Artists Statement
for
“An Abstract View of the Minnesota Landscape” Painting Series - Bonnie Van Moorlehem
Growing up in Southwest Minnesota, I have fond memories of the Minnesota landscape stemming back to my childhood when our family took yearly vacations. I have memories of driving through the rolling plains on our way to the birch trees in the forest that hugged the road in northern Minnesota. I recall the power of the vastness of Lake Superior. Our family spent vacation time hiking through the woods or sitting by one of the ten thousand lakes, listening to the lapping of the water against the shoreline allowing it to ease your soul. Those memories are of happy times when my family was together and I remember our parents insisting we put down our books to look at the landscape.
I grew up in the farm country outside of Marshall, MN. Other than occasional excursions to Camden State Park or exploring in a nearby gully we were surrounded by the farm fields and rolling prairie. I found it intriguing the way the seasons and the sun played with the landscape, which frequently changed the patterns. For me one of the most scenic sites in Southwest Minnesota was when the wheat turns to gold in contrast to the lush green grass and the sky is an intense blue from an impending storm.
I never questioned whether Minnesota had a landscape worth painting until March of 2007 when I had a conversation with author Bill Holm about the Minnesota landscape. While lifting his arms to point out our present landscape of brown mud, dirty snow, and gray skies, Bill looked incredulous and asked me “You think this is pretty?” I told him that while on my walk I had just seen a pretty pattern of bark on a tree. Bill suggested that maybe from an airplane the pattern of the Minnesota landscape might be interesting.
This conversation made me realize I either look at the landscape differently or it is a survival skill for me to endure our landscape. For example, when the landscape looks bleak in the later part of winter I have the ability to feel the spring energy in the earth getting ready to come forth and to focus on the little sprigs of green that are starting to appear. I look for patterns on barks of trees or the contrast of textures of foliage in the browns and the grays of dead plant material in our Minnesota landscape. The other seasons need no explanation.
I paint from photographs and sketches I have taken of the Minnesota landscape throughout my life. Painting in a mosaic abstract style, I focus on the bits and pieces of color and line that make up my flashes of memories to create my abstract landscapes. It is a process of totally breaking down the landscape to create my painting.
My paintings incorporate the experiences I have gained throughout my life as a horticulturalist, an art major, and a psychology major. An example of this would be the painting “In The Heat Of The Summer.” As a horticulturalist, I know the warm colors of zinnias, dahlias, marigolds, and native flowers that are in abundance in late July to August. As a psychology major, I am aware that it is in the heat of the summer when crime rates, arguments, and discontent are on the rise. The heat and passion are expressed by these same dark warm colors. Mother Nature knows us well!
I have traveled to other places of beauty from the east coast to the west coast and Hawaii. Perhaps their landscape has grandeur that Minnesota does not however I still find the Minnesota landscape’s contrast in colors and textures beautiful and worthy to paint. One of my favorite quotes is of artist Edgar Degas, “Art is not what you see but what you make others see.” This series of paintings represent what I see in our landscape.