- This is a production of SDPB - Inspiration or whatever is everywhere really.

'cause it's more about paint.

Because sometimes my paintings kind of seem like time gone by or a memory.

And so maybe that's the thing.

There's a lot of displaced Midwesterners in San Francisco that when they would see my work, they'd say, oh, that looks like my grandpa's driveway.

Or that looks like, you know, whatever.

Just the oddity of someone from South Dakota is a painter, you know, on the national scene in San Francisco.

What is this?

You know?

So that was kind of how he promoted me.

You know, I live on a farm actually.

I lived on an acreage.

I didn't do chores, you know, but kind of had a little hype there.

I think that kind of helped me because it was like, who is this woman?

You know?

So I think that helped.

Well I think it's just, it's just the way I paint, but that is just almost like a, your signature.

I mean, I paint fast and the paint ends up being quite thick in places.

And I don't know if that's different or unique, maybe somewhat, but it's just innate.

It's just part of me, you know?

I couldn't change that if I wanted to.

It always starts with driving around, walking around.

We live on an acreage so I can walk around in our fields and start getting ideas like how I would put this together.

I used to take slides and I used to have a little handheld viewer that was about this big.

And so I would look in there and think, when I first started, it was a little more about the image.

I painted some still lives and landscape.

And over the years it became more about paint, thick paint, the push and pull of paint, everything more about the paint.

The last show I had that was in Sioux Falls, the title of that show was Leaning on the Paint.

And so it doesn't really have to be an image that inspires me.

It's more like, I think, well, how could the paint, how could I use the paint to make an image?

I have to cover all the white the first day.

But once the painting gets on and everything's covered, a painting sort of takes over.

Like my thick paint and how I want, I've always used oil paint and I have a big standup easel.

My paints are on a pallet that's in front of me attached to the easel.

I don't hold it when I paint.

I have a paper towel in one hand and a paintbrush in the other.

So I don't always have to rinse my brush.

I just wipe it.

And then I have a scraper for when I make mistakes.

Sometimes if it's wet I can just wipe a lot off.

If it's dry or getting tacky, then that's another problem.

I even, you know, I sand, I can sand off the paint or chip it off or whatever.

But if I make mistakes, I go back to the smooth undercoating and start again.

One thing that really bugs me, if I have a phantom bump where it shouldn't be like it's, I should have wiped that off and not try and paint over it.

Because when I'm scraping off or wiping off, I think, oh, here goes a week of work, you know, that's wasted or, and then I always think, well, I have to tell myself I like the stress in my life.

If it really isn't going as planned, I probably just set it aside.

I don't try and crop it or make use part of it, you know, it's just, usually I try to salvage stuff by wiping it off or scraping it off.

But sometimes I just think, oh, I'm done with that, that it really works.

So I do have a lot of things sitting around that that I didn't finish that just start now I'm ready to move on.

I wouldn't go back to that canvas, but I may think, well, I'll start again and maybe do something slightly different.

But I don't work on that one again.

So my favorite part of course is putting the paint on for the very first time.

'cause there's a lot of hope, you know, I'm excited.

And it's like, oh, this is gonna be great.

And then of course the end, if I do bring it to completion, then that's very satisfying.

My paintings end up, you know, they have a lot of paint on them, becomes a little bit automatic in what you reach for in all these years.

I put the paint globs in the same place.

I know my whites up over in this corner.

I mix my, my black 'cause it's much richer.

And I can tone the black if I want it a little more blue, a little more even green.

So I always mix my black.

And I have a basic blue, red, yellow, green, and very large tubes of white.

Even though oil paint dries slow, it still dries too fast for me.

So I cut that pallet in half that I have, so it'll fit in my freezer.

And so then I cover that with saran wrap and freeze it.

And so I have fresh paint for quite a while.

My paintings are a process.

They are a practice.

It's practice all the way up till the end when I think, oh, here's this part, this is done, this is good now.

'cause it's pretty spontaneous and it, it's all like, it's all practice till the end.

So if I tell myself that, then it helps me.

You know, you have to have that self-discipline and you're kind of by yourself being a painter, you know, there are other careers in art that you wouldn't be, that, you know, you could, you could teach, you could work, you know, do graphics and work with a team and all that.

But painting is kind of very individual.

And so you have to have that motivation.

And that's hard.

It can be, I, I think it's just the satisfaction of it.

