PARK RAPIDS — For Wadena artist Cheryl Bannes, it’s never been an option to take the easy route when it comes to art.
Even at a young age, when adults discovered her talent in drawing, they would buy her how-to-draw-type books, giving a step-by-step process. Instead of creating a series of circles to eventually make a cat, she started drawing the final image.
Bannes didn't settle in one art form either. She creates paintings, collages, sculptures, felt pieces, and she’s a metalsmith. Something about three-dimensional art really speaks to her.
When asked on Area Voices on the KAXE Morning Show what it’s like jumping to different art forms, Bannes said, “It's all the same thing. It's just a different material. You're still using all the same techniques, and I love to creative problem solve ... I know how to do all these things. Let's just apply it in a new material.”
Bannes also likes to use recycled materials in some of her pieces. She’ll go through “free” boxes at thrift stores and garage sales and take things like rusty pot lids or cookie sheets and make something new out of them. She even started to use discarded cheese graters for fish sculptures.
The Armory Arts and Event Center in Park Rapids is hosting the exhibit “From Palette to Patina: The Eclectic Art of Cheryl Bannes” until April 25 with a reception at 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 11. It features old and new pieces, including a wearable helmet and crown, jewelry, mixed media collages, cattle marker (paint sticks usually used to temporarily mark livestock) paintings and more.
“I always say I'm building pictures," Bannes said. "People paint pictures. I build pictures.”
Listen to the full conversation with Cheryl Bannes above, including how she got into being a metalsmith, her creative schedule and her history of teaching art classes.
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.
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