LINNEA RYSHKE
About the artist: Linnea Ryshke (American, born in Los Angeles, CA) creates mixed-media paintings and drawings that respond to the othering of nonhuman animals. She received her M.F.A. from Washington University in St. Louis, and her B.F.A. in Painting and Minor in Environmental Studies, at Pratt Institute. Her work has been most recently featured at Light Space & Time Gallery, Art Saint Louis Gallery, Des Lee Gallery in St. Louis, Missouri, The Jewish Art Salon in Hartford, Connecticut, and at Eastern Kentucky University. She will be publishing a book of poems, photographs and paintings through Lantern Publishing and Media, to be released in October 2021.
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| Featured in Art Saint Louis’ “Creatures II” ehxibit: Linnea Ryshke. “Host. 2020. Conté, Acrylic, Paper on Fabric, 12”x11”. $550. Artist’s statement: “I create mixed media paintings that recover the genesis of the word “animal” as meaning one with breath, one with soul. My works originate from a practice of empathy with animal Others as mysterious kin. Through painting, I call those animals whom we have ostracized to the margins of consideration or objectified through commodification, into central spaces of material gravity and stilled presence.” |
Roxanne Phillips: What is it about the “Creatures II” theme that speaks to you?
Linnea Ryshke: As a human endlessly fascinated and drawn towards the nonhuman world, I was eager to be a part of an exhibition that centered on this subject matter. I have dedicated my art practice towards elevating the value of nonhuman animals as kindred beings with whom we are in relation, and I am honored to show my work alongside fellow artists giving form, light, shape and space to other creatures. The work of mine included in the show comes from a body of work that seeks to give subjectivity and animacy back to those nonhuman animals who have been rendered as objects and mere matter through consumptive practices.
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Linnea Ryshke “Calved.” 2020. Ink, Pastel on Mylar, 24”x36”. $550. |
RP: Why did you choose the medium you work in?
LR: I have been a painter for most of my artistic career. I use the full spectrum of water and oil-based paints, and I make my own paints with binder and pigment concentrates. Painting for me is so immediate and lively. It becomes the fluid body that metamorphosizes into the animal subject. Painting is both so responsive to touch, but also untamable and unpredictable. I love the moments in the studio of the unexpected outcomes, the miraculous surprises.
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| Linnea Ryshke “soft, of fur, of skin, of voice, of touch, of hair, a whisper, barely there.” 2020. Acrylic, Ash, Charcoal, Pumice on Canvas, 23 1/8”x23 1/8”. NFS. |
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| Linnea Ryshke “Cleaved.” 2020. Acrylic, Graphite, Pumice on Canvas, 17 3/4”x15 1/8”. $650. |
RP: What motivates you to continue making art?
LR: I come to my studio with a curiosity of the animacy and alchemy of fluid materials--how they run, intertwine, dry, layer, harden. I come to the studio with a heaviness in my chest at the ubiquitousness of animal exploitation and denigration. This heaviness lightens slightly, but I always carry it with me. I come to the studio to counter the silence, our silence, towards their calls. I come to the studio with a draw towards what is both beautiful and unsettling.
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| St. Louis-based artist Linnea Ryshke at work in the studio. |
RP: What is the best thing about being an artist?
LR: The power of the artist is threatening, for an artist often positions his/herself as an outsider looking in. Artists reveal what all of us would rather not look directly at. Through material creation, artists emerge with objects of contemplation and revelation on issues and ideas that would rather be buried. I embrace this role of the artist and walk towards it.
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| Linnea Ryshke “Erosion.” 2019. Charcoal, Acrylic, Clay, Fabric, Paper, Found Charred Wood, Gravel, Salvaged Chicken Bones on Canvas, 42”x38”x5”. NFS. |
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| Linnea Ryshke “Temper.” 2019. Charcoal on Toned Paper, 12”x9”. NFS. |
RP: Best advice you were ever given?
