(gentle music) - [Announcer] On this episode of "Postcards."

- So when I do my painting, I paint people in the way that I see them.

- It also was an opportunity for me to be creative.

(gentle electronic music) - [Announcer] This is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

Additional support provided by Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen on behalf of Shalom Hill Farms, a retreat and conference center in a prairie setting near Windom, Minnesota.

On the web at shalomhillfarm.org.

Alexandria, Minnesota, a year-round destination with hundreds of lakes, trails, and attractions for memorable vacations and events.

More information at explorealex.com.

The Lake Region Arts Council's arts calendar, an arts and cultural heritage funded digital calendar showcasing upcoming art events and opportunities for artists in West Central Minnesota.

On the web at lrac4calendar.org.

Playing today's new music plus your favorite hits, 96.7 KRAM, online at 967kram.com.

(soft piano music) - I love using the natural materials the way the old painters did.

(egg taps) There's just something earthy and calming, I think, using an egg yolk as a binder or having my kitchen smell like a barn if I'm heating up my hide glue.

(soft piano music) My name is Pieper Bloomquist.

I'm a contemporary folk artist painting in the Scandinavian traditions of Norwegian rosemaling, and Swedish dalmalning, bonadsmalning.

I'm also a registered oncology nurse.

(soft electronic music) I grew up in Regal, Minnesota, population, 44, Central Minnesota.

There were five of us kids.

I was the oldest of five and we were all two years apart.

I was always the tallest.

And so all of our pictures, as family pictures, when it's the four or five of us kids, it's this line of little kids, and then tall Pieper right there at the end.

(gentle music) It's an interesting background, I think, growing up in a very small town, one thing that my parents taught me, is that when you are living in a small group of people, that you need to find something good in everybody, because that's your support system and that is your group.

That's your tribe.

That's your clan.

And if something goes wrong, those are the people that you need to rely on.

And we all rely on each other.

(gentle music) My Scandinavian heritage comes from my mother's side.

My grandpa was a chef.

He made Swedish pancakes all the time for us on Saturday mornings after catechism.

So we would run from the church up to my parents' restaurant.

And they weren't on the menu.

And so he would make pancakes just for us five kids.

My first Swedish painting that I did, I chose Saturday morning pancakes.

(gentle music) I always enjoyed art as a small child.

I took all of the art classes in high school.

I tried taking one art class in college.

I hated it.

I didn't like the atmosphere.

I didn't like the professor.

So I lasted 45 minutes and left.

(chuckles) And then my mom one day just said, "Oh, we're so Swedish.

You should learn how to rosemal."

And my mom suggested that I call the Swedish Institute and see if they were teaching classes.

And I did call the Swedish Institute, and I got a very curt answer that said, we don't teach rosemaling here.

That's a Norwegian art form.

And I didn't know that at all.

I didn't know anything about rosemaling.

I didn't know anything about that world of Scandinavian folk art.

So I guess I ended up in Decorah, Iowa, and I took a rosemaling class.

(gentle music) And as I walked through Vesterheim, I would see things here and there that were beautiful.

And I would say, "Everything in the room, that's the piece I like."

And everyone kept saying, "Oh, that's Karen Jenson.

Oh, that's Karen Jenson's.

Oh, that's Karen Jenson's work.

She doesn't teach here anymore."

The following year, I got the course catalog and she was teaching a rosemaling class.

So I immediately went down and took it.

And I had been coveting her work.

And the freedom of it had been feeding my soul for a year.

I just, I wanted to know her and I wanted to learn from her.

I think her and I had similar personalities.

I think we both are a little bit free-spirited.

And I think a little contemplative about life.

And I just felt a kinship with her.

And it was her encouragement.

She encouraged me to keep going, and she invited me to be an apprentice with her, which I gladly did.

And just spending so much time one-on-one with her has been wonderful.

What did I learn from Karen?

A lot.

I learned a lot about life, actually.

I think just sitting and painting, we just talked about life, and politics, and social issues, and our perspectives on growing as women, and the changes that we go through when we start coming into our own person.

