A nonprofit art organization promoting art, artists, and land conservation.
Visit us in the month of August to view the artwork
of ARTservancy Artist Resident, Kristin Gjerdset.
This exhibition features artwork inspired by a yearlong residency
at the Mequon Nature Preserve established with the
Ozaukee Washington Land Trust.
To read more about these collaborations, visit Eddee Daniel's blog.
Kristin Gjerdset is a professional artist and professor of art at Wisconsin Lutheran College (WLC) in Milwaukee, where she teaches painting, drawing, and art history.
Her definition of the classroom goes beyond the typical four walls. Classes often involve local field trips to the zoo, museums, area parks and preserves, artist studios, galleries – wherever she believes students will be inspired to create. In addition, she has led many a student trip to such locations as Norway, Costa Rica, France, Italy, Ireland, Iceland, and the United States.
Her own life as an artist includes exhibiting her work, but her best moments on the journey have been residency experiences at wilderness sites. She has been selected as the artist in residence to five national parks: Glacier, Everglades, Mesa Verde, Great Basin, and Rocky Mountain; three Wisconsin state parks: Whitefish Dunes, Potawatomi, and St. Croix; and Caribou Ranch Open Space in Nederland, Colorado.
Gjerdset also believes in the importance of sharing art at the local level and has been involved in teaching children from underserved areas of the city, painting murals, creating chalk drawing events and participating in public art projects over the years.
To have been selected as an ARTservancy program artist in residence at MNP for the past year has been such a gift!
ARTservancy seriously respects and understands the value of art in leading people to care about nature, to see its beauty, and ultimately, to work for a connected, harmonious relationship with it.
I’ve loved participating, being a part of that kind of solution, and using my paintings and drawings to motivate others towards greater land and wildlife preservation.
Through my art, I work to visualize the individuality of my subjects, and give them respect even if they seem insignificant due to their size. Science has shown the little creatures are an integral part of the environment, sustaining the lives around them, including ours. They can also be wonderful teachers. The cicada stands as a symbol of endurance, growing underground for years, finally to emerge transformed with wings. The cave spider’s home is essentially complete darkness, yet it goes forward each day working to survive. It continues without worry. Nature can show us how to live if we spend time with it – watching and listening.
