My most recent work is landscape painting that has in it the duality of two places. They Interface significant locations and moments of my far past to specific locations in my more recent past. Landscape painting for me is about my interaction with a particular place. Interrelating with a landscape is not only key to my process but it informs me. It direct and drives form, color, and compositions as significant to the specific location I am working with. I often find or recalculate my ideas and questions as my time in that space develops. What drives my process are questions. The most significant thing art can do in [a given society] is allow people to ask important questions. In a very broad sense art has been a vehicle for artists to ask big questions and make imperative statements. Statements that help us rethink who we are. It is not important to me to be original in my art. What matters is that I am authentic. But what is the authentic me? Landscape painting for me at this time is being used to engage this question that seems to be elusive and change with time.

My drawings correspond to a style which I call "composite photorealism" or "imaginative photorealism." Instead of drawing from a single source photo as other photorealistic artists do, I draw from a multitude of photographs integrated into what I consider a more creative, imaginative, and personal image, thus permitting photorealism to merge freely with the imagination. I develop my drawings through a series of increasingly organized drafts, and I engage in an intensive process of producing and selecting photographs for my drawings, and these photographs impart veracity and "believability" to the imagined realities I create. Although my photographs could stand by themselves as artworks, I use them as a means to an end -- the finished drawing itself. I place an emphasis on time-intensive craft in my work because I'm most gratified by such technical and psychological challenges.
Currently, I'm exploring the theme of storytelling, narration, and drawing from literature. I'm passionate about Franz Kafka's literature, and I'm working on a series of drawings based on Kafka's stories. Thus, the themes in my work overlap with Kafkan themes, which explore family relationships, the relationship of the artist to society, sickness, death, and the navigation of systems of power and bureaucracy.

In 2006, Laura visited Alaska where she experienced icebergs and glaciers for the first time. These beautiful, monumental and pristine natural wonders have since become the inspiration for her artwork. She has continued her research by participating in a 15-day expedition to the east coast of Greenland in 2009. Laura also researched the impact our culture has on these Arctic landscapes. She participated in a seminar concerning Science and Policy of Global Environment Change at the University of Minnesota. She has extended her interest into society's mass consumption of natural resources, and its effect that it has on icebergs and glaciers. Laura's intention is to teach us how we might see the causes and consequences climate change has on our environment

At the heart of my artwork is an examination of the breakdown of our connections with the natural world--with natural rhythms, our environment, our food, even with our bodies. Our experience of nature has been tamed and simplified, and also increasingly mediated by man-made objects that serve to create barriers between ourselves and our
experiences of the world. In my work I use imagery from nature to explore this retreat from the natural world, and to question and strengthen my own connection back to nature.

Using a wide range of media and the traditional road trip as a point of origin, Chad Rutter addresses places and symbols of the contemporary American landscape (both physical and ideological, epic and banal) with an eye toward history. Through texts, drawings and paintings, photo composites, wooden structures and appropriated artifacts he explores the
rhetoric of nation building and the culture of its preservation.

My creative research examines the production of leisure space, more specifically in the creation of artificial, idealized versions of reality. Encouraged by imaginative childhood memories and recent experiences as an amusement park employee, I create exaggerated fantasy worlds of contemplation and escape.

Drawing inspiration from carnivals, theme-parks, cartoons, children's books and playgrounds, these large-scale multimedia scenarios teeter the boundary between alluring and menacing. I utilize recognizable imagery, color, light and audio interactivity to spark the imagination.

My most recent installation, The Lonely Tree, is an immersive three-dimensional scenario inspired by cartoon landscapes. I combine sculpture and interactive technologies to promote exploration and discovery. Characters and events respond to touch, sometimes unexpectedly, with sound, scent and motion. By stimulating a variety of senses, I facilitate a new reality to this obviously falsified world.

Two of my most recent collaborations, Cake Celebration and the FantaShanty, are transcendent rooms encrusted from floor to ceiling by handmade sculpture and found objects. These spaces become sugar coated false realities saturated with color, texture and detail designed to over-stimulate the senses.

Always thinking of the idea of function, I create hand-built and wheel-thrown works that are designed to enhance our cooking, eating and gathering experiences. I am interested in our relationship with food and how we regard the space of the kitchen. Lately I have been focusing on the still life and how objects and arrangements create a narrative of our experiences in the heart of the home and beyond. I'm interested in how our perceptions of history, family and identity can be shaped here. My own experiences growing up in the South and the rituals and traditions in which I was taught, and observed, rendered that space for me as a place of magic, metaphor and sorrow.

How many universes are we living in? How many dimensions are there in this universe? Is there a forth, even a fifth dimension? Is there a way to see what's outside "reality"? Is cyberspace a real "space"? Does time exist in cyberspace? If yes, does it in sync with the time in "reality"? If not, what time is it? Is time real, or it is completely an illusion? If we cannot use time to measure movement, what else can we use? Is dream real, a replay, another universe, or Déjà vu?

"Qian Kun", an ancient Chinese cosmology concept, refers to "heaven and earth", "male and female", or "this universe". In Chinese astrology, there are five fundamental elements ("Wu Xing"): Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. These are five "changing states of being", five "permutations" or five "metamorphoses of being". Another important part of Chinese astrology is the cycle of the twelve Zodiac animal signs or Earthly Branches. They are in order as follows: the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, ram, monkey, rooster, dog, and boar. Five elements multiplied by twelve signs equals sixty years of a life cycle, and then it replays.

What divides life cycles? What divides reality and dream? What divides heaven and earth? Is it time? How can time divide space, how can time be measured? What does a light year measure: distance, or illusion? Can we put a universe in a single atom? Can we explain the universe in a nutshell?