And I learned a lot of about that from her.

As far as the artwork that I learned from Karen, that the biggest thing I took away from her was the freedom of her scrollwork, to do the unexpected.

And I remember asking her when we would do some scrolls, "Should I have flowers coming out from between the scrolls?"

And she said, "I don't do that.

That's too expected.

I like to cross over."

And those words are repeated in my head all the time.

(gentle piano music) I've also learned some Hallingdal from Judith Kjenstad, who is my other mentor and friend.

And Judith and Karen are completely different people.

Judith learned from Nils Ellingsgard.

And Karen learned from Sigmund Aarseth.

I consider those kinds of lines of rosemaling in the Norwegian rosemaling world.

And I have been blessed to have these two fantastic mentors and people teach me.

From Karen I learned how to look at it as a design, like, as a picture, how to balance it, how to balance color, how to balance opacity versus transparency, how to create fun, sometimes comical versions of life events.

And from Judith, I learned the history.

Judith is a little hard-liner, as far as learning how to do it historically, what were the traditional materials?

What were the traditional methods that were used?

So I got the best of both worlds with both of those women in my painting.

(soft music) Karen painted a lot of Swedish dalmalning as well.

And that was something that I didn't know anything about until our second class.

We saw pictures of this Swedish dalmalning and bonadsmalning, and we looked at that and said, "What is this?

What is this stuff?

What are these pictures of these strange medieval-looking people?"

That spoke to me.

Karen is also half Swedish.

And so that's why I think she was attracted to Swedish as well.

So there are two distinct styles of Swedish wall painting.

They developed about the same time.

They didn't really know of each other.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, the economy had changed, and people wanted to bring a little bit more color into their homes.

There was a little bit of extra income.

So somebody would be able to hire an artist to come and paint something that would maybe give them a little status, maybe a nice cupboard or a wall hanging.

Dalmalning is the word we use to describe the wall paintings that were done in and around the province of Dalarna, Sweden, which is northern central Sweden.

And that province is sort of the keeper of the Swedish traditions.

That's where you see a lot of folk music, people still wearing their folkdrakt.

That province has been, that's where the dalahast comes from.

The dalhast, which is that the little Dala horse.

the Mora clocks were made in Dalarna.

The painters chose to permanently affix those paintings to the walls.

Those paintings are very large.

They're wall-sized, a little bit lighter feel.

They're a little bit more open and airy.

And there's the presence of this large telescoping flower that we call the kurbits flower.

And this painting style is sometimes called kurbits or kurbitsmalning.

Bonadsmalning is the word that we use to describe the wall paintings from Southern Sweden.

And those were the temporary hangings, very compact design, very dark, sort of this horror vacui, which is a fear of empty spaces that was common in medieval artwork.

Both styles were inspired by the paintings that were done in churches that they saw, these medieval paintings.

People wanted to bring that type of imagery into their own home.

The very large bonadsmalning that hangs on the wall of my house, I did during my apprenticeship with Karen Jenson.

I think it was at the second or third piece that I did in my apprenticeship with her.

And when I showed her the picture of what I wanted to do, I said, "Well, I'm gonna need a canvas that's about six feet long."

And she said, "Six feet long!

It needs to be six feet tall and 18 feet long."

(chuckles) (gentle music) This particular painting is an old Swedish motif.

It's called "Wiseman and 10 Virgins."

It's a common motif that was done in the southern parts of Sweden because it's got both nativity and wedding themes to it.

And those were two occasions that these paintings would be hung.

(gentle music) One of the fantastic things that I love about Swedish folk art, is when they painted their Bible stories, they dressed their characters in traditional Swedish dress of the day.

The old painters painted characters and people the way they saw them at the time.

So when I do my painting, I paint people in the way that I see them.

So in my painting, sometimes I will dress my characters in old Swedish dress of that time.

But a lot of my current paintings, especially if I'm telling a modern story, I paint my characters using modern dress.

(gentle piano music) So when I first started painting with Karen Jenson, I painted with acrylic paints because that's what she used, and I didn't know any different.