Not that it's easy or joyful or anything.

I, I guess I don't really associate joy with painting.

For me it's, it's more satisfaction.

Like if I can complete a painting to my satisfaction, which can be a long time.

Okay, well, I, I guess as a a child, really, I always thought of myself as an artist because I took my sketchbook with me when we visited relatives.

Oftentimes I had it.

And so then they would say, oh, here's the artist, you know?

And that was so like, oh, you know, I'm an artist.

You know, they called me an artist and I thought, well, that's what I am.

I grew up, those first years were in Watertown and then Huron and my grandparents, one set lived on a farm by Bradley, which was Rolling Hills and Sloughs and wonderful for a kid.

And the other farm was by Willow Lake, rural.

Nice.

And I remember going to my grandparents, Sambo sides lived on farms.

And so walking the fields and shelter belts and seeing the slews and the sunlight glinting off rocks and just deep shadows in the trees.

I mean, I just was soaking it.

I loved it.

I couldn't get enough of looking easy as a child.

I mean, the ceiling lights in there, farmhouse.

And the one house, you know, the kitchen light was a fluorescent round, no shade.

So that was made the kitchen kind of bluish, you know.

And then the dining room had a, flo had a incandescent, so that was yellow.

And you know, I can just remember those rooms having different light.

So it was just all very interesting to me.

Yeah.

Well that's the other thing that I had, I've had in my life since my childhood.

'cause my dad's family's very musical and they would get together, come with the, you know, violin, guitars, piano in the house.

And so they did three chord harmony just, and so that's the music I like, actually.

It's very simple music.

I like Willie Nelson, bill Hagar, you know, country music.

So it's just, and some of it's really old music.

And so it's just weird.

Just seems to feed right into my art.

And in, in grade school, you know, I, I mean I could draw pretty well.

And so I know a few times they put my drawing in the case, the glass case in the hall.

And so, you know, I go out for recess and I'd walk past that.

I get, I didn't really wanna look, but, you know, I was so proud that there was my picture in the case.

You know, it's important if kids, you know, have that ability and that, you know, it's recognized.

And, and so that was an impetus for me to kind of keep going 'cause I could do it.

And, and I just kept drawing, like to draw horses, a lot of horses and a lot of, and dogs and houses.

In high school, I took all the art I could take.

I didn't take any home ec.

I wanted to be in the art room.

And that's where I hung out.

And that was my, that was me actually.

I did not see a painting until I came to Eshu.

I didn't go to any galleries or, you know, but of course, just pictures.

But yeah, that was my first experience.

It was seeing the Harvey Dunns.

I remember distinctly just seeing those.

And I had art history here in the auditorium.

And so I came in here and there was a big bench.

And I know I just sat on the bench in the middle of the Harvey Dunn's.

And, and I was like, oh, this is really something, you know?

So every time I went to art history class, I looked at the Harvey Dunns.

So I was kind of a, a figure in here every day, seeing just pictures in magazines and books.

I didn't know that paint could be bumpy and thick.

So that was a revelation to me.

I just, I was shocked really, at how thick the paint was and that you could build up layers and do that.

I had no idea.

So that was very interesting to me.

It was just his technique because the landscape genu, I mean prairie and, and that which I liked, but it was just more the technique of how thick the paint was of the Harvey Dunn's.

I especially liked one that was a snow scene with really high drifts and people walking kind of all bundled up and, and how he did the snow, you know?

And 'cause I did winter ones and you know, it's not just white or it's not just blue, it's all these colors in there.

Well, I like them all.

My favorite images is like, you know, some of his bright sun washed, endless prairie and prairie is my garden.

Of course.

Well that definitely had an influence.

I, I just absolutely loved art history because I knew nothing when I got into.

So when I started, I'm like, I can't believe people are studying this.

And this is just me, you know?

So that was wonderful.

You know, no matter how much you can do art yourself, natural talent or whatever, you know, you still need to study art.

Really.

You need to develop your abilities.

And so what do they say?

You don't know what you don't know.

No, then I came across painters that I really liked.

Before that I was painting kind of almost photorealistic, tiny little brushes.

And in college it changed dramatically because I had sign Stewart for a teacher.

And when I had her for painting three, she said, set a timer, use bigger brushes and just don't, you know, throw 'em away when you're done if you don't like them.

She, it just was, you know, such a freeing thing for me.

