Showing posts with label Mary Bergs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mary Bergs. Show all posts

Monday, September 28, 2015

Terri Myers Wentzka - Drawing and Watercolor

Terri Myers Wentzka


Name:  Terri Myers Wentzka
City/State:  Shoreview, MN
Email:  terri@naturalhistoryarts.com
Instagram:  terriwentzka

Bio:  Terri Myers Wentzka is a drawing, watercolor, and collage artist whose work is inspired by mysteries of the natural world and by mundane human detritus. She received her BA in Painting from the University of Minnesota, and has returned to making art after spending many years as an award-winning writer and filmmaker. Her work has been exhibited at numerous local venues, including the Banfill-Locke Center for the Arts, the Bloomington Center for the Arts, and the Minnetonka Center for the Arts.

Tell me about your work? What are you currently working on? How is this different from past projects?
Right now I’m finishing work for a show that opens at TuckUnder’s Leaky Sink Gallery on October 8. This will be my first site-specific installation, so it’s challenging my thinking in some different ways and I’m enjoying that process. I’m also getting ready for Art Attack (at my studio in the Northrup King Building) the first weekend in November, and for a show at the First Unitarian Society at the end of November. While all that’s going on, I’m noodling about ideas for the new series I’ve recently started, which is about protection. Some of the early, small pieces will be at TuckUnder, but I’m also planning to make a number of large drawings next year. They’ll be bigger than anything I’ve done to date, since I’ve always worked relatively small. So I’m doing tests, and research, and figuring out how to proceed.



How did you decide to become an artist?
It wasn’t really a decision. I always knew I was an artist, despite the years I spent attempting to do other things. So the decision wasn’t to become an artist, but rather to allow myself to return to art. I never feel quite right unless I’m making art, even if I’m doing something else creative, so I simply had to.

What was the best advice given to you as an artist?
Draw. Actually, this is good advice for anybody, even non-artists. It’s not possible to draw too much, no matter what medium you work in.



Many artists struggle to find ways to sell their art. How do you sell your work? How do you market yourself? (Include links to your Esty store, finartamerica.com, your website, etc.)
Selling art is hard. Most of my sales have been during studio crawls:  Art-A-Whirl and Art Attack. I’m currently stepping up my efforts online with Facebook and Instagram and learning all I can about art sales and marketing.

Instagram:  terriwentzka

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

Scott Wentzka  http://wentzka.com
Terry Genesen Becker  http://terrygenesenbecker.com
Mary Bergs  http://marybergs.com
Jantje Visscher  http://jantjevisscher.com
Brandon Kuehn  http://brandonkuehn.com
Wing Young Huie  http://www.wingyounghuie.com

For every person I’ve listed, there are probably five more wonderful artists I love, but I have to stop somewhere!



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

I don’t know if I’m a good person to follow anywhere (I might hide if I know you’re up to such a thing), but these are some of the places I like to go:
Groveland Gallery  http://grovelandgallery.com
Artistry at Bloomington  http://btacmn.org
Bockley Gallery  http://bockleygallery.com
2001: A Space  http://2001aspace.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?

Hyperallergic  http://hyperallergic.com

Those are a few. There’s so much information everywhere these days that random tidbits seem to come from everywhere. Many bread crumbs to follow.



Choose one:
Do you have any exhibits to promote in the near future? What can we expect to see from you in the future?
My solo show, Hideaway, opens October 8 and runs through November 15, in the Leaky Sink Gallery at TuckUnder Projects. It’s all recent work that reflects upon the real and illusory ways humans and other creatures protect themselves from all manner of threats, while also exploring the mysteries of bathroom cabinets and found papers. The show will include drawings and watercolors that allude to scientific studies in their composition, but upon taking a closer look it becomes obvious that each one incorporates the text of someone’s discarded grocery list or other scribbled notes. Hideaway takes advantage of the mysterious nooks and crannies of the Leaky Sink Gallery, with art and collections of objects of uncertain purpose hidden away in cabinets for visitors to find. 


If you are promoting an event, by what date do you want your interview/profile to be online?
My opening at TuckUnder is October 8 from 6 to 9 p.m. It would be wonderful if you could post this interview sometime between Sept. 30 and October 2.  Thank you very much!!