And she used acrylics, so that's how I learned for almost a decade.

I painted just solely with acrylics on canvas.

When we were painting Swedish, it was on canvas.

When we did Norwegian rosemaling, it was on woodware generally.

When I started painting with Judith Kjenstad, at the time Judith was using casein to do her Swedish painting.

And she was exploring using fish glue as a binder with pigments.

And I walked through her kitchen and I saw all of this stuff out in her kitchen.

She was cooking the glue.

And I just thought, "Oh, this is so hard.

I just, I have little kids at home.

I'm frantic.

I'm trying to go to work every day.

And I just don't have time or energy for any of this."

And she looked right at me and said, "Yeah, well, after the apocalypse, I'll still be painting.

And you won't."

(laughs) I said, "Okay," huh.

This is called a muller.

And it's like a paperweight, it's very heavy, but there's a flat bottom to it.

And with a lot of pigments, you don't necessarily need to do this, but in the old days, you absolutely did all the time.

And now with some pigments, you have to.

What the idea is, is you have a flat, hard, flat surface.

I'm going to put my powder pigment on there, mix it with a little bit of water, and then I'm going to mull it or temper it.

And what that means is I'm not actually grinding that pigment down.

What it means is I'm evenly disbursing the pigment particles into the solution.

So I'm making a perfect, perfectly spread out solution.

(gentle music) (knife scraping) When I went to Sweden, the bulk of what I was interested in learning was where these artists lived and what their environment was.

I was interested in their trade routes.

I was interested in the economic situation where they sourced their materials.

They used tie glue, chalk, powdered pigments.

There were some painters that dug their pigments out of the earth themselves.

A lot of them made their own brushes.

And the linen, if they were painting on cloth, was often in the early days was handwoven because they didn't have machine weaving by then.

And I thought, "I would love to be able to do the things the way the old painters did."

(bright music) This is raw linen, which I've washed and hung out.

Then I sized it with an animal glue, which I mix, it's like mixing a Jell-O.

So it comes in granules and you mix it like a 1:8 solution, and let it harden overnight.

And then you melt it down to a certain temperature and you brush it on.

So it's been sized, and then I've got three coats of gesso on it already.

And I'm just waiting for this fourth coat right here.

(bright music) At one point, somebody asked me to teach a class and I thought, "I don't know how to teach."

But what I did do is I was volunteer mom at the elementary school, in the art class.

I was somebody that never started small.

"So Pieper, do you want to volunteer to work at the kids' art show?"

"Sure."

"Do you want to do a hands-on mural with the kids?"

"Sure.

What does that mean?"

"Three days, we're gonna create this giant mural.

It's up to you, figure it out."

And so everything I did had a little bit of a Scandinavian bent to it, but I decided kids were the way to go, kids.

And then I got invited to go into a nursing home and do art activities with residents of a nursing home.

And that initially was kind of a disaster too, because I really overestimated what people were capable of doing.

But the second time I did that, it was fantastic.

It's not about the final product.

It's about the process.

It's let's just take an hour and a half.

That's all anybody has energy for and let's just play.

Let's just play with paint.

And the Swedish style is perfect for that, especially in elder care facilities because it's storytelling.

And what I realized is that when we're painting, we can talk about our own stories.

And so, all I have to do is say something like, "Here's a picture of a woman milking a cow.

Did any of you ever milk cows when you were growing up?"

And I mean, that's fodder for conversation for an hour.

(gentle music) The reason why I have a painting career today is because I take those traditional motifs, and traditional processes, and traditional materials, and tell modern stories.

(bright music) What does Scandinavian folk arts mean to me?

I think it's a connection to homeland, foods that we eat, the celebrations that we celebrate, the way we decorate our homes.

But I think whatever our heritage is, we hold those things dear, and we keep them close as sort of a reminder of where we came from.

(bright music) (dramatic music) - [Woman] (indistinct) Madison.

When the railroad came through, many of the businesses picked up their stores- - Okay, let's stop there.

I want you to stand up.

