Showing posts with label Todd Peterson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Todd Peterson. Show all posts

Saturday, November 1, 2014

AZ Gallery - Gallery Profile



Tell me about your gallery.
The AZ Gallery is located at 308 Prince Street on the first floor of the historic Northern Warehouse which was built in 1906.  It is next door to the Black Dog Wine Bar & Café and across the street from the St Paul Farmers Market.  It opened in 1997 as an artist cooperative and is owned and operated by 10 artist members. The gallery exhibitions change monthly and typically involve an exhibition organized by one of the members, in conjunction with one or more guest artists.  In April and October, the gallery is dedicated to exhibits for the St Paul Art Crawl and we have some regular shows from year to year including the 100 Best High School Artists Show sponsored by the St Paul Jaycees in March, the St Paul Almanac Book Release Show in September and the Lowertown Art Show in November. Our website, www.theazgallery.org contains information about applying for membership.  10 is our maximum number of artists who do 2D wall art but we might consider adding an artist who does 3D work.  Artists pay an annual fee, a 20% commission on work sold and agree to work 9-12 hours a month in the gallery.
 
The gallery also has a gift shop where members and guest artists sell locally made items such as notecards, calendars, pottery, jewelry, prints, umbrellas, soaps, purses, glass boxes & paperweights.  Artists are invited to apply to sell their items in the gift shop and at our December Holiday Bazaar.  There is a 40% commission for non-members.  We also have space outside the gallery that we rent for $20 a day or $30 a weekend (June-Sept) called the Summer Market where artists can sell their work in an art fair like setting with no commission to take advantage of the crowds at the nearby Farmers Market.  The gallery is also available for rental for weddings and private parties.
 
Our next show at AZ Gallery is called "50 Shades of Red 2" and is a follow-up to our popular "50 Shades of Red" show last February for Valentine's Day.  Members were allowed to invite 3 guest artists apiece and the idea is that all of the works of art on display would contain a shade of red as a predominant color in the piece. The show runs Feb 5 - Feb 22.  An opening night reception will be held Friday, February 6th from 5-9 pm as part of Lowertown First Fridays.
 
AZ Gallery is open Thursday and Friday nights from 5-8 pm and Saturdays and Sundays from 9 am to 3 pm.



Who are three or four local artists who represent the quality and style of work you exhibit at your gallery?
There are 10 member artists:
Jessie McNally - painter & mixed media assemblage - http://theazgallery.org/gallery-artists/jessie-mcnally/
Derek Davis - Plein aire painter - http://theazgallery.org/gallery-artists/derek%20davis/

Tell me about your gallery.
The AZ Gallery is located at 308 Prince Street on the first floor of the historic Northern Warehouse which was built in 1906.  It is next door to the Black Dog Wine Bar & Café and across the street from the St Paul Farmers Market.  It opened in 1997 as an artist cooperative and is owned and operated by 10 artist members. The gallery exhibitions change monthly and typically involve an exhibition organized by one of the members, in conjunction with one or more guest artists.  In April and October, the gallery is dedicated to exhibits for the St Paul Art Crawl and we have some regular shows from year to year including the 100 Best High School Artists Show sponsored by the St Paul Jaycees in March, the St Paul Almanac Book Release Show in September and the Lowertown Art Show in November. Our website, www.theazgallery.org contains information about applying for membership.  10 is our maximum number of artists who do 2D wall art but we might consider adding an artist who does 3D work.  Artists pay an annual fee, a 20% commission on work sold and agree to work 9-12 hours a month in the gallery.
 
The gallery also has a gift shop where members and guest artists sell locally made items such as notecards, calendars, pottery, jewelry, prints, umbrellas, soaps, purses, glass boxes & paperweights.  Artists are invited to apply to sell their items in the gift shop and at our December Holiday Bazaar.  There is a 40% commission for non-members.  We also have space outside the gallery that we rent for $20 a day or $30 a weekend (June-Sept) called the Summer Market where artists can sell their work in an art fair like setting with no commission to take advantage of the crowds at the nearby Farmers Market.  The gallery is also available for rental for weddings and private parties.
 
Our next show at AZ Gallery is called "50 Shades of Red 2" and is a follow-up to our popular "50 Shades of Red" show last February for Valentine's Day.  Members were allowed to invite 3 guest artists apiece and the idea is that all of the works of art on display would contain a shade of red as a predominant color in the piece. The show runs Feb 5 - Feb 22.  An opening night reception will be held Friday, February 6th from 5-9 pm as part of Lowertown First Fridays.
 
AZ Gallery is open Thursday and Friday nights from 5-8 pm and Saturdays and Sundays from 9 am to 3 pm.