I thought, oh, this is what I wanna do, not this tiny little stuff.

So that's, that changed dramatically.

But since then, I haven't changed too much when I got that down and how, you know, it just, that felt like me.

That was what I wanted, how I wanted to work.

So thank her for that.

You know, I finished my courses and graduated whatever.

And then I thought, now what, I was already married and my husband worked at Daktronics.

I was actually working at the register, Brookings Register as a type setter.

I was hoping to work on some ads and stuff.

That's kind of why I thought anything to, you know, do something with art.

But I, I ended up being a type setter.

And then I just thought, well, I'm gonna pursue this art.

I started out in commercial art actually, but that wasn't my thing.

And so I just wanted painting.

Then my goal was to find a gallery, which can be daunting.

And I just didn't know how to go about that.

But starting out, I mean, I didn't know that I could do that.

I saw a call for Entries, national show that was starting in New York, and this was right after I graduated.

So I te I sent two images for that and they both got in the show, opened in New York, then went to St. Louis and they had a closing reception in San Francisco.

And so I went out to that and John Pence said, we really like your work.

If you could send out, you know, 15 more images and we'd, you know, the review committee would see if, you know, and I was like, floor.

I thought, oh hey.

But 15, I didn't even have, I didn't have one more.

I sent those two out.

That was the rest was student stuff.

And I just thought, oh, so I came home and I painted 15 paintings in the summer.

'cause he wanted, wanted the pictures by August or something.

So I sent those out and that's when I really was working all night and struggling to get these done.

I was so excited.

And when he got 'em, he said, fine, and we'll start you out with a solo show.

And now we need about 15 more.

So I had like 30 paintings in that first show.

And I went out to the opening, you know, and it was like, wow.

It was like big city, very fun, very rewarding joy there.

That was joy.

One thing he did that really kind of helped me was he did a lot of group shows.

So for those I could have four or five and that was always possible.

And that was pretty much every year.

Or, and then he would intersperse those with, he'd say, well, I think it's time for another solo show for you.

He'd give me like two years though.

But I was, I was kept very busy that way.

And then I would get these cards in the mail, smiling face, send more, you know, I'm like, just at random, you know.

So, you know, over the years the gallery put a lot of ads out for my work, different art magazines and stuff, you know.

So I did get a lot of calls and I, and now I think, why didn't I follow up on some of those?

But, but I just, I had more than enough to do with the two kids and my commitment to John Penn.

So I've, I felt like I, I just wanted to stay there.

It was a nice place to be.

Very nice place.

So I never pursued any other gallery.

I didn't do any commissions.

I was asked, but I just, you know, it'd be like, well, geez, I owe, you know, I gotta, I'm working on a show now or, and I didn't wanna really do something that I didn't wanna do.

'cause Pence never ever said, you should do this, or you should never said anything.

So I was very free working for him.

Actually, a lot of the paintings that I painted for the gallery in San Francisco are on, it's almost like a cardboard, it's a multipurpose board, very thin.

It, it could break easily, but I mounted it on foam core.

It was very thin.

So I, I did that and that was, it kind of was like painting on cardboard.

So then I could send paintings out wet because I could frame them, put a spacer and glass or Plexiglas guess on top.

So, so many of my paintings went out wet.

This, I was behind.

So I don't know where I saw the ad.

I didn't subscribe to Midwest living.

Anyway, there was an ad, a call for artists in the Midwest that they were gonna do an issue of Midwest artists.

And so I sent an image in and I didn't know they were gonna make a poster.

But anyway, I, I was in that story and then they chose mine to make the poster.

And so that was a great honor.

It was a gravel road in the sunlight, going up a hill farm place on one side and just, and a big blue sky with some rolling clouds.

So it was really big sky and prairie kind of thing.

You know, I've painted, I've painted a few years, right in my kitchen, in a different house.

I would just stand by the cupboard and I would pull the two drawers out and set the painting up on those drawers.

And I painted in my living room.

I painted, you know, anyway, now I have this wonderful studio.

It has big north windows, so it's very light and east and west windows too.

It's very light.

Yeah.

I finally, this late stage, I get this wonderful, this studio, it's a little different because I don't have a gallery.

My, he retired and, and I, but I'm still painting, so I'm painting for myself.

I guess I'm kind of compelled to keep painting in each piece.

I always think, well, I'm gonna try this different, or make the paint.