(Include dimensions and year made if applicable)
Image List: 1. Not Home, 2015, 22 x 14”
2.  Scattered, 2015, 5 x 4”
3.  Bean Guardian, 2015, 11 x 8”
4.  Protected, 2015, 10.75 x 8”
5.  Osprey Eggs with Erased List, 2014, 11 x 9.25”
6.  Curiosity Cabinet #1: Three Eggs & a Cootie Catcher, 2014, 11 x 14”
7. Image of artist
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Sunday, June 9, 2013

Mary Bergs - Installation

Mary Bergs



Name:   Mary Bergs
City/State:  Minneapolis, MN
Email:  bergsmary@gmail.com
Website:  www.marybergs.com
MNartist.org profile: www.mnartists.org/mary_bergs

Bio~ 
Mary Bergs is a visual artist who lives and works in Minneapolis, MN.  Bergs works in a variety of  2D and 3D media. She has exhibited her work at The Bloomington Art Center,
Soo Visual Art Center, MN Center for Book Arts and many college and university galleries. Her work is included in the Drawing Center’s Viewing Program Bergs is a recipient of a 2013 Artist Initiative grant through the MN State Arts Board.  She holds a graduate degree in Social Work from the University of Louisville and completed a BFA at the University of MN.



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

I am an installation artist.  I work with found images, objects and materials arranging them into large compositions.  I am interested in the unexpected connections between objects and how this influences our experience with objects we encounter everyday.  In my exhibition at the Bloomington Art Center I incorporated drawings into several of the installations, this is a new direction for my work.  It introduces the maker’s hand into the work and emphasizes formal elements of the found object compositions.  The show is titled the Sublime Mundane and pairs my found object installations with the amazing paintings of Dan Buettner.  Both of us are examining our relationship with objects and re-presenting objects to the viewer.

How did you decide to become an artist?
I decided to become an artist when I visited a remote silk weaving village in India….  a romantic and true story. 



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

Stop thinking.  Go Play.


Many artists struggle to find ways to sell their art.  How do you sell your work?  How do you market yourself?
I guess I am focused on exhibiting my work and not really on creating work that is saleable.  I occasionally sell drawings, or collage work.  The installations are more about playing with ideas and thinking out loud with objects



Who are some of the Minnesota artists you enjoy?
Harriet Bart  www.harrietbart.com
Margaret Pezalla-Granlund  www.mpezalla.com
Ken Steinbach  www.kennethsteinbach.com



If I were to follow you around to see art in Minnesota, which places would we go? What would we see?
The Twine Ball in Darwin, MN
David Petersen Gallery  www.davidpetersengallery
Franklin Art Works  www.franklinartworks.org
Rochester Art Center  www.rochesterartcenterorg
Soo VAC  www.soovac.org
Any small town historical society, museum, or thrift store.

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?
Art 21  www.art21.org
But Does it Float  www.butdoesitfloat.com
Drawing Center Viewing Program  www.drawingcenter.org/viewingprogram/




Do you have any exhibits to promote in the near future?
Sublime Mundane at the Bloomington Theater and Art Center
May 23 –July 12, 2013
Artist Talk June 27, 7:00pm
In August I will be doing a project in the garage at Tuck Under. I am playing with architectural and mechanical drawing forms and the geometry of that space.  I told Pete Driessen that I am channeling a frustrated old man who was a recluse and created drawings and inventions in his garage but they were all based on a made up understanding of geometric forms. 


Image List:  All work 2013
1. Sublime Mundane  Gallery View
2. Detail   “Listen”   (Crochet balls)
3. Sublime Mundane  Gallery View  (BlueRedLevels)
4. Detail  “Catalepsy”  (redblue)
5. "Underlined"
6. "Shelf with No.3"
7. Image of artist
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Sunday, January 6, 2013

Monica Reede - Mixed Media

Vertical Trees, 2012, 30” X 60”
Monica Reede

 Name: Monica Reede
City/State: Minneapolis, MN
Email: monica.reede@gmail.com
Website: monicareede.com
MNartist.org profile:http://www.mnartists.org/artistHome.do?rid=22386
Facebook page: Monica Reede Art
Bio~ 
Monica Reede is a mixed-media artist living and working in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Historically her works have juxtaposed a variety of images - human artifacts, the human figure (or fragments of the figure) with various natural elements and beings. In her most recent pieces, Reede overlays wood panels with stained or etched Plexiglas creating a mysterious, even ghostly, interplay of images that illuminate intersecting realities. These works have pointed to the essential sensuality of the human body consciousness, the ever shifting relationship of form and void, and the transitory nature of the material world.  She is interested in the spiritual practices of Eastern mysticism and the theories and discoveries of contemporary science.  

