Event Link: https://www.kulcher.org/in-the-gallery-teach/

FEE: FREE to Attend Gallery and Artist Reception

In the Gallery: TEACH

TEACH Gallery Exhibit
Peder Butenhoff & Michael Aasness
October 23 – November 30, 2024

The New York Mills Regional Cultural Center is pleased to announce its new gallery exhibit “TEACH” in the gallery from October 23 – November 30, 2024. A reception date will be announced soon.

This gallery exhibit features the work of Artists Peder Butenhoff and Michael Aasness, with a nod to Jim Borgreen. Jim Borgreen was Peder’s art teacher and inspired him in art and to teach, while Peder was Michael’s art teacher and inspired him to pursue art and become a teacher.

The show is about inspiration: the teachers we learn from and those who inspire us.

Peder Butenhoff Artist Statement

Known as Peder, PED, or Pete (no preference), I graduated from Fergus County High School in 1988. I was greatly influenced by Jim Borgreen’s teaching gifts. Being the little brother of three, I was also greatly influenced by the big brothers in good and bad ways! So, I too attended Concordia College in Moorhead, MN and earned a K-12 Art Education & 7-12 Social Studies Education Degree along with Coaching Certification in 1993.

I began my almost 30 years of teaching and coaching in Lisbon, ND. It was an honor to be the first Art Teacher Lisbon had in their school district, even though 80 percent of my teaching was Social Studies. With three great start-up years in Lisbon, I found my way to New York Mills, where I have lived for 26 years. I taught in NYM schools and coached for four years being a “Jack of all Trades” in Art, Social Studies, and Coaching. With the desire to just teach Art, I was blessed to find teaching positions in Staples-Motley (six years), Fergus Falls (eleven years), and currently in my sixth year at Perham High School.

I reflect at times back to the central Montana boy in 1988. Who thought, “Teaching Art and coaching football & golf?! That would be a pretty sweet gig in life.”.Well, here I am blessed to be doing just what I dreamed. I am blessed with a saint of a wife, Becky. We have been married and resided in rural New York Mills for the past 13 years. We enjoy our dogs and cat. I am a “Jack of all Trades” still, but master of none. We do numerous outdoor activities no matter if it is winter, spring, summer, or fall.

Artist Michael P. Aasness Artist Statement 

Michael Aasness began his professional teaching career in 2017 as the 6-12 Art Instructor at Sioux Valley School District in Volga, South Dakota. Michael’s goal at Sioux Valley is to motivate and inspire students to create artworks they can take pride in and want to share with others.

Growing up in Fergus Falls, MN, Michael was influenced early on by the visual arts; drawing with his father, visiting art museums, and constantly painting and drawing. As a senior at Fergus Falls High School, Michael started taking art classes and was motivated by his art teacher Peder Butenhoff to pursue a degree in the visual arts. 

As an artist and educator, I believe the impact of the environment and opportunities surrounding us can transform, influence, and inspire creativity. The interactions, moments, and subtle nuances of observing the world around me fuels my desire to understand what drives my creative process.

I seek to explore representational artwork in relation to the world around me and how it translates onto the two-dimensional plane. The investigation of the artwork is illustrated through various mediums, serving as an opportunity to explore how I can render, shape, and resolve the imagery. This includes interpreting various textures of a surface and how that impacts the nature of the medium itself. My artwork incorporates a variety of media including acrylic paint, pencil, pen, watercolor, colored pencil, and markers. In recent work, I combine multiple materials through experimentation of various surface designs and layering techniques to create a mixed media artwork.

I continue to challenge myself as an artist through gathering and distilling various imagery around me, deciphering how different elements and principles of the composition can lead to further discovery of the medium itself. In my artwork, compositions embody landscape and figurative work depicted through representational imagery. In addition to memories, moments, and found imagery, the compositions encompass various images portrayed around me which inspire the concepts. I consider a myriad of compositional strategies to determine how I can form connections between different elements, develop moments of dialogue, and evoke emotions between the viewer and the
artwork. I am compelled by discovery and rely on the sense of liberty the artwork captivates.

I strive to investigate any opportunities the artwork might entail, at moments battling to surrender over to the nature of the creative process. I scrutinize over achieving correct angles and shapes, identifying light and shadow, establishing depth and space, and ensuring emotion and unity are evident within the work itself. The pigment of paint, texture of brushes, fuel of coffee, and echo of music drive the vitality of the artwork and motivate me to express what words cannot. It is in this moment I strive to exist within the creative process.

I understand that I will not know what direction the creative process will take me, but I believe the fortuity of each artwork transforms my preconceived notions of the medium. Each piece becomes a stepping stone that instills knowledge I didn’t understand at the time during the creative process, which drives me towards another artwork. It may be months, years, and many artworks down the road, but this never-ending desire to unravel the mystery of the medium endures.

A Gallery Reception will be held on Saturday, November 30, 2024, from 1-3 p.m. The artists will be on hand to meet and greet visitors and discuss their work.  An artists’ talk will begin at 2:00 p.m.  The reception is free to attend and open to all. Refreshments will be available.

Gallery Hours:

• Wednesdays 10:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.

• Thursdays 10:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.

• Fridays 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

• Saturdays 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

• Closed Sundays/Mondays/Tuesdays; private viewings available.

The Gallery is always free to see and open to all. Call 218-385-3339 or email cheryl@kulcher.org with any questions or to schedule a private gallery viewing.

Call the Cultural Center at 218-385-3339 with any questions.