Kristin Gjerdset: Artist in Residence at Mequon Nature Preserve
October 20, 2021 | Topics: featured artist
The Natural Realm presents Kristin Gjerdset, who is among 17 artists participating in a year-long residency program called ARTservancy, a collaboration between Gallery 224 in Port Washington and the Ozaukee Washington Land Trust, River Revitalization Foundation, Milwaukee Area Land Conservancy, Tall Pines Conservancy, and the Western Great Lakes Bird and Bat Observatory. The mission of ARTservancy is to promote the visionary work of both the artists and conservationists. Each artist has selected a preserve to spend time in and to engage with.
Artist Statement by Kristin Gjerdset
Mequon Nature Preserve (MNP) has been a source of refuge and discovery since visiting for the first time a few years ago. I live in West Allis so freeway noise, blocked views of sunsets and a prevalence of development can make it difficult to find peace at times. With MNP a relatively short drive away, it has been the place I escape to, where the experiences are always restorative. I have witnessed a rare, diminutive prairie crayfish carrying her young on an early spring day, seen the summer sun revealing white laced winged insects, discovered a brown assassin bug camouflaged within dried autumn flowers, and have been surprised as crane flies rise from the January snow. These observations remind me the world is far more complex than I can ever imagine.
MNP is being thoughtfully restored back to prairies, wetlands, and woods, attracting and supporting a variety of species. With the focus of my art primarily insects and spiders, along with elements of the landscape, MNP is a gem. It has a rich population of creatures from which I can learn and share how beautiful and diverse small-scale lives are. My acrylic and mixed media images combine these subjects together in informal arrangements, collage style. This compositional approach is meant to reiterate the experience one has with nature, where our interactions are often unexpected, coming in no particular order, with some moments extended and easy to see, while others are short, where life appears as a brief flash without full clarity.
To have been selected as an ARTservancy program artist in residence at MNP for the past year has been such a gift! ARTservancy seriously respects and understands the value of art in leading people to care about nature, to see its beauty, and ultimately, to work for a connected, harmonious relationship with it. I’ve loved participating, being a part of that kind of solution, and using my paintings and drawings to motivate others towards greater land and wildlife preservation.
Gallery of works by the artist
Biography
Kristin Gjerdset is a professional artist and professor of art at Wisconsin Lutheran College (WLC) in Milwaukee, where she teaches painting, drawing, and art history. Her definition of the classroom goes beyond the typical four walls. Classes often involve local field trips to the zoo, museums, area parks and preserves, artist studios, galleries – wherever she believes students will be inspired to create. In addition, she has led many a student trip to such locations as Norway, Costa Rica, France, Italy, Ireland, Iceland, and the United States.
Her own life as an artist includes exhibiting her work, but her best moments on the journey have been residency experiences at wilderness sites. She has been selected as the artist in residence to five national parks: Glacier, Everglades, Mesa Verde, Great Basin, and Rocky Mountain; three Wisconsin state parks: Whitefish Dunes, Potawatomi, and St. Croix; and Caribou Ranch Open Space in Nederland, Colorado.
Gjerdset has curated and organized various exhibitions at the Schlueter Art Gallery on the WLC campus as the gallery manager since 2008. Not surprisingly, the shows’ themes tend to lean to travel and nature, inviting artists of local, regional, and national relevance to share their art, along with students and alumni.
Gjerdset also believes in the importance of sharing art at the local level and has been involved in teaching children from underserved areas of the city, painting murals, creating chalk drawing events and participating in public art projects over the years.
In addition to all that, Gjerdset enjoys time with her rescued animals – a family of dogs, cats, birds, and fish.
This residency is sponsored by Ozaukee Washington Land Trust and Mequon Nature Preserve.
This is the latest in our series of featured artists, which is intended to showcase the work of photographers, artists, writers and other creative individuals in our community whose subjects or themes relate in some broad sense to nature, urban nature, people in nature, etc. To see a list of previously featured artists, click here. The work of the 2019-2020 ARTservancy artists in residence is currently being exhibited monthly at Gallery 224. To meet the other ARTservancy artists in residence, click here.
All images courtesy of the artist, except as noted. OWLT and MNP are project partners of A Wealth of Nature.