Who are three or four local artists who represent the quality and style of work you exhibit at your gallery?

There are 10 member artists:

Jessie McNally - painter & mixed media assemblage - http://theazgallery.org/gallery-artists/jessie-mcnally/
Derek Davis - Plein aire painter - http://theazgallery.org/gallery-artists/derek%20davis/





For Artists:
How do you prefer artists contact you regarding exhibiting in your gallery?
We don't generally accept any outside requests for shows.  Artists can inquire about selling items in our gift shop or Holiday Bazaar, renting display space for the biannual Art Crawls or renting space at our outdoor Summer Market by emailing us at info@theazgallery.org


What general advice would you give to artists trying to show in local galleries?
Make friends with one of the established artists in the gallery and they can bring you in to an exhibit when guests are allowed.

For Collectors:
What is the typical price range for works for sale in your gallery?
Aside from the gift shop, prices for framed art range from $50 to $2000, with most in the range of $95 - $500.





Do you have any advice for collectors looking locally to buy art?

You can get some wonderful pieces at very reasonable prices by buying and supporting local artists and since our gallery is run by the artists, you also get to meet them, get to know them and follow their careers.  It makes the experience much more personal.



If by chance all of the local art galleries were having opening receptions on the same night, where else would you recommend people go to maximize their art experience? 

To get the full Lowertown Art Experience when all the neighborhood galleries, studios and artist lofts are open, you would want to come during the St Paul Art Crawls, held twice a year the last weekend of April and the second weekend of October. www.artcrawl.org  

Another good time is the evening of the first Friday of every month when we are part of Lowertown First Fridays www.lowertownfirstfridays.org  

If you are in Lowertown at another time, we would recommend you visit Three Sisters Eclectic Arts, a gallery with over 90 artists just two blocks down 4th Street from AZ Gallery http://www.threesisterseclecticarts.com/




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Monday, March 28, 2011

Todd Peterson - Plays with Crayons

Creation Theory
Todd Peterson

Todd Peterson
Newport Mn 55055
Email:toddorsoo@comcast.net

Bio~
I have no formal training. As a young man I dabbled with art, but gave it up
completely in my late 20’s. In 2006 my granddaughters “discovered” some of my
old work while exploring my basement, and convinced me to start creating art
again. I am now on the board of directors for Altered Esthetics in N. E. Mpls and I
am the Vice President of AZ Gallery, a collective in lowertown St. Paul. I was one
of the founding members of Mill District Arts in Mpls. I owned and operated Look
Art Below Gallery in N. E. Mpls, where I enjoyed showing the work of some very
talented local artists. Unfortunately I had to close the gallery because of health
issues.

An Island of Peace

Tell me about your work? What are you currently working on? How is this different from past projects?
I’m currently working on a combination of acrylic and and water soluble crayon
on wooden panels. My past work was exclusively crayon on watercolor paper. I
switched to working on wood after finding a Russian Artist on the internet that
was varnishing his work using the same CARAN d’ ACHE crayons I was using
and with some experimentation came up with a technique that allowed me to dis-
play my work without putting it behind glass (I really don’t like cleaning glass) I
also do some Found art, mostly furniture pieces.

"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 to make a kind of Deja Vu connection with the viewer, sort of “I knew this, and now I see it”

What was the best advice given to you as an artist?
Keep working, keep creating. I think Dali said something about no successful artist being a lazy artist.

Tell me about your working space and your creative process?
I have a studio in my home, but with crayons I can and do work throughout the
house sometimes, and my wife Susan graciously puts up with me. My first art
memory is of my mother on rainy days sitting my brothers and I down around the
dining room table, putting some classical music on the Hi Fi and telling us to
draw what the music made us think of, I work in a similar fashion today.

Out of the Garden

Who are some of the Minnesota artists you enjoy?

Tina Blondell: who I was fortunate enough to have once been in the same show
with at the Soap factory www.tinablondell.com

David Ekdahl: who creates wonderful and fanciful wooden totems. I met david

Kara Hendershot: a fellow board member at Altered Esthetics and a great help at
Look Art Below who does wonderful paintings with a dream like quality to them. I
have apiece of Kara’s in my small collection. www.karahendershot.com

Todd Hollingsworth: great artist and roller derby maniac

D.C. Ice: “Sinister but Sweet” a fellow AZer and I had the Joy of showing some
of her work at Look Art Below. www.dcice.com

Gina Louise: fellow founder at Mill District and Look Art Below, crazy talented and
she builds trees! I have a Gina in my collection also

Rabi Sanfo: Metal Sculptor, friend and collaborator, hardest working artist I know.
I’m lucky enough to own a few of Rabi’s pieces, and I’m saving my pennies for
one of his bronzes www.yarbidesigns.com

Erin Sayer: owner of Cult Status Gallery in Mpls. I have one of Erin’s pieces in
my collection, and have been lucky enough to have hung work at her gallery.