Just say I have to use a half inch brush for the whole painting on these little ones or an inch brush or, so just things that I kind of experiment with.

You know, I can buy new tubes of paint, different paint, which sounds quite small, but actually when I'm so in tune with color, if it's just a little bit different, I'm like, ah, you know this.

So just stuff like that.

I did just get an order of paint and I, I tried, I ordered new colors that I've never had.

I thought, let's see what that brings.

I don't know, I just am finishing a big painting now and it's like, well, here it is.

But I have ideas to start now.

I wanna do like, I don't know, probably start five little ones probably in the nine by 13 or something small.

I thought the one I finished is 24 by 36.

So that was a chore.

So now I wanna do these little ones and I'm excited to do that.

And it's, for me, I guess it's, it's just more satisfaction and not so much joy because it is stressful to complete things.

Well, when my kids were little, they're two years apart.

I got into the gallery in San Francisco when my son was 18 months and I had this little boy.

And so to get material, you know, put him in the car seat and drive around, he'd have his nap in the car.

And so that always kind of was the way that went.

I, I put 'em in the car and we drove up and down all around these gravel roads and sometimes they would help me look, you know, they would say, is that a good one, mom?

You know, they'd be looking out the window for me, basically driving around or going in Hy-Vee.

I love to look at pears.

I've painted a lot of pairs.

So when I go past the pairs, I always pick up a few and think, Hmm, this would be good and this, you know, But then, you know, and I had to paint with them and, and so it was just kind of not my thing to get a babysitter in.

'cause then that was another, per a person I didn't know, it just affected how I worked.

It was like, oh, now I gotta straighten up the house and I gotta do all this before I paint and then I'll be too tired or whatever.

It just didn't seem to work for me.

I had a couple different ones, but you know, you know, the babysitter ended up being in the living room and my kids were sitting by my easel.

I'm like, okay, this, you know, or if she took 'em to the park and I could look out the window and see 'em going down the road in the wagon.

And I thought I should be doing that.

Of course, that emotional kind of things, fixture painting, I thought, I'm not gonna paint now.

I was mad that I didn't get to go.

So, you know, I ended up just working that out on my own.

The kids got used to just playing around and not, you know, they really didn't bother me or I painted, you know, when they went to bed, I did many late nights, but it worked.

'cause my husband traveled a lot, so that was another issue.

I was there by myself.

But, but it worked.

The children came to the art museum and we did artists in the schools, but actually it was before that because they brought the whole classroom into the museum.

And so I was invited as an artist to come and, you know, bring a picture and show my paint and just, you know, so yeah, I let 'em smell the paint and see my brushes and yeah.

And then I had this painting of a house and this little kid raised his hand and he said, that's my house.

Like, where do you live?

You know, and sure enough, it was his farmhouse.

So that was interesting.

My son was in that first grade, second grade class and he raised his hand and said, mom, I bought your scraper.

You know, he was kinda shot.

Oh yeah, my kids knew about my scraper because I was probably quite mad when I was using it.

I don't know.

So I had to tell 'em I had to use the scraper.

It's a very important utensil.

So it was very rewarding to see the kids just, just liking it so much and seeing the paint and, you know, like, And just interesting, I mean, looking back on my childhood, I, I think what would, I have thought if some artist came into the school or museum people and showed paintings and talked about art, you know, I would've been floored.

I would've just ate it up.

So you never know what, what kid is sitting out there just waiting for this really like, oh, this is me, you know?

And even the other kids, just, even if they're not so, so interested, but exposing them to art, color and design, maybe things they haven't ever thought about or looked at, you know?

And so I, I just think it's very important for their little minds to just broaden that way.

You know?

I would say just keep at it, keep trying practice a lot.

You know, I, I drew a lot of things.

I, I even made a sketchbook.

I had it so it would fold out like in four different things and then I could fold it up and I had pockets in it so I could stick paper in and, you know, just make it interesting, make it fun.

Make your own sketchbook or, and just keep, keep with it.

Keep it in the back of your mind if that's, you know, what you wanna do.

And there's a lot of careers in art that, you know, would not just be painting for a gallery.

Just to have that access was huge for me because I, I didn't know about painting.

I didn't know.

And so just to walk in here and see those was, was just enlightening for me.

Looking at other artists' work that I really like, that's just very relaxing and nice.

I guess that could be joy.