Artist
Interviews
Dear Roxie Curtis,
The
importance of primary source materials is very great. Without them we would never know anything for
sure! Primary source materials are
materials like a photograph of John Bozeman.
A painting of John Bozeman would not be because it is not the real
thing. It would not be how we really
looked. Primary source materials have a
big use and always will.
Sincerely,
Karenna
Kurt Seyfarth:
Woodcarver of Ducks
By Steve Seyfarth
Kurt Seyfarth was born on December 21, 1964 in La Grange, Illinois.
He grew up in Oak Brook, IL with two brothers, one sister and a
dog. His family now is a wife, two sons and a dog. Kurt was
educated not knowing that he was dyslexic. He graduated from the University of Kansas with a Bachelor of Science degree
in Cellular Biology. His best teacher was his histology professor who
found out that he had dyslexia.
Kurt is a woodcarver who loves to carve ducks. He learned how to carve in
Boy Scout summer camp when he was 12 or 13. He was too preoccupied with
other things and didn’t do the woodcarving activity until the last
second. So he didn’t get the merit badge for woodcarving because he
couldn’t finish the project. He was so frustrated with himself over
this that he taught himself to carve one he got home from camp. He
started to carve more and more because he liked it so much. Kurt is
inspired by nature when he carves. He loves to carve ducks; he carves
ducks out of pine and all other sorts of wood. He gives them to friends
and family.
Kurt can’t suggest a project because carving is too dangerous for school
because it takes chisels, knives, wood saws and it takes a very long time and
makes a mess from wood shavings. Kurt’s art is very detailed,
life-like and colorful. It can show you what the real ducks look
like. His art makes you feel like you want to know how to make them
yourself.
Al Kesselheim
By Doug B.
Al
was born in 1956 in Turkey.
His family liked trips and camping. His family is made up of two boys and
one girl. They are adventurous. Al went to college. His
favorite teacher is Mr. Clark. He is a writer. Al got interested in
writing from books.
Al loves writing. He trained himself. He works at home.
Edward Abbey, Mary Alberg and Wallace Stegner inspired him. His writing is in magazines and
books. He gets his ideas from nature. He uses paper, pencils and
computers.
Al thinks we should write a book. First person writes a paragraph.
The second person writes a paragraph. They add onto each other’s
stories. That’s what we should do.
June Stone
By Kaj
June
Stone was born on August 31, 1922 in Duluth,
Minnesota. She was the
oldest in her family. June Stone had a younger brother and a younger
sister. But unfortunately her sister died. Her brother, Thomas,
lives on in Florida.
She did charcoal, pencil and watercolor painting.
June Stone was not trained in college. She learned to do her art after
she retired at the age of 63 and moved to North Carolina. Another question is
what inspired her in art. The person was Dixie Dugan. She mostly
always does a still life; that’s where she gets her ideas. June
showed her work at art shows. She uses pencil, charcoal, and watercolors.
A suggestion that June Stone had for a class art project is to draw a still
life and then paint it with watercolors.
Greg
Tsontakis-Mally
By Sonny
Greg
Tsontakis-Mally is my uncle on my mom’s
side. He was born September 10, 1949 in Columbia, South Carolina.
His family was large like mine. There were ten kids, very chaotic.
His family is now scattered everywhere. He has two Master’s degrees
and a BFA in art; he focused mainly on painting. His form of art is
watercolor in large format. He has just always been into art.
He was trained at St.
John’s University.
He paints in his studio. He was inspired by Japanese photographers.
You can find his pieces in art galleries in New York. He gets his ideas from nudes
and seascapes. The materials he uses are watercolor paper,
watercolor paint and he recently started suing charcoal. But he mainly
uses watercolor stuff.
His suggested project would be still life. He suggests we draw what we
see. We would need watercolor paper, pencils and watercolor paint. The
steps would be to sit down, look around and see how the object would fit on the
paper, keeping in mind foreground, middle ground and background. Then
start a masterpiece.
Rytis
Rackauscas
By Sam Phillips
Rytis Rackauscas was born
in 1969 on July 4th. He was born in Kaunas, Lithuania.
He has two brothers. He is the middle child. His mom and dad live
in Lithuania.
He went to high school and college (drama school). He is a director of
film. Rytis is a theater director. He
went to directing school. He does his art at the theater. Valentinos Masabsk has inspired Rytis to direct plays. He usually shows his art at
the fairgrounds. He usually gets his ideas from everywhere and from
dreams. Rytis usually uses light, props,
clothing, people, director, etc. That is a little bit of Rytis’ job. Rytis
suggested a play. We would need people, costumes, light, director,
etc. And that is my report on Rytis.