LR: Though a challenge, I was told by a mentor to delay judgement as long as possible in the studio. This means, when I am making, I am not to make sense of, name or qualify the thing I am making until the very end, until it reveals itself to me. I have a very loud critical voice, as many, or all artists do. It is constantly a work in progress to let-be what emerges from me.
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| Linnea Ryshke “To say their own names.” 2019. acrylic, Pastel, Paper, Found FLower Petals on Wood Strainers, 13”x11”. $600. |
Learn more about Linnea Ryshke: www.reembodimentproject.com
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| Featured in Art Saint Louis’ “Creatures II” exhibit: David Ruggeri. “Target Moose.” 2020. Acrlyic on Canvas, 48”x48”. $1,500. Artist’s statement: “My work has been influenced by pop, graffiti, street, and nature artists. Graffiti, bold colors, and animals are often depicted in my work. I attempt to use color to light up a room and grab the attention of those who enter. If I can hold the attention of the viewer then I feel I have accomplished my goal.“ |
About the artist: David Ruggeri was born and raised in St. Louis. As with most artists he has been drawing for as long as he can remember. David's work has been influenced by pop, street, and nature artists. Graffiti, bold colors, and visual movement are common in my work. He attempts to use color to light up a room and grab the attention of those who enter.
Roxanne Phillips: What is it about the “Creatures II” exhibit theme that speaks to you?
David Ruggeri: The “Creatures” theme is very exciting as it can take almost any living form. The artwork in the Creatures exhibit have life and movement, which differs from that of still life and other subjects.
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| David Ruggeri. “Mix Tape.” 2020. Acrylic, Spray Paint on Canvas, 40”x30”. $1,200. |
RP: What inspired you to become a member of Art Saint Louis?
DR: I became an Art St Louis member because I love art, and also because at this point in time I think art is more important than ever. At every turn there seems to be bad news and bad things happening to good people, and with art people can stop, think, and get caught up in a piece of work. Even if that lasts only for a minute it provides a much-needed break from the outside world.
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| David Ruggeri. “Jordans.” 2020. Acrylic, Spray Paint on Canvas, 36”x36”. $1,200. |
RP: Best advice you were ever given?
DR: The best advice that I have ever received is more of a saying. A friend once told me "the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, the second-best time is today." This really spoke to me about the limit of time that we all have and the importance of just getting started doing what you want to do today, not tomorrow, not in a year, but today.
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| David Ruggeri. “Sitting Bull.” 2020. Spray Paint, Ink on 1960s-era Topographic Map on Wood, 18"x24”. $800. |
RP: What motivates you to continue making art?
DR: This sounds like an artist cliche, but I am motivated to make art because I simply have a deep push to make things. Art is the best outlet for me because the end product is so tangible and can tell a story.
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| David Ruggeri's St. Louis studio. |
RP: What is your dream project?
DR: My dream project is working on very large canvases. Due to constraints in my studio I am unable to work on pieces larger than 5' or 6' tall. My next goal is to move into a larger studio and work on paintings 10', 15', and 20' tall.
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| David Ruggeri's St. Louis studio. |
RP: What is the best thing about being an artist?
DR: The best thing about being an artist is that there are literally no rules. I can create anything that I can imagine. I am free to any materials I can get my hands on. There is also no clear path to success. Artists have to create opportunities and practice and push themselves to improve. The absence of boundaries makes this line of work both maddening and wonderful.
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| St. Louis artist David Ruggeri. |
Learn more about David Ruggeri: www.davidruggeri.com and www.instagram.com/dave_ruggeri
MARY EDWARDS WERTSCH
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| Featured in Art Saint Louis’ “Creatures II” exhibit: Mary Edwards Wertsch. “Queen of Diamonds, The Bengal Tigress.” 2020. Acrylic on Canvas, 36”x24”. $3,250. Artist’s statement: “Playing card art, and animals: one day I thought to combine these two, and the result, many months later, was an entire set of whimsical animal face cards plus two jokers. The Queen of Diamonds is a Bengal tigress maharani seemingly taken aback by the embroidered tiger butterflies magically flying right out of her veil.” |
Roxanne Phillips: What is it about Art Saint Louis’ “Creatures II” theme that speaks to you?
