Artists | StCroixSplash.org

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Judy Fawcett

Visual Artist: Painting

Love of stories has always been compelling for Judy Fawcett. When her mother read from Wind in the Willows, she loved imagining that the creatures she found at the end of the lake were the ones from the story. Today she knows this early use of her imagination helps her as she creates her art. Fawcett’s interest in drawing and art came from observing her creative mother who dabbled in dance, ceramics, drawing, sculpture, writing verse, envisioning musicals, even inventing home improvements while raising five children. Her mother, sculpting or practicing dance, was often the subject of Judy’s sketches. Fawcett’s entrance into the arts was through dance including four years in New York pursing her dream of dancing professionally. However, it was not until after marriage, raising a family and a career in teaching, that she discovered a love of painting. Fawcett’s work is inspired by beauty in nature, travels to foreign places, curiosity about different cultures and the work of other artists. Formerly, Fawcett often started a painting idea by capturing a sun-lit moment with her camera and later used photo references to inspire watercolor paintings. More recently, she has shifted away from a literal subject and acrylics have become her preferred medium. Now she seeks to simplify shapes and chooses a color palette that best expresses the mood or feelings she has about the subject. Regarding a recent series of butterfly paintings, Fawcett shares, “This series was inspired by a concern for species survival. These large abstracted butterflies were my metaphor for all species endangered by climate change and human intervention.” She magnified their plight by enlarging the butterflies and taking the opportunity to experiment with texture and move away from a literal interpretation. With the tools of abstraction and use of acrylics, Judy feels free to follow her imagination and emotions to tell the story. After laying down a brushful of luscious color, she feels compelled to juxtaposition of another rich color. In a similar way one shape or line leads the way for another. Then by a process of adding and eliminating, moving ahead intuitively with brush or palette knife, she builds a drama.

Wendy Fernstrum

Visual Artist: Printmaking

When does a beginning begin and an ending end? At what point does an ending become a beginning? My work explores this in-between space where identity is constantly shifting and all that seemed certain loses form. Intellectually we like buckets, divisions, distinctions – yet the universe reveals our dualities a folly. For many of us, life and death seem to be separate dualities. Deeper inquiry reveals the separation of life and death as a human construct. Each of us is living and dying simultaneously; 300 million cells die every minute in our bodies even as we generate 200 billion new cells each day. We start dying the minute we are born. Where does each of us begin and end? Are the drops of water in the ocean distinct? In my work I explore individuality within a united oneness, and the continuum of beginnings and endings. Although my diptychs present two distinct images – presence and absence, beginning and end –they transcend “either/or” to convey “and/both.” The line that appears in much of my work represents the thread that connects us all and theunique strand that we are or the distinct mark we make in the world.

Obed Floan

Actor; Musician; Singer; Teacher / Instructor

Obed Floan, Voice Instructor and NETA Certified Personal Trainer, received his BA from Luther College and his MM from The University of Minnesota. Obed recently was on the voice faculty at Oklahoma City University where he taught students who, as mentioned above, are now finding professional success in musical theatre and opera. Obed was chosen from an international pool of contestants as one of 16 singers considered to be the world’s greatest up-and-coming Wagnerian singers selected to participate in the Lauritz Melchior International Singing Competition under the patronage of Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II held in Aalborg, Denmark, and he also made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2015 as winner of The Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition – Wagner Division. Mr. Floan has performed with Opera North, Amici Opera, The Other Company, Center Stage Opera, Minnesota Fringe Festival, Des Moines Metro Opera, Minnesota Opera, Mixed Precipitation, and numerous professional orchestra guest soloist appearances across the globe. Megan Wagner Floan, M.M. & D.M.A. (A.B.D.) and Obed Floan, M.M., NETA-CPT are Minnesota natives, and are the founders of their own music, health & fitness training, and production company, M-OStudio Enterprises, LLC since 2001. They had the drive and the focus over the years to travel far and wide to study voice with master teachers throughout the world in an effort to find the very best techniques to teach to their own students. Their students have landed leading roles in their local communities and schools, not to mention going on to find successful careers on countless numbers of the world’s great operatic & musical theater stages, as well as on TV and the silver screen. They are headliners on major cruise ships traveling all over the world, from leading roles in national tours in “Nice Work If You Can Get It” to international productions from Glyndebourne to Marseille to LA Opera. Megan and Obed held the first annual Summer Vocal Institute at The Stillwater Zephyr Theatre this past summer with a final concert of astounding acclaim at the VIP Grand Opening.

Cara Frafjord

Visual Artist: Mixed Media; Visual Artist: Painting

My name is Cara Frafjord and I live in the beautiful St Croix River Valley of Minnesota and have since childhood. I started painting to heal and continue as a means of celebrating my surroundings. I specialize in small format art for tiny homes and small spaces. I enjoy encaustics and dabbling from one medium to another such as watercolor pencils, ink, oil and soft pastels, beeswax and anything else I can experiment with. I also enjoy working with heat due to its unpredictability. I hold a special place in my heart for art inspired by nature, reflections and resilience. Life is unpredictable and so is my art. Thank you for visiting my page. I hope you enjoy my work. Feel free to follow me on Facebooks (Cara Frafjord Visual Arts), Instagram and twitter @CaraFrafjord.

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