 Monica Reede has worked as a professional artist for 20 years. Her work as an artist has been recognized through grants and awards including three fellowships from the Minnesota State Arts Board.  She exhibits regionally and nationally and is represented in numerous corporate and private collections.        
       
Reflection #2, 2012, 30” X 30” 
Tell me about your work? What are you currently working on? How is this different from past projects?  
I have always been interested in perception, or rather, how we perceive and categorize things and experiences; how we create a hicherarchy of those things and experiences in a way that inevitably ends up placing ourselves at the center of the universe, at least metaphorically speaking. However, my newest work represents something of a shift from that way of thinking.  These pieces delve into the act of perception itself, or to put it another way, what happens when light hits the anatomy of our eye.  There is a moment, an instant really, before we begin to interpret and categorize, where all that exists is the phenomena of light itself bouncing off of an object.  The photographer Uta Barth has described this as “a moment when everything else drops away and the experience of seeing, of sensing, becomes so overwhelming, so all-encompassing, that the very idea of interpretation does not, can not, exist.”  In this moment all possibilities exist, yet none are necessary.

 These works are created using layers of oil stained Plexiglas on wood panels.  Soft focus creates a blurring of the distinction between figure and ground, while the layered construction of translucent material over a reflective surface plays with the notions of flatness and depth.  Light bounces around and inside each piece and back to the viewer creating different effects based on the angle from which it is viewed.  In this way the quality of the light from the surrounding environment participates in the composition of each work by altering the colors that are reflected and the shadows that are formed.  Finally, it is the viewer who completes the work through his or her own unique perception.
Reflection #2 detail
How did you decide to become an artist? 
Making art has always been a part of my life.  It was not so much a choice as it was a joyful engagement in the activity of making things.  As a child I spent much of my time drawing and when asked, I always told people that I wanted to be an artist.

 As I grew up, I was discouraged from following art as a career path due to the lack of financial security.  So, when I entered college, I was working toward a degree in science.  At some point during my junior year I decided that I did not want to go through life never having even tried to live my dream. I switched my major to fine art and graduated with a BFA.  Those who warned me were right, there is little financial security in the life of an artist, but I have not regretted my decision.
  
Reflection #1, 2012, 30” X 30”
What was the best advice given to you as an artist? 
The best advice I ever heard was to make work for all the people out there who are like you.  It doesn’t matter how many of them there are.  If you feel strongly about the work you are doing, there are others who will too.  

 Many artists struggle to find ways to sell their art.  How do you sell your work?  How do you market yourself?
I have been fortunate to have been represented by galleries for most of my career.  This has been my primary source of income from my art.  My main gallery in Minneapolis has been Circa Gallery (www.circagallery.org).  

 To market my work, I use my website, www.monicareede.com, my facebook page, Monica Reede Art, and a well crafted email list.
Who are some of the Minnesota artists you enjoy? 
There are many Minnesota artists that I admire, too many to list, but here are a few of my favorites:  
Carolyn Swiszcz, www.carolynswiszcz.com
Mary Bergs, www.marybergs.com
Michon Weeks, www.michonweeks.com
Elaine Rutherford, www.rutherfordelaine@wordpress.com
Barbara Kreft, www.mnoriginal.org/episode/311-iris...carter/barbara-kreft/
Ken Steinbach, www.kennethsteinbach.com
Harriet Bart, www.harrietbart.com
Tiny Mountain, 2012, 6” X 6”
If I were to follow you around to see art in Minnesota, which places would we go? What would we see?
Walker Art Center, www.walkerart.org
Franklin Art Works, www.franklinartworks.org
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, www.artsmia.org
Burnet Art Gallery, www.burnetgallery.com
Weinstein Gallery, www.weinstein-gallery.com
Bockley Gallery, www.bockleygallery.com
Circa Gallery, www.circagallery.org
Tiny Mountain Detail

 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? 

 For local events I usually rely on facebook and word of mouth. 
MNoriginal is also a good place to find Minnesota artists, www.mnoriginal.org/

 There are a number of galleries around the country that I follow online through their websites.