Mary Edwards Wertsch: I love that it implies permission to depict animals real or imagined and in all sorts of ways, from seriously gorgeous to utterly playful and everything in between.
RP: How has Art Saint Louis had an impact on your life and/or the lives of artists with whom you've directly worked?
MEW: In general, Art Saint Louis insists on quality and professionalism, and makes a wide variety of well executed artwork available through its shows to enjoy and inspire viewers. You can count on ASL to present shows that are well worth seeing.
I think what has given me the most pleasure is seeing the work of my friend Sophie Binder in ASL shows. She has had a terrific career in graphic design and several offshoots of that, but finally began to experiment with her own fine art. She developed a technique of burning her drawings into specially chosen pieces of wood and then painting them in watercolor. They are absolutely stunning works. I like to think that it was getting her work into ASL juried shows that convinced her she has a career in fine art after all. She's certainly run with it since! I believe Sophie's work is extraordinary and deserves acclaim in St. Louis and far, far beyond.
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| Mary Edwards Wertsch. “King of Hearts, The Llama Atahualpa, Last Incan Emporer.” 2020. Acrylic on Canvas, 36"x24". $3,250. |
RP: What is it about your preferred medium that you enjoy the most?
MEW: While I always thought I would one day devote myself to oil painting, I found that acrylics were better suited to my lifestyle. Since they are water based, they dry very quickly and the brushes are easy to clean. I also don't have to worry about toxic fumes from turpentine. All of this made it easier to paint in a household with kids and dogs. There are real challenges to painting with acrylics, such as remixing the color you're using over and over again, but I found that I quite enjoy that, and the frequent practice made me quite good at it.
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| Mary Edwards Wertsch. “Jack of Spades, Spartan Zebra.” 2020. Acrylic on Canvas, 36"x24". $3,250. |
RP: What was your career path? How did you get from being an aspiring artist to doing it?
MEW: I always knew I wanted to paint. But because my career took me in other directions and life in general is so busy, years and years went by and I was still not giving myself permission to paint. I always thought something else had a greater claim on my time, and other peoples' needs always came before mine; this is a common problem among women, I find.
My breakthrough came in 2008 when I took a class on the book Women Who Run with the Wolves, which analyzes famous fairytales from a Jungian perspective. The class was small, and led by a local Jungian analyst, Sheldon Culver, and it changed my life. After three or four class meetings, I bought a 36"x48" canvas and painted something I like enough to still have it hanging in my living room. Interestingly, although I had not painted since college days, I found my style and technique had improved in the interim. That surprised me, but perhaps it shouldn't have. After all, I'd been using my eyes and looking at artwork for all those years in between.
So, for anyone reading this, if you have been slow to give yourself permission to make art, or if you doubt the level of skills you have not used for years or maybe never learned in the first place, my advice would be to tell your doubting self to shut up, and without further debate go out, procure yourself some materials, and go for it!
RP: When was the first time that you remember realizing that you are a creative person?
MEW: Probably in first grade, when every kid in the class came to me to draw them a horse, and when the teacher put up the drawings on the bulletin board, every horse had the exact same impossibly long, flowing tail. I got in trouble, but the takeaway was that maybe I could draw.
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| Mary Edwards Wertsch. “Family of Red-Crowned Cranes in Winter.” 2018. Acrylic on Canvas, 48"x36". Private Collection. |
RP: Do you have a studio routine? Most creative time of day to work?