Scott Seekins: Really? just google him if you don’t already know of him. Crazy talent.

Mel Tudisco: Metal Smith who’s studio “Melt Studios “ is one floor above us at
AZ, I also have one of Mel’s pieces proudly displayed in my home

These are just a few. We are blessed with many talented artists in the twin cities.

Reckless

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

Well of course we would go to Altered Esthetics and the AZ Gallery, various
artist’s studios, the Soap Factory, Cult Status, Gallery 13, I hit the museums
from time to time, but mostly we would be seeing local artists.

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?

Invitations to openings via Facebook. The Daily Planet at

Sanctuary

What can we expect to see from you in the future?
My current plan is to get to work on some furniture projects. I’ve been collecting
pieces from garage sales, junk shops and a few discarded items that I want to redesign into
functioning art furniture.

Mother's Little Helper
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Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Kara Hendershot - Painter

Kara Hendershot
Kara Hendershot is a painter who resides in Lowertown St. Paul, at the Northern Warehouse Artists’ Co-op. Her paintings explore the relationship between people and their surroundings. Her work is influenced by both personal and universal experiences, as well as observations of people, places, and societal issues.

Contact info:
Kara Hendershot
kghendershot@yahoo.com
KaraHendershot.comwww.facebook.com/kara.hendershot
www.mnartists.org/Kara_Hendershot
http://karahendershot.com/


Ambivalent
acrylic, enamel, oil, ink on canvas, 22" x 36"

What are you currently working on?
I am continuing with collaboration projects with other artists, as well as my own individual work. Currently, I am creating a new body of work for a show that I just booked, which will be my first out-of-state solo exhibit scheduled to take place in Richmond, VA this fall. The details are still being worked out, and I have applied for a project grant and seeking other funding opportunities to help cover the shipping costs for the show. The big challenge will be to seek enough funding and figure out how I am going to get the work out to Virginia, but I am very excited about creating fresh work to be taken to new regions.


In terms of collaborative work:
Happy Accidents, (http://www.mnartists.org/happy_accidents) my humorous project with artist Summer Scharringhausen, is still going strong. We recently had the artwork featured on large digital billboards in five cities across the U.S. as part of the Billboard Art Project. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/billboardartproject/6492589979/in/set-72157628372321281/ ) It was a great opportunity since the original painting is an ongoing process in which it is continuously being painted over and over on the same original surface; all the past versions of the piece exist only in memory and in our documentation through digital photos. So it was pretty cool to be able to present those images of the previous versions that no longer exist as paintings.

I am also starting on new collaboration pieces with my father, a photographer, in continuation of a project that began a few years ago. We held an exhibit at Stevens Square Center for the Arts last June featuring a whole series of our mixed media collaborations, and new pieces will be featured in a group exhibit booked for this summer in Illinois.


As Days Pass
Acrylic, oil, ink on canvas, 60” x 48”

You are on the boards of the Altered Esthetics gallery and the Northern Warehouse Artist Co-op. You evidently still have time to create art. What benefits have you found from being as active as you are in the art community?
I have benefitted both professionally and personally. I have learned many skills in marketing, networking, and promoting. I have learned the discipline and organization that it takes to be a professional artist. I have also had the privilege of meeting and working with so many creative, inspiring, open-minded, hard-working people. I am very proud to be a part of such a great artistic community here in the Twin Cities.

By being so involved in the community, I feel more connected to what I am doing as an artist overall, rather than merely being stuffed up in a studio by myself. It’s always beneficial and healthier to be a part of something that is bigger than your self.


Daydreamer
acrylic and oil on multiple canvases, 70” x 60”

The building where you live is an artist co-op. What role does this play in your art and creativity?
• It is very important for me to live in an arts community where people respect each other and care about what they’re doing, and have an interest in each other. I feel valued here, and that’s very encouraging for the production of my work. It’s inspiring to me when I see new projects that my neighbors and co-op members are working on, and inspiration from other artists is very important for creativity.
We also have open studio events – Art Crawl and Lowertown First Fridays - which is a guaranteed solo exhibit in my own studio, in case I’m not exhibiting in a gallery at the given time. It’s good to have these events so that I have deadlines to keep producing fresh work!