Jarod
Eastman
By Emilie
My
artist is Jarod Eastman. He was born in Lansing, Michigan.
He has a mom and a dad and now he is married. When he went to school he
got his B.S. in Geology. He taught himself how to do art. Jarod does a type of art called pop-surrealism. His
mom was the one who inspired him in art. Jarod
trained himself to do art. He does most of his art in his kitchen.
He was inspired by his mom and the book called “Where the Wild Things
Are.” He shows his art on the Internet and in galleries. When
he’s thinking of an idea he usually puts on some music.
That’s how he gets his ideas. Some of the basic materials he uses
are acrylic paint and a canvas. If Jarod can
teach himself how to do art then anyone can. Mr. Eastman suggested a
project we could do. It would be a painting of a rhino. The
materials we would need would be paint, canvas board and water. The steps
would be: first you would need to do your research, second you would need to
sketch out your design and third you need to transfer your design to the
canvas. Lastly, but not least you would need to start painting. I
think Jarod Eastman is a very interesting and
talented artist.
Christine Joy
By Karenna
I
interviewed Christine Joy. She weaves baskets as an art. Christine
was born in 1952. She was born in Ithaca New York, and then moved to Canadalgua
New York.
Her family is quiet and well behaved. She has two brothers and one
sister. Today Christine is married to Al Dunayer.
They have two children Lily and Jake. Christine has always been
interested in art.
Christine went to college at Rochester Institute of Art. This is where
she learned how to weave baskets. She took a class from Max Lenderman. Max Lenderman is
one of her old favorite teachers. Christine got her Bachelor’s
degree in fine arts. Later she received her Master’s degree in art
therapy. Now, she does her art in her back yard in a little studio.
Christine showed her art at 13 Moons Gallery which is in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Most of her ideas come from books, poems, magazines, nature or the human
body. Christine collects her own willow. She thinks that uses about
half a pick up load full in a year!
Christine thinks that our class should make a star for a project that uses
willow. For materials, we would need willow, willow clippers, drill,
screws, and your hands. The steps that we would follow are:
1. Go get willow
2. Create star pattern
3. Cut willow to right size
4. Drill holes in end of willow
5. Screw willow together in star pattern
6. Paint if you want
Christine’s baskets are wonderfully beautiful. I hope that when I
get older I will be able to weave just like her!
Tammy Young
By Theo
Tammy
Young was born on Oct. 8th, 1965. She was born in Bozeman, Montana.
Tammy Young was born into a nice family. Her dad was in the Navy.
So she had to move a lot. Now she’s married and has a daughter who
is in college at B.Y.U. and she is still there. At M.S.U., Tammy studied
Fine Arts with Mike Peed. Finally, her studies paid off. Tammy
Young was an artist! She is mostly a potter but still does other
things. She enjoys hiking with her family and other outdoor
activities. Tammy Young has always been an artist.
Here is a description of the art Tammy Young does. Tammy Young was
trained to do fine arts at M.S.U. Tammy Young does her art behind her house
in her studio. Her favorite artist is Paul Gauguin. Her art is
shown in art shows all across the West. She gets her ideas from her
head. Clay, paint, and other tools are just some of the materials she
uses. Tammy Young’s art is beautiful.
If Tammy Young would suggest a project, she would say to make cookie jarheads.
Rick
By Kyle F.
Rick’s
history started in 1943, in Bozeman.
His house was located on North Tracy.
Now Rick’s family lives in Michigan.
Now Rick lives on Silver Maple
Drive and gets his ideas from his garden and the
antique car store. He gets his inspiration from his mom. That was
Rick’s history.
Rick does his work in a messy room in his house. Rick was inspired by
Rembrandt. Rick sometimes sells his art and sometimes shows his art at
the fair. Rick gets his ideas from his garden, cars, birds, people,
landscaping, landforms, and photographs. His materials are paint,
paintbrushes, stencils, and canvas.
Rick has suggested a great project--Christmas cards. The materials would
be pictures of bells, ribbons, churches, cardinals, deer (doe and buck),
snowflakes, snow covered mountains and trees, icicles, elk in the forest,
snowmen, snow forest, snow covered hills, and
candles. The steps are to get 5 photographs, then get a piece of
construction paper. Next get a light pencil and do a rough picture of all
of them. Then get a piece of fine paper and draw a scene with your
pictures, then make sure you have a space for your note. Then write your
letter but do not write the person’s name and then give it to your
teacher and then have your teacher make 12 copies.