MEW: I keep my easel, paints, and a container of rinse water right where I have to pass it frequently--so that if I have 20 minutes I can immediately get to work on solving the next problem in the work in progress. I prefer to have my longer painting sessions at night, after others have gone to bed, the dog has been walked, and I am free.
RP: What kind of music, books, and movies do you listen to while making art, if any?
MEW: I always listen to audiobooks while I paint. Audible.com is a godsend. In this very stressful year I have found it best to listen only occasionally to political books and to try for books with great writing, character development, and intricate plots. The most relaxing, engrossing, and de-stressing books are the 19th century novels of Anthony Trollope as narrated by the incomparable Timothy West. Fortunately, there are a lot of them.
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| Mary Edwards Wertsch. “Where the Rainbow Ends (cars).” 2015. Acrylic on Canvas, 21"x13". $475. |
RP: Describe your ideal studio space.
MEW: My ideal studio would have high ceilings, tall windows, lots of natural light, and excellent artificial light at night. It would be a place not used for any other purpose than creating art. I don't have a space like that, but I find it's not so important, really. The important thing is to get to work creating; if you do that, whatever space you are using becomes special.
I remember I wrote my nonfiction book, a labor of blood, sweat, and tears if ever there was one, in a tiny room stacked with boxes and with horrible red, white, and blue striped wallpaper peeling off the walls. I had to step over piles of laundry to get into the room at all. None of that mattered when I began to write.
RP: What do you wish someone would ask you about you or your art?
MEW: "What gives you the most pleasure in painting?" (First, the freedom to try out an idea, even if I fail. Second, problem solving. I think all creative production is a sequence of solving problems, and that can be very satisfying.) "What do you think is the most important difference between an artistic person and one who professes not to be artistic?" (Having the habit of noticing: colors, shadows, lines, relationships, perspective, patterns....)
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| Mary Edwards Wertsch. “Chimp Riding Armadillo.” 2019. Acrylic on Canvas, 36"x24". $3,250. |
RP: What motivates you to continue making art?
MEW: I never want to return to that stuck place where I would not give myself permission to create.
Also, I remember the example of my mother, who moved 50 times as the wife of a career Army officer. That's a tough life, but despite everything she always, always created a space in the new quarters where she could set up her easel and paint. Most often it was in a corner of a dank basement, or squeezed into the laundry area between the washer and the dryer. But wherever she was, she carved out a space and a time for herself. I always admired that, and I still associate the smell of turpentine and oil paint with the exciting possibilities of a woman's freedom to create. I only wish I had chosen earlier in my life to replicate her example.
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| Mary Edwards Wertsch. "The Ladder." 2014. Acrylic on Canvas, 42"x32". NFS. |
RP: What is your dream project?
MEW: I'm working on it. I decided I wanted to create a series of paintings that I could then make into a deck of playing cards. I made the first deck in 14 months, with 12 face cards, two jokers, and the card back design, all of them consisting of animals with attitudes. I painted the numerals and symbols for the remaining cards, and had the deck printed in Hong Kong. This was all so much fun that I am now working on a second deck. I do sell these in several venues, but I am hoping one day to get a big order for the cards from a large store, or a casino, or some youth centers. That's the dream!
RP: Has rejection ever affected your creative process?
MW: Yes, unfortunately. I had a tendency to give something my best shot, and if rejected, I figured I would not go down that road again. This mostly happened in the world of writing, but sometimes in other areas as well.
When I look back on such things now, I think: How stupid is that. In any setting in which your creative effort is being judged by someone else, the process is influenced by so many factors other than the quality of your own work. And if the problem is in fact with the quality of your own work, then it is a learning opportunity and far from the end of the road. Rejection is always a learning opportunity.
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| St. Louis artist Mary Edwards Wertsch. |
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LAURA PELICK SIADAK
About the artist: Laura Siadak is a traditional painter delving into the realm of fantastical illustration. Her love of stories unfold in brief moments within her work. She encourages others to share a story they see from within a piece of artwork, as if adding on another chapter. Much of her work also relies on what friends and family have said around her, even if not knowing they'd sparked an idea.
