MARINE ON ST. CROIX — Many artists' work can be inspired by nature, and the same is true for painter Carrie Katzenmeyer. Sometimes she’ll see something on a walk and have to paint it.
“I remember thinking about trees and being like I have to paint a tree this way,” she said.
It’s something that’s been with her since she was a kid. She would paint the walls in her childhood bedroom. Katzenmeyer eventually went to school for art at the University of Minnesota, but she lost touch with painting.
“When you get in the art world, it's a lot of critique. So, I just wasn't interested in doing that anymore,” she said.
Katzenmeyer stepped away from painting and started a family. She wasn't inspired to pick up the paintbrush until she attended “The Northern Lights Show” exhibit at the White Bear Lake Art Center.
“There are so many people there that just love painting and showing their work. And I thought, ‘Oh I could do that. I can just paint for fun.' And so, I started getting back into painting,” she said.
Katzenmeyer wanted her work to have meaning and stories and uses a different approach to her art. She wanted to be able to share these stories with her children, so she began posting them on Instagram where they could reread them as they got older.
She hopes her children learn some things about life from them, or the things they’re going through are the same things she went through. She sees her art as a way of expressing herself.
“I feel like I'm not the best at communicating with my own kids about things. I'm just not the best with words and maybe other moms and parents have this feeling too, where you just feel like you're not giving enough," she said. "I just hope that this is something that when they get older, they can feel more connected to me in that way and get to know me a little bit more.”
It’s been a wonderful journey for Katzenmeyer since returning to painting. Her work is shown at galleries, and she did a residency for the national parks. She’s doing it for herself and her children and blocking out everything else. It just so happens her work is also connecting with people.
New exhibit
She has an exhibit at the Talley Gallery called “Giiwe” at Bemidji State University featuring paintings combining artistic styles of her Anishinaabe and Scandinavian heritage. She realized that there are similarities in both her backgrounds. It also has given her a chance to connect more to her heritage through painting.
All the paintings' descriptions will be in Ojibwemowin. “So, if you're practicing Ojibwe or you're just getting to know the language, it might be a really fun show to take part in and see if you can figure out what the words mean.” It’s also very colorful and fun in a way that kids would appreciate, so it’s very family-friendly.
Inspiration source
Inspiration must come to Katzenmeyer before she can create. She’ll find it from going on hikes, listening to stories, or memories from life experiences. Sometimes she will take pictures of things she sees or hold onto them in her memories to paint them later. She’s hoping to bridge a connection with people and nature.
An artist’s message may not be clear to the audience and they may interpret something else from it. Katzenmeyer doesn’t mind when that happens. In fact, that’s one of the things she loves about art.
“I love that they can have their own perspective. They can have their own thing that they're able to take with them. Maybe it's just a story about [how] they went to the gallery show, maybe it's a story about just that day and being with their loved ones and seeing this painting and all the things that they came up from it. I think that's really special and wonderful to hear.”
She feels the main purpose of her art is to encourage people to connect with nature: to appreciate the trees and animals with which we share the world.
She knows it can be a vulnerable thing to put your artwork out in the world. She believes more artists should be proud of themselves for taking this step.
“It's really hard to put yourself out that way. I'm just like 'congratulations' to anyone else that's able to do that because [with] any creative outlet, it's a challenge.”
Katzenmeyer’s exhibit "Giiwe" will be at the Talley Gallery at Bridgeman Hall at Bemidji State University until Thursday, Oct. 24. She will also give an artist’s talk that day at 2 p.m. She also has work at Hestekin Pottery in Cornucopia, WI, until the end of October.
Tell us about upcoming arts events where you live in Northern Minnesota by emailing psa@kaxe.org.
Area Voices is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.