint. 

I typically have close to 5-6 paintings in progress at any given time.  I layer the paint over and over to create a texture worthy of touch…  It’s not until I have that gut feeling that I stop and look within the paint to see the portrait it has within it. Once I see it, I use only my fingers to paint the final portrait.

Push Me Daddy - 24x48 Mixed Media on canvas

Who are some of the Minnesota artists you enjoy? (Provide links) 

http://www.alisonpricestudios.com       Alison Price

http://judywestergard.com                      Judy Westergard

http://patrickpryor.com/home.html      Patrick Kemal Pryor

http://www.habibiart.com/index.html    Christina Habibi

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

Gallery13  http://www.gallery13.com/

Jean Stephen Galleries  http://www.jeanstephengalleries.com/about.html

The links above are to a few places I must visit on a regular basis.  I also like to visit or participate in all of the local art fairs throughout the year.

Sitting A Spell - 24x48 Mixed Media on canvas

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?

MNArtist.org http://www.mnartists.org/

Fine Art America http://fineartamerica.com

NEMAA  http://www.nemaa.org

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

I will be participating and more art fairs around the state and I’m hoping to start a series of smaller pieces so they are more affordable at the local fairs.  What good is art if no one can afford to purchase it?

Jacqueline Athmann

Judy Westergard - Painter

The Gardener

Judy Westergard

Judy Westergard

Mpls, MN

Email: judy@judywestergard.com

Website: http://www.judywestergard.com

MNartist.org profile: http://www.mnartists.org/artistHome.do?rid=6086

Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/index.php?lh=c312d1ab7bc24962df49b9e37ec0e4d8&

Bio~ I started painting when I took a workshop through the U. of Minnesota's Split Rock Arts Program. A week at the Cloquet Forestry Center in a class called "Drawing for the Truly Terrified" (which I was!) and I was hooked.

Fifteen years later I'm still learning. I so much enjoy exploring and experimenting that if consistency of medium and voice is what you're after, you'll not find it in my studio. Visitors there often remark on the variety in my subjects and voice. What can I say? I’m sort of like the Manhattan Transfer. I paint what I love and what I love is as varied as their music. (On the other hand, my mother would have told you that I just get bored easily.)

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

I’ve been working in oils for a number of years, creating portraits of people using only their hands. About a year ago I took a botanical watercolor class from Marilyn Garber, founder of the Minnesota School of Botanical Art. (http://www.minnesotaschoolofbotanicalart.com).

I wasn't particularly interested in watercolor work or in painting pictures of plants. Rather, I saw this as a discipline I needed; I signed on under the theory that if you want to play jazz piano well, a good foundation in classical music isn’t a bad idea.

To my way of thinking, Garber’s instruction would provide me with the classical basis I needed if I wanted to get better at what I was already doing. I never expected to fall in love with botanical watercolors. As a result of almost a year under her excellent tutelage, I'm experimenting with combining my hand portraits in oils with my watercolor botanicals.

The Massage Therapist

"What is Art?" is certainly too big of a question to ask here, but what do you hope your audience takes away from your art? What statement do you hope to make?

Whether they're looking at the hand portraits or my botanicals, I hope that viewers of my work come away with a heightened insight into the details that make both people and plants intriguing, mysterious, beautiful.

Independence Day

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

“You’ll never be an artist because you can’t tell me how many buttons are on your shirt without looking,” my 9th grade art teacher told me. It took me 40 years to figure out that what he was saying was that an artist needs to pay attention to the details. At 14, I believed him and became first a secretary, then an English teacher. I didn’t start painting until I was almost 50. I’m a slow learner...but one who pays attention to details.

Tell me about your work space and your creative process. I show at Northrup King (http://www.northrupkingbuilding.com/) and I work at home. I have half the basement for my oil paints. Not glamorous, but the walls are white and my husband stapled sheets of white foam core to the ceiling. The upstairs attic-cum-bedroom is where I do my dreaming, writing, drawing, and watercolors. My stash of art books is there, sharing space with my plants, boxes of handmade paper, and three ring binders I call my Directories of Visual Instruction...collections of magazine clippings, sketches, colors I’ve mixed...it’s my main source when I want a new idea.

Who are some of the Minnesota artists you enjoy?