Hedvig Flowers
By Paige
Hedvig Flowers was born in the year of 1956 in Veyo, Sweden. She has three sisters
and one brother. Hedvig is an artist. Her
brother is a blacksmith, and her sisters are business people. They live
all over. She has always been interested in art. Her best teachers
were her 5th grade teacher and one of her MSU teachers. Hedvig studied in Missoula,
went to MSU, and graduated with a BFA. She is a painter now and has been
for a long time.
Hedvig is a well-known artist in Bozeman. She works in her studio at her
house. She shows her work in many places, like Bozeman,
Sliver Gate, Alaska, and Missoula. The artists that have
inspired her are Monet, Van Gogh, Da Vinci,
Michelangelo and Georgia O’Keefe. Hedvig
also gets inspiration from the outdoors. I think her art is beautiful!
I asked Hedvig to suggest a project for my class and
this is what she came up with. She told the materials we need to do the
project are acrylic paint, canvas, and your eyes. These are the steps we
need to do to paint a fall picture;
1. Look outside at the leaves
2. Draw the leaves
3. Paint from light to dark.
I think it sounds like fun! I had a great time talking to Hedvig!
My Artist Brigit Lek
By Uri
She was born in Rome, Italy 1963 with 8 kids in her
family and all very connected. They all reared a lot. Brigit went
to college at UCLA and a Master’s from New York College,
her favorite teacher was Raselsede.
She teaches at college--MSU. And writes at home.
She got inspired from the Latin American rites. You can find her books at
bookstores.
Write a book about something you like. To write it use
a computer, paper and a pen. First brainstorm, read a book about it, then
write.
Ona Meyer
By Gabriel Chaikin
Ona Meyer was born in Colorado
Springs, Colorado.
Her family grew up like Bohemians, which means hippies. Her family now is
the same as before. Her best teacher in college was Lynn Minns. She was with her for about four years.
Ona was trained to do pottery in Casper, Wyoming.
She does her art in Bozeman,
Montana. She does her art
at home. Now she is planning to make a business selling pottery.
She was inspired to do art from Frida Kahlo who is a Mexican artist. Ona
shows her work at the Emerson
Cultural Center
and at some art galleries. She also shows her work at Wild Joe’s
and Oak Street Natural Market. Some of the materials she uses are paint,
carving tools, water and porcelain which is clay that
is pure white. Pottery sounds fun. The project that she suggested
to do for my class is to make pinch pots. First, make a ball out of
clay. Then stick your thumb in the middle of the ball. Next pinch
it around until it looks like a bowl.
My Interview with Bruce Park
By Madi
Bruce was born in 1955 in Sacramento,
California. He has one
brother who is four years older and one sister who is two years younger.
Now, he has one son and one daughter who are both going to MSU. He went
to Oakland, California; his best teachers were Bob
Gordon, his high school art teacher, and Ralph Borge,
his college professor. Bruce went through seven years of college and got
two degrees, one a BFA in drawing and the other a MFA (Master’s in Fine
Art) in painting. He is an oil painting and chalk pastel artist.
Bruce never stopped doing art like most people in high school. “I
guess I was just born weird” he joked.
Bruce was trained in college to draw people and animals. He mostly does
his art in a studio up on the top floor of his house. He loves Joseph
Raphael and Claude Money. He does a lot of his art in Bozeman
but also in other places like Billings, Montana, Big Fork, Montana. Missoula, Montana,
Portland, Oregon,
Sun Valley, Idaho,
and Charlotte, North Carolina. He uses chalk
pastels on paper and oil pastels on canvas.
Bruce suggested doing a landscaping picture or maybe even
a pastel picture with lots of clouds. We would need either chalk pastels
or oil paints. First of all you would need to find a landscaping picture
that you like and then decide what kind of light it has and the season it is
in.
Ritchie Boyd
By Shelby
The history of Ritchie Boyd started Oct. 21 1956 in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Ritchie’s family was all different some of them did sports, instruments
and is very humorous. His family like now one of his sisters died, his
brother lives in Alaska,
and they all do different things. Ritchie went to school at Burbank and
the university. He loved execution in math, science, history
and air brush. Ritchie got interested in art in elementary and college.
Ritchie has an artistic preference, it’s air
brush. He trained himself by practicing. He does his art in his
basement in a little area. M. C. Escher, Leonardo Da
Vinci, and Vincent Van Gogh inspired his art. Ritchie doesn’t like
to show his artwork. Ritchie gets his ideas from wildlife. The
materials he uses are water, water paints, acrylic, paper, fabrics, and shirts.