 I also read The New York Times arts page, http://www.nytimes.com/pages/arts/design/index.html
Art Daily News, www.artdaily.com/
Art Forum, www.ArtForum.com
Art Slant, http://www.artslant.com/
Visual Art Source, http://www.visualartsource.com/
Something Tender detail, 2010

 Do you have any exhibits to promote in the near future?
Yes, I have an exhibition at the Bloomington Art Center entitled CONVERGENCES that opens on January 10th and runs through March 3rd, 2013.
BTAC

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Sunday, July 15, 2012

Barbara Gilhooly - Painter - Minnesota-ExPat


Barbara Gilhooly
MN to Fort Collins, CO

Barbara Gilhooly
Location: Fort Collins, CO
www.barbaragilhooly.com
Facebook fan page: www.facebook.com/gilhoolymightyfineart


Why did you leave Minnesota?
I moved for a change and for love. It’s an advantage to be self employed, I can work anywhere.  I knew the area from when I went to Grad school here for my MFA degree.

Tell me about your new city of residence?
Fort Collins, CO is a college town, set up against the foothills and has beautiful weather, sunshine 300 plus days a year. And very low humidity!  It’s an hour and a half north of Denver.



How has your art changed since moving from Minnesota?
I have been more productive in some respects due to my show schedule.  Since arriving in August of 2010, I have had 2 solo exhibits each year and several group shows. I also am buying pre-made birch panels instead of building my own from scrounging for wood or using heavy plywood.  Due to the need to ship more work back and forth to Minneapolis, I need to have panels that weigh less. This has been a great boost in time saved, as well.  

A friend of mine used to joke that I should sell my work by the pound!  The heavy panels are phased out.  My Imagery has evolved and I am working on a series of cityscapes and bridges.  After living in downtown St. Paul for 21 years surrounded by the patterns and bridges of the city I am finding inspiration and exploring these memories in my work.



If you come back to Minnesota for one weekend and you need to see your old favorite places, where would you go to see art?

Mostly Circa Gallery and Gallery 360, because I am represented at both and love to see what their other artists are doing.  MCAD, the MIA and the Walker are all frequent spots.



Who are some of your favorite artists still living in Minnesota?
Michon Weeks 
Mary Bergs 
Mary Bergherr 
Teresa Cox 
Anne Sugnet 
Mark Knierim

If you could transplant one aspect of the Minnesota arts community home with you, what would it be?

The Art Crawls. Living in the Lowertown area for 20 plus years allowed me to grow my career and stay in touch with collectors and friends.  Ft Collins has a Studio Tour in June and my partner and I are hosting our Annual “Hanna-Hooly Holiday Open House” in December. It’s smaller, but I’m hopeful for growth over the years. 

However, I also see that because of the art crawls the galleries in the Twin Cities have decreased.  I was fortunate to participate in both the crawls and still am in the galleries of Minneapolis.  In comparison, I was surprised at how much the Denver gallery scene has grown since I had been here in Grad school.  They do not have the wonderful artist loft/living studio spaces like in MN and therefore the artwalks are run through the gallery districts.


What has been going on for you recently?
In May 2012, I had my 2nd solo exhibit in Denver, CO. at 44T Artspace and will be up through June.  http://metroframeworks.squarespace.com/

Then in Minneapolis, I have a solo show at Gallery 360, opening Nov 10, 2012. www.gallery360mpls.com/
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Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Farida Hughes - Painter

Soho Blue, Oil on canvas, 2012
Farida Hughes


Name: Farida Hughes
City/State: St. Paul, Minnesota
Email: frhughes@comcast.net
Website: http://www.faridahughes.com/
MNartist.org profile
Facebook page

Bio~ 
Farida Hughes is an abstract painter with a studio in the California Building in NE Minneapolis. Her work in oil paint and watercolor on paper is shown regularly at galleries and art centers in Minnesota and nationwide. Her pieces are included in many private and corporate collections nationally, including Target, Chesapeake Capital and the Marriot and Hilton hotels. She has a BA in Studio Art/English from Fordham University and MFA from the University of Chicago. Farida is represented locally by the Nina Bliese Gallery, Minneapolis.


