Resume

Born: 1951, Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Education: B.A. Philosophy, St Olaf College, Minnesota, 1974

Galleries

Stremmel Gallery, Reno NV
Susan Street Fine Art, Solana Beach CA

Solo exhibitions

2022 Aunt Dofe’s Gallery, Willow Creek MT
2016 Churchill Arts Council, Fallon NV
2015 Stremmel Gallery, Reno NV
2015 Turman/Larison Contemporary, Helena MT
2013 Emerson Cultural Center, Bozeman MT
2011 Pulliam Gallery, Portland OR
2010 Pulliam Gallery, Portland OR
2009 Pulliam/Deffenbaugh Gallery, Portland OR
2007 Pulliam/Deffenbaugh Gallery, Portland OR
2005 Pulliam/Deffenbaugh Gallery, Portland OR
2004 Pulliam/Deffenbaugh Gallery, Portland OR
2003 Botanica Gallery, Bozeman MT
2002 Botanica Gallery, Bozeman MT
2002 Pulliam/Deffenbaugh Gallery, Portland OR
2000 Pulliam/Deffenbaugh Gallery, Portland OR
2000 Native Eloquence, Jerry Iverson and Jon Lodge, Yellowstone Art Museum, Billings MT
1999 Emerson Cultural Center, Bozeman MT
1998 Pulliam/Deffenbaugh Gallery, Portland OR
1996 Holter Museum of Art, Helena MT
1996 Pulliam/Deffenbaugh Gallery, Portland OR
1994 Pulliam/Deffenbaugh Gallery, Portland OR
1993 Pulliam/Deffenbaugh/Nugent Gallery, Portland OR
1989 Christian Brechneff Studio, New York NY

Group exhibitions

2020 Stremmel Gallery, Reno, NV
2019 Stremmel Gallery, Reno, NV
2018 Montana Triennial, Yellowstone Art Museum, Billings MT
2017 Stremmel Gallery (three person show), Reno, NV
2017 Churchill Arts Council, Fallon, NV
2016 Yellowstone Art Museum, Billings MT
2014 Catherine Louisa Gallery, Billings MT
2013 Susan Street Fine Art, San Diego CA
2012 Poindexter Collection Legacy, Holter Museum of Art, Helena MT
2011 Contemporary Northwest Art Award Exhibition, Portland Art Museum, Portland OR
2010 Susan Street Fine Art , San Diego CA
2009 Montana Triennial, Missoula Museum of Art, Missoula MT
2006 Holter Museum of Art, Helena MT
2004 Bentley Projects, Phoenix AZ
2002 Fassbender/Stevens Gallery, Chicago IL
2001 New Montana Painting, Nicolaysen Art Museum, Casper WY
1999 The Great Plains, Fresh Paint Gallery, Culver City CA
1998 Unfettered Spirit, Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art, Great Falls MT
1996 Littlejohn Contemporary, New York NY
1995 Best of Show Award, Sweet Pea Festival, Beall Park Art Center, Bozeman MT
1994 Littlejohn/Sternau Gallery, New York NY
1994 Montana Portraits, Hockaday Center for the Arts, Kalispell MT
1993 Language Made Visible, Jamison Thomas Gallery, Portland OR
1992 Sign of the Cross, Jamison Thomas Gallery, Portland OR
1990 Calvin-Morris Gallery, New York NY
1989 Facing Our State, Missoula Museum of Art, Missoula MT

Grants and Awards

2011 Contemporary Northwest Art Award, Portland Art Museum, OR
2009 Artist’s Innovation Award, Montana Arts Council
1995 WESTAF/NEA Regional Fellowship, Honorable Mention for Painting and Works on
Paper

Collections

Boise Art Museum, Boise ID
Holter Museum of Art, Helena MT
Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee WI
Portland Art Museum, Portland OR
Yellowstone Art Museum, Billings MT

Artist Statement

My art has been much influenced by the materials, balance and grace of Asian calligraphy. I don’t know what the characters mean, but I love how they look.

I use many layers of sumi ink, paper and rabbit skin glue to build a distressed, uneven texture. Torn and broken black lines create a tense, awkward balance.

In order to examine an idea thoroughly, I like to work in series. One idea, over and over again:

Language Series expresses the difficulty of communication. Black lines look like words, but they don’t say anything.

Nerve Blocks show the strained and shattered nerves that happen in life. Things fall apart.

Line Bombs remind me of the violence and disruption of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and how war has taught the powerless and dispossessed that anything can become a weapon. The days are full of hidden bombs, and the lives of innocents are torn apart.

Windows are literally windows. Everyone can use a new window in their house. Just hang it, and there it is, a new window.

 

Causation uses the intersection of black lines and circles to show the chain of life. Causal relations are everywhere. Each event in our lives is connected to events of the past and present. Often, the causal chain is very complex and hard to identify. Sometimes, it’s one big mess.

Darwin’s Trees are a reflection on Charles Darwin’s own ink drawing of the Tree of Life. He used it as a visual representation of his great theory of evolution – that species diverge from common lineages. Yet the branches are broken, misshapen, and most species become extinct.

View Installations

“I am a complete millionaire in odd and curious little facts.” —Charles Darwin

Is evolution true? The following provides observations on Darwin’s data in the Origin of Species, an analysis of the underlying assumptions of the theory of evolution, and an examination of the nature of fact, theory, and explanation (PDF):