A project that we can do in class can be a Christmas tree. He uses water,
water paints, acrylic, paper, fabrics, and shirts. In order to make a
Christmas tree you would need a stencil, paper, paints, airbrush, water, and a
picture. First, you make a stencil. Next, get the paints that you
are going to use like green, orange, yellow, blue, red, and purple. Then
put the water in the paint. Then pull back the lever on the airbrush to
make it spray on the stencil. Then you will get a clean line. Last,
take the stencil off and clean your airbrush.
Mitch
Billis
By Kyle B.
Mitch
Billis was born in Exeter, New Hampshire
in 1962. There were six people in his family. He had one brother,
two sisters, himself, and a father and mother. His family grew up in the
countryside. His father was a teacher and artist. His mother was a
teacher and was very good a drawing.
Now his dad is full time artist, one of his sisters is an artist and his mother
is retired. Mitch spent four years as an apprentice. He studied in Italy and owns his own bronze Foundry called
Northwest Art Casting at Bear
Canyon exit. Mitch
studied in Italy and Colorado. Bruno
and Paul Luccesi were his best teachers. Mitch
is a sculptor. How he became interested in art is he went to a lot of art
shows at the age of 12 or 13 with his dad.
Mitch was trained in Colorado, Kalispell and Italy.
Mitch does his art at the bronze foundry and at his house. The people
that inspired him were Michelangelo, Rodin and Paul
and Bruno Luccesi. Mitch shows his art in Montana, Colorado, Maine and South
Carolina. Mitch gets his ideas from his like of
children and reptiles. The materials he uses are wax, clay and bronze.
Mitch has some ideas we could do with all the fifth graders. Depending on the time and budget. The materials
we’ll need are cardboard dipped in wax and soft modeling clay.
Contact Mitch and determine a project and time frame. Mitch is a great
friend and person.
Mellie Parks
By Hannah
Hi,
my name is Hannah. I did report on Mellie
Parks. If you need a drink better you get one. Well let’s get
on with it! Mellie was born in June 4,
1987. She has two parents and an older brother. Her family is
oriented. Her favorite teacher is Mrs. Babcock. Mellie
murals and her parents got her interested.
Now let’s talk about art. She was trained for art by her
parents. She does her art in family room. She gets inspired by
graffiti. She shows her art in contests. She gets her ideas from
nature.
She thinks for a project we should do framing. Get some wood and acrylics
and you’re ready to go. First prime wood with
white paint. Then come up with a theme, then draw it on, then
paint.
Mardella
Brock
By Courtney
Mardella Brock was born September 1, 1932. She
was born in North Dakota and moved to Bozeman quickly.
The family she grew up with was amazing! Mardella
was the oldest of 14 children! Now Mardella has
three children and three grandchildren. Mardella
has a B.S. (Bachelor of Science) of Elementary Ed. Mardella
thought the children in her pottery class are her best teachers with their incredible
ideas. In high school she claimed that her Math teacher was her best
teacher. Usually the art she does is hard; the people she teaches say
it’s hard, but she’s used to it now. Mardella
got interested in art when she was in a market and she wondered how to do
it. So she began taking lessons, and now she’s one artistic
potter! That’s pretty much the history of Mardella
but of course there’s more to come!
Mardella is trained her in Bozeman
at the Ketterer
Art Center.
Mardella does her unbelievable pottery in a building
in the back of her and her husband’s home. The people who inspired
her are her teachers. Mardella shows her
artwork at Ace Hardware and in her studio. She got her ideas mostly from
the world around her. Mardella uses clay, glazes,
many chemicals, a wheel, a slab, a roller, her hands and a little something she
calls stuff and junk. Mardella is well known
for her pottery.
Mardella suggest that Mrs. Babcock’s class
should do a cornucopia. The materials we would need to use are a rolling
pin, clay and a canvas. The important steps we would need to do are:
first we would roll the clay flat and put it into a cornucopia! This is
an interview done on one artistic potter!
Chelsea Smith
By Gunnar
This is some history about Chelsea Smith the artist that I interviewed.
She was born in 1957 in Galesburg,
Illinois. Her family was
very traditional. Now her family is very humorous. She learned how
to work with pottery and paint in college from her teacher Mr. Krown. She started doing art because she liked her
teachers.
Chelsea is a
potter. She likes to do her art in her studio or outside. Van Gogh
is someone who inspired her to do art. Chelsea likes to show her art in her
studio. She gets a lot of her ideas from going outside and looking
around. Chelsea
is a great artist.
Chelsea
suggested we should make a bird bath. The materials is
clay and glaze. The first step is make a
bowl. Second step is make a stand. Third
step is put the stand under the bowl. Fourth step is decorate.
