Biography

                                                   

Ali Larock

Biography

         Ali LaRock is a visual artist living in Bismarck, North Dakota.  She received her B.F.A. in painting from Minnesota State University, Moorhead in 1998 and works in the areas of painting, drawing, and mixed media. Ali grew up in New Town, North Dakota. 

          Ali has been exhibiting her artwork around the United States for the last 20 years. She is a founding and active member of the Bismarck Downtown Artist Cooperative, where much of her art is on display.   Her work can also be found at the Toasted Frog in Bismarck and the Hotel Donaldson in Fargo. 

 In addition to creating and exhibiting her art Ali enjoys teaching art through various artist in residence opportunities throughout the area in local elementary schools and has partnered and worked with organizations such as the North Dakota Council on the Arts, International Music Camp, Northern Plains Dance, and Sleepy Hollow Summer Theatre and Art.

Ali also offers group art lessons, art parties, and is available for live painting performances and commissions

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Artist Statement

         The images in this exhibit are directly inspired from music and poetry. I love words and sounds and how they combine together to create experiences for people. I feel like it is almost as if music and poetry become layers inside the person reading or listening to it. Whether read silently, spoken, sung, or performed, words and music leave impressions in us.  I think most adults can relate to hearing a song from their youth on the radio on how that instantly takes them back to those feelings and experiences of the time. It is as if we have a soundtrack layered within us for different stages of our lives. And then some songs and poems are timeless, things we return to time and time again perhaps for different reasons or with new discoveries.

         This group of paintings are created from the music and poems that have left the biggest impression on me this recent stage of my life. It was hard to choose and there are hundreds more.  The words and music they are inspired from vary as do my approaches to this body of work. In some paintings you many see imagery that directly relates to the lyrics and words; yet in other images it is the feelings I get from these art forms that I wanted to convey and express.

I have included a “playlist” for viewers should they like to check out and support these artists.  Viewers should feel free to bring earbuds and may sit and listen to the songs or read the poems as they view the work. 

         There are many layers that exists in my work; images and issues with adult complexity that are depicted with a child-like simplicity, actual layers I create through collage and layers of paint, and layers of response from the music and poetry I have surrounded myself with.  With this body of work I hope to challenge the people who view my work to see and feel things from multiple perspectives and to look past the surface to become more curious about themselves and the world around them.

The images in this exhibit are directly inspired from music and poetry. I love words and sounds and how they combine together to create experiences for people. I feel like it is almost as if music and poetry become layers inside the person reading or listening to it. Whether read silently, spoken, sung, or performed, words and music leave impressions in us.  I think most adults can relate to hearing a song from their youth on the radio on how that instantly takes them back to those feelings and experiences of the time. It is as if we have a soundtrack layered within us for different stages of our lives. And then some songs and poems are timeless, things we return to time and time again perhaps for different reasons or with new discoveries.

          This group of paintings are created from the music and poems that have left the biggest impression on me this recent stage of my life. It was hard to choose and there are hundreds more.  The words and music they are inspired from vary as do my approaches to this body of work. In some paintings you many see imagery that directly relates to the lyrics and words; yet in other images it is the feelings I get from these art forms that I wanted to convey and express.

I have included a “playlist” for viewers should they like to check out and support these artists.  Viewers should feel free to bring earbuds and may sit and listen to the songs or read the poems as they view the work. 

          There are many layers that exists in my work; images and issues with adult complexity that are depicted with a child-like simplicity, actual layers I create through collage and layers of paint, and layers of response from the music and poetry I have surrounded myself with.  With this body of work I hope to challenge the people who view my work to see and feel things from multiple perspectives and to look past the surface to become more curious about themselves and the world around them.

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Gretchen Bederman

Biography

          I’ve been making and exhibiting my artwork for as long as I can remember. It’s just the way I am. It’s my passion and my calling. Currently my artwork can be

seen regularly at Bismarck Downtown Artist Cooperative, Toasted Frog Bismarck, Hotel Donaldson Fargo, and on my website gretchenbederman.com.

I was born and raised in Houston, Texas. From there I traveled a lot and lived in

Austin, San Francisco, Chicago, Florence, Milan, and Santa Fe before moving to

Mandan where I have lived off and on for forty years. I graduated from Minnesota

State University, Moorhead with a BFA, and the University of North Dakota with a

MFA. I taught art with the North Dakota Council on the Arts among other venues,

as well as, ten years at Dawson Community College.

 

Artist Statement

          For our exhibit, The Layers Within, I am showing small paintings with a variety of imagery in encaustic and on clay. I’m thinking of the layers as process. Encaustic has layers of fragrant beeswax and pigment infused with heat. Ceramic is of clay that comes from the earth wet and malleable shaped and painted then vitrified to fruition by fire. Both mediums are relatively fragile, yet long lasting. My images are varied; some of my favorite subjects are women, horses, bowls, spirals, flowers, birds and rivers. For me, these subjects are energized, yet quiet and easy going.

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