Parallel Revisiting

Parallel (left) silver gelatin print & acrylic, oil, enamel, ink on canvas 40” x 58”
Revisiting (right) silver gelatin print & acrylic, graphite on wood 16” x 20”
Mixed media collaboration works by Kara and her father Joe, a photographer


Tell me about your working space and your creative process?
• I live in an artist co-op, where the spaces are live/work lofts – large enough to accommodate a studio setting as well as a home. My space is where I eat, sleep, paint, and dream. I love working late into the night, when it feels like the rest of the world is asleep, because that is when I feel the most awake.
I may not always be painting, but the wheels are always turning - I’m always observing, sketching things in my head, absorbing information so that I can later let it all explode on the canvas. The starting stages of my painting process are raw, intuitive, and unpredictable. I begin very abstract, just letting things kind of happen within the painting. I’m constantly changing my mind as I’m working on a piece. I like not having complete control because it’s more energizing and less inhibiting. There is something very magical about the creative process, especially when you really learn to let go. Sometimes it isn’t until the final layers of the painting that I begin to know what the piece will really look like, or what it is that I want it to say. Then I apply more detail and steer it a little, but I like to leave parts of it unspoken. I like for the viewer to be able to have their own dialog with the piece, without me telling them what they should be thinking. It’s part of the mystery of a painting.



Installation painting for Cult Status Gallery’s Equinox show
approx. 120” x 100”

What was the best advice given to you as an artist?
• Stay true to your own unique expression. Don’t change your style or technique because you think it will sell more or appeal to more people, because people will sense that you are not being genuine. People want to see what is ‘you’.



Voice
acrylic and oil on canvas, 40” x 36”

Which Minnesota artists do you enjoy?
• Not fair, there are too many! So many awesome artists in the Twin Cities. Well, here some artists who I have had the pleasure of working with or collaborating with, and I enjoy both their work and their commitment to the arts scene:
Erin Sayer (http://www.erinsayer.com),
JM Culver (http://www.jmculver.com),
Gina Louise (http://www.divergentlayers.com),
Todd Peterson (http://www.toddsartsite.com),
Louisa Greenstock (http://www.louisagreenstock.com),
Rhea Pappas (http://www.rheapappas.com),
Daniel Choma (http://faithisanactofanarchy.com),
Toneski Love (http://www.toneski.com),
and I could easily list a LOT more.


Depart
acrylic, graphite, oil on panel, 8” x 10”


If I were to follow you around on an “art day” in Minnesota, which places would we go? What would we see?
• I love Northeast Minneapolis and all the artist buildings and studios. We would probably spend half an afternoon there, visiting studios and local galleries. Then I would want to visit some galleries that I have wanted to go to, but have not made it there yet:
Tarnish and Gold.


What was the last local exhibit you saw and what were your impressions?
• I was at the Ae Presents: Hitchcock exhibit this past weekend at Altered Esthetics (artwork inspired by Alfred Hitchcock). It was really great to see the different ways that artists took to the topic. A topic like this forces artists to push the boundaries a little more with their style and imagery. I like to see artists do something different, something that they might not normally do.





Under the Thinking Tree
mixed media on wood, 24” x 20”

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 and Springboard for the Arts are good for local open call listings or work opportunities. For events and galleries, mplsart.com or l'étoile or NE Minneapolis Arts District. I also like to check out gallery sites in other cities, just to see the kinds of art and types of shows that are going on elsewhere.

Do you have any upcoming events we should know about?

I am pretty busy trying to accomplish my goal of getting my work outside of Minnesota, but I do have a couple local events coming up. I will be opening my studio for the spring 2012 St. Paul Art Crawl, April 27-29, a self guided tour of artists' studios in Lowertown and downtown St. Paul.(http://www.artcrawl.org) I have been participating in the event since 2004, both exhibiting as well as helping to organize the event for the Northern Warehouse. 
(http://www.nwacartists.com) It is a tremendous amount of work to put on the event, resulting in very long hours and many sleep deprived nights, but I love it. I like being involved 'behind the scenes' and the event itself is such a great opportunity. I get to share my work and current projects, and meet new people as well as stay in touch with the people who have been following my work for the last few years, who continue to visit my studio and support me each Art Crawl.

At the end of May, I will be exhibiting work in the Cult Sisters group show at Cult Status Gallery (http://www.cultstatusgallery.com) in Minneapolis along with very talented fellow female artists: Erin Sayer, J. M. Culver, Rhea Pappas, Louisa Greenstock, Amina Harper, Gina Louise.



Dreaming Tall Dreams & You and Me In the Big Wide World
small mixed media pieces, 4” x 14” & 11” x 14”
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