Those are some facts about Chelsea Smith.
Salal
McGee
By Cayley
Salal McGee was born on October 13, 1972 in Sechelt, British Columbia. As she grew up, she
lived with her mom and her younger sister. Now she lives with her
husband, Michael McGee and their two kids Emilie who
is ten, and Abby, who is five. When she was growing up she went to art
school at Houghton. Her favorite teacher was her ceramics
professor. Now she is a ceramicist. She first got interested in art
because her mom was an artist. With the help of these people, Salal became an artist.
Salal met a lot of people who inspired her. The
people that inspired her the most were her mom and Bobbie Car, an artist who
lived across the street from her. Salal does
her work at home now and is very happy. She shows her art in stores and
other houses. Her ideas come from old unusable things. She uses
mainly just the object and creates a piece from that. It must be fun.
She thinks that a possible project we could do is to do a manipulation of an
old object. All we would need is the object and paint. The only
things we would have to do is to find the object, prep
it, design and transform it. I think this would be fun and easy.
Marypat
Zitzer
By Baylee S.
Marypat is 51 years old and she was born in Toledo, Ohio
on June 25th 1955. Marypat had 5 brothers and 3
sisters. She went to college at UW and MSU. Marypat
has a lot of birthdays to remember!
Marypat’s type of art is freelance. She
got started in art by making things for fun! She has had no formal
training. Marypat does all her work at her
house. She works for herself but she shows it at stores and the
occasional gallery. Marypat gets all her ideas
from books, people, and the world. The materials that Marypat
uses are: pencils, paint and pastels. Marypat
is a talented person!
Marypat suggests what the class can do, we could do a
quilt! The materials we’ll use are: a sewing machine, fabric and
yarn. The steps are sew the fabric together, tie
the layers together, last we do the edges. Marypat
Zitzer is a great artist! J
Gennie
DeWeese
By Rylea
Gennie DeWeese was born in
1921 in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota.
She was the youngest with three older sisters. Now she has five children
and a few grandchildren. She went to Ohio State University where she earned her teaching
degree and her B.F.A. (Bachelor of Fine Arts). Also at Ohio State
her favorite teacher was Hoyte Sherman. The
type of art she does is landscape and abstract. She did a lot when she
was a kid. She got really interested in it.
She was trained at Ohio
State and she does her
art in her studio where she lives. Matisse, a famous artist, was her
inspiration. She shows her art in Kansas City
and Billings.
She gets her ideas by painting what she sees not what a person thinks.
The materials she uses are pigment stick, chalk, canvas and dowels. One
of her favorite sayings is, sign, shape, position, that helps her when she
paints. A suggested project would be to paint on scrolls. The steps
for this project are get canvas, sketch, color and
roll it color side out. Let the piece dry. Clamp on dowels and then
hang. I have had a great experience.
Christopher Livingston
By Sophie
Christopher
Livingston is an architect/teacher. He was born November 20, 1961, in Manchester, CT.
When he was growing up he had a mom, a dad and three sisters. His family
now is made up of a wife and two daughters. Chris studied at MSU, and
went to Austin, TX for his graduate degree. His best
teachers were Charles Moore, Guyten Stubbs, and Bob Mugerauer. Christopher was always interested in being
a teacher and being an architect since he was a little child. Chris
really loves what he does.
Mr. Livingston was trained to be an architect at MSU and the University of Texas.
He does most of his work at MSU, but sometimes he does it at 1111 Design Studio
(better known as my house). Chris is also a teacher, so he shows his work
to his students and the buildings he designs. Chris was inspired by a
South American man by the name of Oscar Neimeyer, who
was an architect in South America. Chris
mostly gets his ideas from sites that he sees and sometimes from his
clients. He uses simple items and easily found materials.
Chris thinks that a good class project would be to make bird houses out of
found materials. All we would need to do this project would be things
that we find around town that are not being used. I think that we should
do it. That was my interview with Christopher Livingston, and it was very
educational.
Loretta Domaszewski
Loretta was born in 1957 in Portchester New York.
Loretta’s parents spoke Polish. Loretta’s dad was from Poland.
Loretta’s father could play a lot of instruments such as the trumpet,
violin, mandolin, and piano. Loretta went to a museum college.
Loretta has a teacher’s certification from Brandeis University.
That is part of Loretta’s life.
Loretta learned most of her art from Brandeis
University. Loretta
does most of her work outside and in her studio. Loretta was inspired by
her father and famous artists. She shows most of her work in galleries
and schools. That is what Loretta is doing now! Loretta is already
helping our class.
