This is a production of SDPB.

Inspiration or whatever is everywhere really, but it's more about paint the sometimes my paintings kind of seem with 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 know how that looks like my grandmother'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 I 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 though 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 want it 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.. when I first started, It was a little more about the image.

I painted some still lifes 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 was the title of that show was leaning on the paint.

And so does it 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, the painting sort of takes over, like my thick paint.

And now I want.

I always used oil paint, and I have big stand up easel, my paints are on a palette that's in front of me attached to the easel.

I don't hold it.

Just because.

Yeah 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 as I make mistakes, I go back to the smooth undercoating and start again.

one thing that really bugs me is I have a phantom bump where it shouldn't be like, it's I should have wipe 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 what wasted said or and then I always think, well I have to tell myself that, 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 off or scrape it off, but sometimes I just think I'm done with that.

But it really works.

So I do have a lot of things sitting around that, that I didn't finish that just start.

No, I'm ready to move on.

I want to 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.

No.

My favorite part, of course, is.

putting the paint on for the very first time, because there's a lot of hope that you know, I'm excited and it's like, oh, this is going to 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 and 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.

This is much richer, and I can tone the black if I wanted a little more blue, a little more.

Even green.

So I always mix my black and, I have a basic blue, red, yellow and green and very large tubes of white.

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

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

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

And so I have fresh for quite a while.

And 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, this is done.

This is good.

No, because it's pretty spontaneous.

And it's all like it's all practice till the end.

So if I tell myself that an image helps me, you know, you have to have that self-discipline and you've kind of by yourself.

It's being a painter you know, there are other careers in art that you wouldn't be, you know, if you could teach the work, you know, do graphics and work with a team and not.

But painting, is kind of very individual.

And so you have to have that motivation.

And that's hard.

Can be.

I think it's just the satisfaction of it.

not that it's easy or joyful or anything.

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 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 call 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 that lived on a farm by Bradley, which was rolling hills and slews and wonderful for a kid.

And the other farm was by Willow Lake Rural.

Nice And I remember going to my grandparents on both sides lived on farms.

And so, walking in the fields and shelter belts and seeing the sloughs 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 at it as a child.

I mean, the ceiling lights in their 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 full head of 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, because my dad's family is very musical, and they would get together, come with, 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, Merle Haggard, you know, country music.

So it's just.

And some of it's really old music.

And so it's just weird.

It just seems to feed right into my heart, And in, in grade school, you know, 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 walk past that again.

I didn't really want to look, but, you know, I was so proud that there was my picture in the case, you know?

that's important.

If kids will have that ability and that, you know, it's recognized and and so that was an impetus for me to kind of keep going because I could do it in And I just kept drawing like to draw horses, a lot of horses and a lot of and dogs, houses.

Yeah.

In high school.

I took all the art I could take.

I didn't take any home.

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 SDSU.

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

but, you know, that was my first experience was seeing the Harvey Dunn's I remember distinctly just seeing those and know, 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 I was like, whole, this is really something, you know, So, every time I went to art history class, I looked at the evidence.

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.

And so that was very interesting to me.

It was just his technique.

Because the landscapes, you know, her, and the in prairie and in that which I like.

But it was just more of the technique of how thick the paint was.

of the Harvey Dunn's, I especially like the one that was, a snow scene with really high drifts and people walking kind of all bundled up and how he did the snow, you know, and because I did winter ones and 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, that was.

That definitely had an influence.

I, just absolutely loved art history because I knew nothing when I got into, so I started, I 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 or whatever.

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 seen Stuart 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 them away when you're done if you don't like them.

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

I said, this is what I want to 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, you know, just that felt like me.

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

So thank you for that.

You know, I finished my courses and graduated or whatever, and then I thought, no, what?

You I was already married, and my husband worked at Daktronics.

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

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 ended up being a typesetter.

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

I started out in commercial art, actually, but that was not 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, the 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 is right after I graduated.

So I, I sent two images for that and they both got in the show.

opened in New York, then went to Saint 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 video, the review committee would see it's, you know, and I was like floored.

I thought, oh, yeah, but 15 I didn't even have I didn't have one more.

I sent those two out.

That was the rest of the student staff and I just so I came home and I painted 15 paintings in the summer because he wanted one of 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 this done.

I was so excited, and when he got home, he said, fine, and we'll start out with a solo show, and now we need about 15 more.

So I had like 30 paintings on that first show, and it went out to the opening, you know, and it was like, wow, this is like a big city, very fun, very rewarding joy there.

That was joy.

one thing he did that really kind of help me was he did a lot of group shows.

So for those I can have 4 or 5.

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 give me like two years.

So 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 someone else?

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

I felt like I just wanted to stay there.

It was a nice place to be, a very nice place.

So I never pursued any other gallery.

I didn't do any commissions.

I was asked but I just, you know, would be like oh geez, I oh you know, I had I'm working on a show now or and I didn't want to really do something that I didn't want to do, because 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 multi-purpose board.

Very thin.

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

it was very thin.

So 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 in glass or Plexiglas, I guess on top.

So, so many of my paintings went out wet.

Because, I was behind.

So.

I don't know where I saw the ad, I didn't subscribe to Midwest Living.

Anyway, there was an article for artists in the Midwest, that they were going to do issue of Midwest artists.

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

But anyway, 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 the 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 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.

So it's very light.

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

My be 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 going to 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 by new tubes of paint, different paint, which sounds quite small, but actually what I'm so in tune with color is it's just a little bit different.

I'm like, 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 I'm finishing a big painting now and it's like, well, you're it is, but I have ideas to start now.

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

I thought when I finished this 24 by 36.

So that was the chore.

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

And as for me, I guess it's, it's just more satisfaction in that so much joy with it is stressful to complete things and.

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 when I put him 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, mommy?

Or they be looking out the window for me?

So basically driving around or going into HyVee, I love to look at pears.

I've painted a lot of pears, so when I go past the pears, I always pick up a few and think this would be good.

And you know, so 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 baby sitter and because and that was another 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, the, you know, they ended up being the living room, and my kids are sitting by my easel.

I'm like, okay, you know, or if she took them to the park and I could look out the window and see them going down the road in the way, and, and I thought I shouldn't be doing that.

Of course, that emotional kind of things affects your painting.

I sort I'm not going to paint now.

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

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

The kids got used to just playing around and that, you know, they really didn't bother me Or a painting, you know, when they went to bed, I did many late nights, But it worked because my husband traveled a lot.

So that was another issue that 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 them 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.

I like, where do you live?

You know?

And sure enough, it was his farmhouse.

Well, that was interesting.

my son was in that first grade, second grade class, and he raised his hand and said, mom, what about your scraper?

You know, just kind of shot that.

Oh, yeah, my kids know about my scraper because I was probably quite mad when I was using it, I don't know.

So I had to tell him I had used the scraper as 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, interesting.

I mean, looking back on my childhood, I think what would I have thought as some artist came into the school or museum people and showed paintings and talked about art, you know, I would have been floored.

I was 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 and color and, design, maybe things they haven't ever thought about or looked at, you know, and, so I think it's very important for their little minds to just broaden that way.

And, You.

you know, I would say just keep at it.

Keep trying.

Practice a lot.

You know, I, I do 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 want to do.

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

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

I didn't know.

And so I'll just.

Walk in here and see those was, let's just enlightening for me.

looking at other artists work that I really like.

This is very relaxing and nice.

I guess that could be joy.