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| Feautred in Art Saint Lous’ “Creatures II” exhibition”: Laura Siadak, O’Fallon, IL. “The Walker.” 2018. Watercolor on Paper, 19”x23”. $800. Artist’s statement: “I created The Walker as a large, slowly wandering deer - imagine the sound of something distant. This deer is the forest, a guardian of those found within.” |
Roxanne Phillips: What is it about the “Creatures II” theme that speaks to you?
Laura Siadak: For the longest time, I was a figure and tree artist with the two of them sometimes mixing together. As a child, I drew unicorns and I found over the last few years I've gravitated to fantastical deer and rabbits. They've become my new unicorn creature - something whimsical to find in the middle of the woods.
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| Laura Siadak. “Universe Held Together .” 2017. Watercolor, Graphite Powder on Paper, 12”x30”. $1,500. |
RP: What is the best thing about St. Louis for your art practice?
LS: The St. Louis region is VERY welcoming to young artists (I moved here a few years after college in NY), even those that play with illustration and fantasy themes. I love the art fairs that are hosted in this area, and how they showcase the variety of artists who live here.
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| Laura Siadak. “Star Finder.” 2019. Watercolor and Graphite Powder on Paper, 11”x14”. NFS. |
RP: Describe your artistic process/technique.
LS: Anything that creates a mess! Lately these days, I enjoy laying down graphite powder and using watercolor on top of it in large puddles of color, then I leave it alone to see what kind of organic shapes emerge as the paint dries. I use this technique to abstract my backgrounds around the subject so that some of it is left to chance, and often rearrange where I was planning on going with the painting.
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| Artist Laura Siadak. |
RP: What kind of music, books, and movies do you listen to while making art, if any?
LS: I listen to a lot of contemporary classical music, and soundtracks to video games or movies. This often helps my imagination start to wander off into where ever it needs to go. For reading, I mainly live in fantasy or sci-fi worlds - some of my favorite authors are Margaret Atwood, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Michael J. Sullivan.
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| Laura Siadak. “Owl Sorceress.” 2020. Watercolor on Paper, 8”x12”. NFS. |
RP: How has Coronavirus changed your art practice?
LS: Both for the better and worse - I've had no art fairs this year and had to adjust to working from home with my 5-year-old and husband. A few plans for art were pushed to next year, but I took the time to work through some sketches for my husband's writing. We're great at being hermits and figured out a good schedule so that both of us could have extra time with our child, as well as getting some quiet to work on our separate projects.
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| O'Fallon, IL-based artist Laura Siadak's studio. |
RP: Describe your dream studio.
LS: I’d love something like a greenhouse, where I can have my plants hanging out with me while I work. Lots of light as well! Maybe it'd also require a bit of a hike through the woods before stumbling across the studio. I'd just have to figure out how to get my cats out there with me, they enjoy judging me while I create.
Learn more about Laura Pelick Siadak: http://fallenlights.net and www.instagram.com/fallenlightsart and http://facebook.com/laurapelick and http://twitter.com/lunae_dies
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Roxanne Phillips is an artist and art educator based in St. Louis since 2001. She earned a MFA in Printmaking & Drawing from Washington University in St. Louis and BFA in Painting & Drawing from University of North Texas. Roxanne is an adjunct art instructor at Washington University in St. Louis and has worked with Art Saint Louis since 2017 as Administrative Assistant and Installer. From 2018-2020 she was Master Printer for Pele Prints. Her works have been featured in numerous exhibitions throughout the St. Louis region including at Art Saint Louis, Crossroads Art Studio & Gallery, and St. Louis Artists’ Guild. Her work is currently available at Union Studio in St. Louis. She has served as exhibit Juror for several regional exhibits & art fairs. Roxanne is past Board member of St. Louis Women’s Caucus for Art.
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