I wish there were room to list them all! At the top of my list are Margo Selksi (http://www.mnartists.org/work.do?rid=35639). Her narrative figure work entraps my imagination. Kristie Bretzke (http://www.kristiebretzke.com/) does insightful and thoughtful portraits of street people.

If I were to follow you around to see art in Minnesota, which places would we go? What would we see? I get to the "biggies" a lot...the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (http://www.artsmia.org/) and the Walker Art Center (http://www.walkerart.org/). I love wandering through the galleries in Grand Marais. Locally, hands down it’s the amazing and ever-growing work by the N.E. Minneapolis artists, especially those artists in the Casket Arts Building (http://www.casketarts.com/) and those in the Northrup King Building (http://www.northrupkingbuilding.com/).

Primrose Leaves

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?

I’ve stumbled across some amazing people through Fine Art America (http://www.fineartamerica.com/). I frequently return to the apps I've installed on my iPad, a favorite of which is "Art Authority."

Another favorite is an accidental find through eBlogger: Myrna Wacknov (http://www.myrnawacknov.blogspot.com/) does collages, watercolor figure work and portraits that speak of someone who loves people, color, and experimentation.

An Act of Contrition

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

I’m not ready to make a detailed commitment to what I’m experimenting with, but I can say that it has something to do with combining classical music with jazz...in other words, my watercolor botanicals with oil paintings. If this works out, they’ll be at the gallery space I share with Darrell Hagan (http://www.mnartists.org/artistHome.do?rid=5274) in Studio 427, Northrup King Building, Minneapolis (http://www.northrupkingbuilding.com/).

Bloomington Theatre and Art Center

Darrell Hagan - Painter

yvette vavoom

Darrell Hagan

Darrell Hagan
Minneapolis, MN
Email:darrellhagan@yahoo.com
Website: darrell-hagan.fineartamerica.com
MNartist.org profile:www.mnartists.org/darrell_hagan

Bio~

I am a painter from Minneapolis and am writing to acquaint you with my work. My work has been exhibited in galleries and group exhibitions, including Altered Esthetics, The Rogue Buddha Gallery, The Frank Stone Gallery, and Hopkins Center for the Arts. My work has also been featured at The Theater in the Round Gallery in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In addition, my work is in a studio/gallery in The Northrup King Building in North East Minneapolis and I am a member of NEMAA (Northeast Minneapolis Artist Association).

Tell me about your work? What are you currently working on? How is this different from past projects?
My acrylic paintings deal with a mixture of style and ideas, combining abstract ideas with color, along with more traditional figurative work. My goal is to capture the innate animal or human spirit and reveal a provocative narrative between the subject and its surroundings. The intentional play with perspective allows the viewer to see the art as being much about composite space as it is about hidden meaning. It is about the juxtaposition of images in a surreal environment that they wouldn’t naturally be a part of. This helps me create work that I hope will be both striking and seductive.

My current body of work reflects women in a state of becoming. My portraits capture vivid images of strong independent women. They represent a unique view of women that live in the fanciful and idealized world of my imagination. They are full of style, pure potential and are not afraid to be themselves while they take on the world.

ursalla updo

"What is Art?" is certainly too big of a question to ask here, but what do you hope your audience takes away from your art? What statement do you hope to make?
I hope that people who view my work will take away a sense of wonderment and that it will make them think about what the work means to them.


What was the best advice given to you as an artist?
The best advice I got was that there is always a market for what you do. You just have to get out there and find it.

mackenzie appleton

Tell me about your work space and your creative process?
I am fortunate that I have a good size studio space to use in my own home. My paintings come to me from things I hear, see and experience in every day life.


Who are some of the Minnesota artists you enjoy?
Jeff Nelson (jephemera.com)
Rhea Pappas (www.rheapappas.com)
Cody Kiser (codykiser.com)

carmalita moonbeam

If I were to follow you around to see art in Minnesota, which places would we go? What would we see?
I mostly go to the art crawls, the buildings in Northeast Minneapolis (Casket Building, Northrup King Building) and the buildings in Lowertown St. Paul.

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?
www.hifructose.com
www.juxtapoz.com

sherri sundae

What can we expect to see from you in the future?
I am opening a new gallery space with another artist (Judy Westergard)
in the Northrup King Building. 1500 Jackson St. NE #427.
We will be open for the next "first Thursdays" event on March 3rd, 2011 from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.