| Drawing: Success |
 |
|
Dani Marlette
Growing up in a small, rural town and graduating from high school in a class of fifty-six, Dani Marlette knows a lot about community. "The cozy size, and warm attitude of MIAD made it a place I felt I could be comfortable while having space to grow," Marlette says, speaking about her college decision, and move to Milwaukee. Since graduating from MIAD, Marlette has moved onto graduate school in Oregon, and works in an Outreach Office on campus reaching out to the community and helping people fulfill their dreams of attending college. Q. What did you think you wanted to be when you grew up? A. When I was little, I went through a million different things I wanted to be when I grew up, but I think from a fairly young age I decided to go into art. My mother has done a lot of photography, and participates on an arts council, so I grew up around artists of all different kinds. We lived in a very rural area, and had very little money, so I couldn't spend all my time watching cable TV or going out to movies, so I grew up reading, drawing, playing with clay, and spending a lot of time outdoors.  Q. What is your first memorable experience with art and design? A. When I was very small, I remember watching Bob Ross on PBS and wanting to paint with him. So, I gathered up all the butter knives, old rags, and kitchen sponges from around our house and tried to use them just like he used his tools. The effect was a little different than his, but I know I still had fun.  Q. What was the most valuable thing you learned at MIAD, and how has your education affected where you are today? A. The most valuable thing I learned was that I had to be true to my own instincts in my work, even when it went against what other people expected or wanted which it often did. I learned to really listen and consider people's suggestions and opinions, and then do what I knew was right for me. The time I spent at MIAD had a huge impact on where I am today. Although I'm not working full time with art, my education constantly influences how I think and feel. I did a lot of growing up at MIAD.  Q. What's the one thing you would tell a high school student who is considering attending MIAD now that you've experienced life after graduation? A. What is best for any one person is very individual, but I can say that I learned a lot while at MIAD, and not just about art and design. It was a great place to spend some really important stages of my life. Q. If you had to sum up your job, what would it be? A. I currently divide my time between working in an outreach office at Oregon State University assisting under-represented and minority students in getting into college, and going to school myself to obtain a master's degree in College Administration. I want to continue working in community outreach and service learning, while creating art.
Linnéa Spransy Growing Ideas.
Linnéa Spransy comes from a self-described "very colorful clan" with a strange set of skills, "from wallpapering to jazz singing". Her first drawing was on an Etch-A-Sketch of human profile; "I was absorbed and knew from that moment on how I ought to spend my life." Spransy continued to explore and develop her understanding of the human form as a Drawing major at MIAD.  After graduating from MIAD, Spransy completed graduate study at the Yale School of Art. She is now a studio artist, working in "anything that makes a mark frosted mylar and ink, most recently." Her most memorable showing to date was in China. "Watching such a truly different culture react to my current project was especially fascinating."
When asked about her future goals, Spransy's response was simple: "To maintain a vibrant studio life and to share that life and its products in whatever way I can. Till the day die I aim to create... that is my fundamental goal." "The strange attractions of quantum, chaos, and time theory have pulled me in. Now necessity has led me to invent a method of art-making sensitive to the vaguely mystical twinges of new science. Informed by the architecture of fractal images... which serve as an uncanny segue between the highly abstract and the physically familiar... I now allow structures to build upon themselves and reiterate their own distortions. In truth, my images grow."
 Charles Dwyer Drawn Inspiration.
Charles Dwyer is a self-described self-employed artist and photographer, a father, and a "trash-talking bowler". His Drawing degree has taken him far from restoring Notre Dame's golden-domed Administration Building to solo shows in New York, California, Chicago, and Europe. "MIAD helped me develop self-discipline and time management skills. I loved college."
 Immediately after leaving MIAD, Dwyer's reputation grew quickly with a solo show at the West Bend Art Museum. From there he backpacked through Europe, drawing inspiration from the landscape, people, and history of many of the countries. Dwyer returned to Wisconsin to take a position with the restoration company, Conrad Schmitt Studios. In 1992, Dwyer's first solo exhibition in New York sold out. Influenced by Impressionism and Expressionism, Dwyer layers media and materials to create tactile expressions of the female figure. Skilled in many creative processes, drawing remains at the heart of his work. "Drawing is the foundation of everything," says Dwyer. "It's kind of primal." His current work is made "from everything and anything, oil, pastel, collage, photography, textiles, computer imagery." And if Dwyer could have one wish: "I'd like to have every household own something original, by an artist of its choice."
Selected gallery representation
Selected restoration/conservation work:
(below) More than ten years ago, Dwyer began a friendship with Gary Pollack. Pollack, a homeless man nearly twenty years older than Dwyer, struggled with alcoholism and mental illness. The two began a collaboration that spanned a number of years and culminated in forty works of art, including these "Lucky Strike" images.
You can read more about Dwyer and Pollack's collaboration on MKEonline. |
"What is best for any one person is very individual, but I can say that I learned a lot while at MIAD, and not just about art and design. It was a great place to spend some really important stages of my life."
"I have, it would seem, an omnivorous curiosity..."
Selected Exhibitions:
"When I was seven I wanted to be a pro football player. When I was in third grade, I knew I would be an artist."