I was born in 1966 and raised in a small farming
community in west central Minnesota by the name
of Clara City. At the time, it had a population
of approximately 1500 people, most related to each
other in some way, be it blood or by way of marriage.
There were no movie theaters, bowling alleys or
arcades, just lowly Hawk Creek to catch crayfish
and minnows. Everyone knew everyone. It was smothering
since someone is always aware as to what you are
up to. I buried myself in books and model airplanes
to escape.
I graduated and went on to what was expected of
me in my social class – education, but not
too much education since you are encouraged not
to stray too far. I enrolled in the Willmar Vo-Tech
Institute under the guise of studying electronics.
I hated it. It was then that a friend of mine noticed
that I was always drawing and told me I should take
some art classes at the adjacent Willmar Community
College. While there, I visited the St. Cloud State
Campus with my professor Bob Mattson who was part
of the “Distinguished Alumni Series”
at SCSU. It was comparatively energetic and opened
my mind to other possibilities. I studied ceramic
sculpture and business and after five years of putting
myself through school graduated with honors. I am
the first of my family line to graduate from college
since leaving Europe.
After a few career changes and loads of volunteer
work, I am finally back to doing art as a full time
endeavor thanks to my savings and my lovely wife
Heather, whom I married a year ago.
All those experiences living in a farming community,
being close to machinery in a town where there wasn’t
a lot to do, is what led me to be an artist. I think
that your creativity soars when you have to make
do with what you have and find ways to entertain
yourself through your own imagination.
When I did not have enough money (which was often
the case), I would remake my model airplanes in
a “diorama style” with flak damage,
bullet holes and broken landing gear. These are
the images I grew fond of in my studies, and I tried
to make them more realistic akin to the images of
destruction I would see in books on the two world
wars. Now I rely upon this early training to keep
me thinking and playing with form and connotations
of those forms in the greater scope of what it means
to be human.
|
|
|
|