Can these questions be answered by cosmology, astrology, metaphysics, or dream? Can geometry; mathematics; computer programs, or art reveal the boundary? Can we live by order, discipline, communication, or faith?

jessicateckemeyer.com
http://vimeo.com/9257249

"Between Life and Death", 2009, Installation view, bathtub, milky
liquid, electronics, video, rear-projection screen.
A clawfoot bathtub is filled with a milky liquid. Air bubbles rising from
an unseen source interrupt the smooth surface randomly a few times a
minute. Above the tub, video featuring Moon Jellyfish float slowly in and
out of view.

"Portal I", 2010, video, acrylic, paint, wood, 16" x 16" x 6.5"
"Portal I" manipulates the viewing experience. The viewer peers like a
voyeur through a peephole to reveal video of a fluther of Moon Jellyfish.
The jellyfish move about in a slow, sensual matter. These alien-like
creatures appear fragile, but have venomous tentacles. The videos serve as
metaphors of strength and beauty.

"Abstracted Reality", 2009, video, balloons, silk, metal 46" x 46"
x 23".
Within a silk dome, pearl balloons are used to abstract the projected
imagery. The translucent nature of the materials allows the video to
permeate all sides.

The physical spaces we encounter are invested with symbolism and metaphor and are thus much enriched for this interplay between fantasy and reality -
a process of enrichment of place that also enriches self,
and offers to all who encounter a rich place to live 'creatively'. ~Sarah Menin

Through sculptures and video installations, my work explores the ways humans connect to the physical world. Our culture places a significant emphasis on speed, layering of information and the complexity in the everyday. These cultural trends cause me to question the contemporary landscape and structure. In response, I create unexpected environments that slow the viewer to give them opportunity for introspection, as well as meditation.

The imagery and materials explore themes of attraction, repulsion, fragility, sensuality and abstraction. The work is monochromatic, quiet and intimate. By placing a clawfoot bathtub in the gallery and inflated structures in the landscape, the re-contextualization offer encounters distinctly separate from reality. I investigate our relationship, not only to objects, but also to animals. My process often involves observing and shooting video of animals in captivity, particularly aquatic life. I am drawn to the translucent, gelatinous body of the jellyfish and the elastic, shape-shifting body of the octopus. Both creatures have alien-like qualities that are activated through sensual movement. As a whole, the work is the catalyst for questioning perception of objects, places and encounters.

Teach Me Your Language
wood, paint, chalk
2009

Sign is placed in public area, sidewalk, empty lot, I wait for
voluntary language teachers; has been used solely in the Cedar-
Riverside neighborhood. Project grew out of my realization that I was
often around Somalis (in the University/ Cedar-Riverside neighborhood
and my home) but did not know how to say anything in Somali. Has been
successful in engaging Somali residents in teaching and conversation.

Conversation Tent
10' diameter, 4'-6' high, canvas, pvc, rope, wood
2009

Designed to be set up easily indoors or out by a group of people to
create a space for conversation. Comes with visual instructions on set
up procedure. Users work together to decipher instructions and set
tent up.
Also has title card that reads,
"Use this tent for conversations, one on one or with groups. Talk
about whatever you wish but undertake the activity with intention and
thoughtfulness."

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I.C.E. Expedition
Kick sled, tent, flags
February 14-15, 2009
Wood, steel, canvas, cord, paint, found skis, pvc

I consider my main medium to be conversation. I use my art as a method and means for pursuing my curiosity about the world and interest in people. I am inspired by Allan Kaprow's idea of a "lifelike art" over an "artlike art". Some consistent themes to what I explore: language, overlooked places, creating place, conversations with people I don't
normally get to talk to and the expansion of what art can be. I believe that art can provide a service and can function as a possible guide for how to live in the world.

Bart Vargas is from Bellevue, Nebraska. For over a decade, he has been exploring the artistic potential of trash and recyclable materials. Using pattern, repetition and form, he builds paintings, sculptures, and installations that blur the identity of these everyday materials, transforming them into playful, thought-provoking objects. Vargas wants his creations to act as artifacts and evidence of the early 21st century, and hopes to do so by using materials that are no longer needed or valued in an era of limited resources and extraordinary consumption and waste.

Vargas received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Nebraska at Omaha in 2007, and is currently attending the graduate sculpture program at the University of Minnesota, in Minneapolis. Vargas has exhibited nationally, and his work can be found in many private, public and corporate collections throughout the United States, Europe and Asia.

the middlewest & otherwise
color woodcut
39"x52"
2009

mega folk fauna & the death of mammoths
woodcut and lithograph
30"x36"
2010

Human paradise in the desertlands
color woodcut
23"x35"
2010

My images and texts emphasize the growing disconnect between Americans and the land, the physical shaping of the land with highly specialized earth manipulating machines, and also the quirky human objects and curiosities of the landscape that highlight human presence on the earth's surface. Travel, personal experience, and direct observation inform the work. I relate my perceptual encounters in the landscape to art histories, literary narratives, and histories of humanity in the western world.

A current body of work is titled Monuments, Miracles, & Mega Folk Fauna. These woodcuts and lithographs conglomerate human anomalies along the land into fabricated epic landscape scenes of activity and guilty pleasure. By emphasizing the disturbing intricacies of our daily landscapes, these scenes arouse satirical questions of the role of the human animal and its omnipotent grasp over the earth and its resources.

Human paradise in the desertlands depicts an Acadia of human pleasure in the arid Mojave Desert region of California's Central Valley. Fiberglass folk fauna & the death of mammoths considers the overkill extinction theory of late Pleistocene mega fauns in relation to their fiberglass monuments in South Dakota. The land diorama lures the natural history museum outdoors to iterate the man-taming of nature where no size is too large and no beast is too strong.