Night Crossing


Tell me about your work? What are you currently working on? How is this different from past projects?
My paintings are abstract, often aerial, compositions of crowds with negative space providing the architectural/natural and urban/rural boundaries through which groups move and interact. My work examines flow, human passage, collective memory and collective movement. I am consistently interested in the interactions of disparate groups or individuals and the abstracted forms they create. Negative space acts as landscape and architectural reference and creates compositional tension and balance.

Right now I am finishing up a group of paintings based on observations at street crossings and intersections. These expand on a group of small pieces completed in 2009, and are specifically inspired by the crossings of foot traffic at urban university/campus sites, bus sites, and platforms for public transportation. Some of these pieces are different from previous work because the compositions display more of a grid-like structure.

Emergence, Oil on canvas, 2011

How did you decide to become an artist?
It is something that I always knew. Creating a work of art, for me, is a problem solving experience, an intellectual exercise that builds to a kind of performance of intuitive mark-making in my studio. It is getting to the exhilaration of the finishing stages of a painting that I crave. It is hard work but also a very rewarding activity that I just keep doing over and over again.
Following Up and Down, Oil on canvas, 2012

How has your work developed over the years?
Somewhere along the road I decided to remove the figure from my work. This limitation in subject matter helped me to develop as more of an abstract thinker; I began to focus on physical space and the movement of objects in space. I am talking about real spaces in the world: landscapes, cityscapes, interiors, not the cosmos. Eventually my objects became the forms of people, groups of people, in a variety of spaces. My work now is focused on the experience of bodies interacting with and moving through spaces, and though it was not intentional, I am amused that I came back to figures in this very abstract way.

What was the best advice given to you as an artist? 
A grad school advisor told me I had to take the horizon line out of my paintings. I was painting landscapes and cityscapes but I wanted to dig deeper into human connections to their surroundings; I was developing into an abstract painter, wanting to combine the influences of abstract expressionism and color field painting which was all around me in my youth, but still work with subject matter. Removing the horizon line was a real challenge but extremely liberating.

On the business side of things, a great piece of advice was to join artist registries. Back then they were slide registries; it is much easier today with digital images and online image banks. Great advice for any young artist!

Grand Avenue, Oil on canvas, 2009

Many artists struggle to find ways to sell their art.  How do you sell your work?  How do you market yourself?
I use my website http://www.faridahughes.com/
mnartists.org 
http://www.mnartists.org/artistHome.do?rid=206337
Facebook page 
I keep several mailing lists and send out a sort of newsletter or email invite when I have something of note going on.

I work with a couple of art consulting firms; I sell my work through commercial galleries but I also like to show at art centers, university galleries or other spaces which helps to expand the audience.  It is good to keep an online presence as well as continue to exhibit in both solo and group shows.

Who are some of the Minnesota artists you enjoy?


Lisa Nankivil  http://www.nankivil.com/
David Rathman  www.larissagoldston.com/artists/davidrathman/index.aspx
Mary Bergs  http://www.marybergs.com/
Amy Tillotson  www.mnartists.org/artistHome.do?rid=180839
Betsy Byers  http://www.betsyruthbyers.com/

Corners, Oil on canvas, 2012

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

Walker Art Center http://www.walkerart.org/
Traffic Zone http://www.trafficzoneart.com/
Nina Bliese Gallery http://www.ninabliesegallery.com/
Bloomington Art Center http://www.bloomingtonartcenter.com/
Open studio events throughout the Twin Cities

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/
http://www.mnoriginal.org/
http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/
www.nytimes.com/pages/arts/index.html?8qa
http://www.walkerart.org/
www.renaissancesociety.org/site/

Momentary Passing, Oil on canvas, 2011

Do you have any exhibits to promote in the near future?
I have an exhibition opening at the Bloomington Theater and Art Center on June 29, 2012
“Speaking of Space”, Farida Hughes and Danelle Griner
June 29 – August 10, 2012
Opening Reception Friday, June 29, 6-8pm
Artist Talk: July 19, 7pm
Bloomington Theater and Art Center
1800 W. Old Shakopee Rd.
Bloomington, MN 5543

This is a painting exhibition but it will incorporate a 3-dimensional installation in gallery space that pushes the conceptual ideas behind both Danelle’s and my work. This is the first time I have done a collaborative piece for an art exhibition and I am quite excited about that addition to the show.


Farida hughes



Bloomington Theater and Art Center
(Featured Interviews)

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