Stand behind here.

(soft piano music) I started directing plays when I was in high school.

The director had to take a leave for a few weeks and asked me to take over the production that was taking place.

And so that when I first taste of theater, actually directing.

Then in college, I was involved in theater, but the first real serious directing where I was gonna pull salary was when I started teaching school.

And part of my teacher job description was directing high school plays.

And then after I quit teaching, I became involved with the local high school.

And even though I wasn't teaching, they asked me to continue to direct some of the high school plays.

And that took me into community theater.

And so, over the years, I've directed probably upwards of 50, 60, 75 plays.

(upbeat music) When I got involved in theater, I think my favorite part really became ability to interpret the productions.

I once had visions of becoming an actor out of college, and soon found that that wasn't going to be a possibility.

So for me, the next best thing was to direct plays and then insert my creative ideas into the play as I blocked it and cast the characters.

(gentle music) When I'm directing, what I always feel is the most important thing, especially given the idea that I'm not working with professionals, working with community people, working with high school people.

The most important thing for me has always been to get the cast of characters to feel at ease and relaxed on stage.

That is, to me, the most important thing to start with.

(upbeat music) When we look at Madison, and all of its fine arts and culture, I think we're really privileged to have the support of this community, especially the time, effort, and money they put into the Prairie Arts Center.

As a director, it's really a great privilege to have that structure, that space available for theater.

(gentle guitar music) People have always asked, "So how did you get into organic farming back when it really wasn't there?"

And I tell a quick story of when I was a child growing up, my parents had this magazine laying on the countertop called "Organic Gardening and Farming."

And they would be, there'd be conversation going on about it.

But as a ten-year-old, you really thought about it, but you didn't really resonate with it.

And so when I did have an opportunity to go farming, those thoughts and ideas started coming back.

And I had a few older mentors at that time who were also interested in it, was able to connect with them, and together that's how we were able to move forward.

A question that comes up to me is, you know, "What do people need to know?

Why do organic?"

And to me, it really comes down to three basic things.

It's economics, ecology, and sociology.

And what we've always tried to do is to generate enough income for farmers to be able to stay on the land, enough income that we can keep more people rather than fewer people engaged in agriculture.

And as equally important, is that everything we do with the land is done to protect the land, and enhance it, and be able to pass it on to our next generations.

(gentle music) Farming and theater, had that asked many times of me.

And I guess I loved theater.

It also was an opportunity for me to be creative.

I've always felt that to be a good organic farmer, you had to be fairly creative, because it wasn't always just reading labels and direction.

It's the same thing with theater.

And as I had mentioned earlier, being able to be creative by interpreting the production, and then helping the cast itself to interpret their characters, was so fulfilling.

And the other thing is theater was in many ways, 180 degrees from my day-to-day farming occupation.

So many evenings, I would spend a whole day farming, and at seven o'clock be out at the high school, working with a bunch of high school kids, enjoying every minute of it.

And it was just a total release from all the tensions of the day.

And at the same time, having the opportunity to try something new.

(gentle music) The journey of theater, I can't even see an end to it yet.

But I like how, when I started out directing my first play in high school, not knowing really what I was doing, but today being able to take on almost any production and feeling confident that I can make it worthwhile.

I think my quality of directing is really a lot more of substance than it was when I started out.

And it was strictly by doing it and working with so many great people, and having good community and school support.

(gentle music) (upbeat music) - [Announcer] "Postcards" is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

Additional support provided by Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen on behalf of Shalom Hill Farms, a retreat and conference center in a prairie setting near Windom, Minnesota, on the web at shalomhillfarm.org.

Alexandria, Minnesota, a year-round destination with hundreds of lakes, trails, and attractions for memorable vacations and events.

More information at explorealex.com.

The Lake Region Arts Council's arts calendar, an arts and cultural heritage funded digital calendar showcasing upcoming art events and opportunities for artists in west central Minnesota, on the web at lrac4calendar.org.

Playing today's new music plus your favorite hits, 96.7 KRAM, online at 967kram.com.

(bright music)