Artists at the Carnegie

Educated in Illinois and Japan, Bradley Coulter worked as a graphic designer, fine press printer, and design educator in Seattle, Washington for 10 years before returning to the Midwest to pursue graduate studies, receiving MA and MFA degrees in Design from the University of Iowa. He is currently a Professor of Graphic Design and Typography at Minnesota State University, Mankato. He has presented on type history, type design, and the intersection of typography and literary theory, served as an editor for respected journals, and shown his design work in juried exhibitions across the U.S. and internationally. His research is focused on exploring the psychological components of type design and use, and integrating those findings into a cognitive application of type to the page and the screen.

For more than thirty years I've been fortunate enough to lease a studio in such a revered and historic art space that is the Carnegie Art Center. In all those years I've moved homes and changed jobs but was able to keep this anchor of creativity throughout, providing a valued consistency of space in which to pursue and exhibit my expressive endeavors. Over the years the art that I've practiced here has been varied but if pressed I would respond that, above all, I am a printmaker. My degrees, a BFA and MA, both from Minnesota State University, Mankato are in printmaking and, as of writing this, most projects I am currently undertaking in the studio are landscape monotypes. Photography is also of great interest to me and I've even turned my camera to the Carnegie on occasion making it not only a place to make art but the art itself. Trying to further describe what this space means to me is difficult because words just feel inadequate and can't convey convincingly the depth of my gratitude for my tenure here.

I build models of merchant sailing ships. The models are constructed of wood, with components of pewter, steel, copper, and brass. The rigging is made of silk suture, linen line, and brass chain. I have been building model ships since 1981, at various scales, of the following vessels:

• I began with the Sluldelev Ship, a single-masted Viking ship, based on an actual wreck, dating from 1000 AD. This model is in a private collection.

• The “Scottish Maid” is a 2-mast coastal schooner, built in 1839. This model is also in a private collection.

• The “Flying Cloud” is a 3-mast California clipper ship of 1851. The model was commissioned by the Hubbard Milling Company.

• The “Thermopylae” is a 3-mast China clipper launched in 1868, built for Vetter Stone Company.

• The “Bohemia” is a 3-mast Cape Horn freighter of 1875, currently on display at the New Prague Public Library.

• I am currently working on the 3-mast coasting schooner, the “James Miller”, built in 1854.

I have also enjoyed researching and composing three separate magazine articles about model ship building. These articles were published in Model Ship Builder and Ships in Scale.

The “Bohemia” model was a special project and remains my masterpiece. I was awarded a Prairie Lakes Arts Grant in 1999, of $1000, to build a model of the “Bohemia”, for the city of New Prague. I used the money to finance a trip to Bath, Maine, where the ship was built in 1875. I spent a week researching her history and construction at the Maine Maritime Museum. Returning home, I began made drawings of the ship to the scale of 1/8” to 1’. These drawings included the hull shape, the deck configuration, the spars, and the rigging. I delivered the finished model to New Prague in 2004, after 2341 hours of work.

I find the history of 19th century merchant sailing ships fascinating. It is not just the beauty of the ships themselves, but also the stories of the shipbuilders, the captains and their families, and the experiences of the crew members.

As a practicing studio artist, I am focused on exploring boundaries between classical principles of form and observation, combined with an intuitive approach to individual self-expression. I received two separate MFA degrees in both Painting and Drawing from Laguna College of Art and Design (LCAD). My work has been featured in private and institutional collections including the Archdiocese of Military Services and The Pentagon.

I work across an array of mediums, including painting, drawing photography/photo-collage, and video. All of my work is united by a few key obsessions and concerns, including: the relentless incursion of the processed/mediated world into every niche of society and the individual (comprising the cellular and psychological levels, among others); the collision of the familiar and the alien (in ways that seem haphazard, but are in fact highly orchestrated); and the infinite contortions of the human form—by turns beautiful and unsettling.

My process often starts with a one-line pen drawing—composed with a single continuous stroke—that depicts a simple narrative of a person engaged in some type of struggle. Creating vivid imagery without ever crossing a line requires a certain rigor and a deeper appreciation of what the line is and means—as both an artistic element and an essential element in the world, integral to all movement and space. 

An essential feature of my paintings is the tension between the “artificial paradises” they invoke and the paintings’ decidedly handmade, organic look. While I believe no artist can wholly avoid the crush of contemporary stimuli, my ideal of painting is that it might exist apart from the noise of life and provide a tranquil, reflective space to appreciate pure form and each individual work’s own self-contained universe.

In painting, I generally begin without a preconceived idea as to how the painting will develop. With random mark-making using formal elements of line, color and shape, I will work back and forth between abstraction and figuration. The resulting image being determined through an intuitive decision-making process.  My style is strongly influenced by cubism, expressionism, surrealist automatism and abstract expressionism.

I am an Afro-Cuban artist who has lived in St. Peter about 25 years. My paintings are influenced by Picasso and my love of Caribbean music, jazz, geometry, and physics.

I have displayed my work in previous Carnegie member shows, as well as a shared an exhibit with Craig Groe in the Arts Center of Saint Peter’s member shows and in various solo shows.

I've been making media art works for more than 25 years. All of my recent works integrate motion pictures and computer programming. I am excited about the centrality of these forms to the wider culture and how art can question the ways in which they shape and influence modern life. This work would be impossible without close collaboration with my brother Steve. 

Our recent works have been in shown locally (Minneapolis Institute of the Arts, Soeffker Gallery, Hillstrom Gallery, Saint Peter Arts Center, Carnegie Art Center in Mankato) nationally, (Nelson-Atkins in Kansas City, MOXI Museum in Santa Barbara, Currents New Media Festival in Santa Fe) and internationally - ISEA International Symposium (Gwangju, South Korea).  My early video art works were shown in media arts festivals in the US &  Canada, France, Italy, Switzerland, Argentina, Chile, South Korea.

Lisa Thomé has been weaving for more than 20 years.
 

Art that can be used every day is her goal.
 

She works most often with linen and cotton for the usability factor, she also works with silk and tencel. For her art pieces Lisa weaves with unused unwaxed dental floss.

Selena Medellin is a ceramicist originally from the West Side of St. Paul, currently based out of Mankato, Minnesota. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2021 and her Master of Art in 2023, both from Minnesota State University Mankato. Specializing in ceramics and mixed media sculpture, Selena creates work that echoes the traditions learned growing up in a first generation Mexican-American home. Her work reflects the stories of Selena’s ancestors, the
myths and legends of her native land, and the celebration of both life and death.
 

Selena uses the combination of ceramics and mixed media to convey both the vibrancy and
solemnity of Mexican tradition. Her sculptures depict both the memories she has, and her desire
to maintain growth in the relationship with her heritage.