Artist's Statement 2010

This work is pretty different from my past experiments with encaustics.
The entire series is inspired by aerial landscape photography. The deeper concept here is exploration, transition, searching. I’ve eliminated the use of the papers under the wax –– that technique was interesting, but caused issues when the paper would start pulling up. I incorporated a lot of carving with the wax into each of the pieces, giving them depth and texture.

ARTIST STATEMENT 2008

Resume

Solo exhibitions
March 7-29, 2008 Grace Chosy Gallery, Madison, WI
November 26 - January 24, 2008 Saint Cloud State University, Saint Cloud, MN
December 2 - January 16, 2007 University of Wisconsin Madison, 1925 Gallery
July 2006 Hedberg Public Library, Janesville WI

Group exhibitions

June 4-26, 2010 Sarah Budensiek & Sheryl Budnik- Painting, Grace Chosy Gallery, Madison,WI
October 2008 Walker Fine Art Gallery, Denver, CO
August 3 - 25, 2007 Grace Chosy Gallery, Madison, WI
April 2007 Taste of Culture, Janesville, WI

Juried Shows
April 2007 Wisconsin Artists Biennial, Haggerty Museum of Art, Milwaukee, WI
2005 artkudos.com exhibition finalist

Awards
April 2007 Honorable Mention, 2007 Wisconsin Artists Biennial, Haggerty Museum of Art

University Collections
University of Wisconsin Union Art Collection
Saint Cloud Statue University, Atwood Memorial Union Art Collection

Sarah Budensiek

Biolographical Information

Sheryl Budnik

Artist Statement 2010

My approach to paint is physical and dynamic. I like to make marks, quickly putting one color next to another to see what happens, creating a physical dance of oil and pigment. When you look at my painting I want the thick scrape of oil and pigment to create a visceral experience. My painting is about a special combination of place and time and light. On a beach or out in the field, I look very carefully and drink it in —— any photographs are separate from this experience. Sometimes I plan a composition to bring out the dynamic of an idea, usually I intuitively start with the impulse use a certain combination of colors, then imagine deep water, a beach, or the night. I look at the canvas surface and feel the horizon, select and mix colors, and begin the painting. When the first wave or cloud is in place, an intense flow of painting
pulls me forward.
The painting calls for more of a certain color here, less paint here, more texture, a smoother transition. The canvas may tip upside down —— the sky becomes the water. I move the canvas around in different lights, solving paint areas as I go. I want to push the paint to sing the high notes, I’m looking for that amazing expression of paint, mark, color, light and air. It is in the stillness of standing in awe at sunrise at water’s edge or in an empty field in the middle of a day, that we come to the heart of who we are. The encounter conjures a feeling of wholeness. The trick is to put that moment in the paint —— in the space between the canvas and the brush. I want my paintings to reveal more than is visible —— I want the paint and
image to stir a human feeling. Recently, I’ve been trying to imagine the landscape before me as pure marks, color and energy.
The paint color and mark is what excites me, rather than the specifics or inspiration of the place.

Sheryl Budnik

Biographical Information

Born: Grand Rapids, MI

Education: MFA Master of Fine Art, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
BFA Bachelor of Fine Art, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

Travel: Amsterdam, Brussels, Crete, Greece, Guatemala, Mexico, Morocco, Thailand, Vietnam

I fell in love with paint and making marks in Life Drawing art classes at the University of Michigan.
Mignonette Yin Cheng required we work quickly and use all of our media. Teacher and surrealist
Gerome Kamrowski challenged art boundaries and surprised me with““maybe you are a painter.”

Next, the University of Wisconsin graduate program invited contemporary artists to work in our art studios. I could watch Wayne Thiebaud create his colorful, impasto paintings. MFA in hand, I left for Greece and Crete, first in Amsterdam and Belgium to study Van Gogh, Rembrandt and Vermeer. Back in Madison I exhibited sculpture at the Madison and Kohler Art Centers.
In a few years, I bought land in northern Wisconsin, later settling close to Lake Superior. The Wisconsin light and landscape around my home inspired over 10 years of painting that were exhibited in Madison, Duluth, Chicago and New York.
Returning to Michigan, the fields and orchards near my home recently inspired a landscape series. Artists Bonnard, Wolf Kahn, John Twachtman, Albert P. Ryder, and George Innes continue to challenge my vision and technique.
I grew up near Lake Michigan, lived near Lake Superior, and now study the powerful ocean along Long Island, NY. My current work is all about Water. Knife, brush and paint meet the canvas —— I watch and follow along as color and marks summon the Sea.

Sheryl Budnik

Resume 2010

Education
MFA Master of Fine Art, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
BFA Bachelor of Fine Art, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

Select Exhibits
“Horizons”, Artworks Center for the Arts, Big Rapids, MI
“Small Works”, “Beach”, “Landscape” exhibits, Graffia Gallery, Spring Lake, MI
solo show ——“There’’s No Place Like Home”, Keeler Gallery, Grand Rapids, MI
Faith Hope Joy Love invitational, Keeler Gallery, Grand Rapids, MI
Michigan Nature Conservancy Exhibit, Urban Institute for Contemporary Art, Grand Rapids, MI
Art Benefit for Children’’s Assessment Center, Grand Rapids, MI / purchase
Artsplace, Newaygo Council for the Arts, Outsider Art Show, Fremont, MI
Raw Art: Divison Avenue Artists, Grand Valley State University, Allendale, MI
Inside/Out Gallery Show, Traverse City, MI
Regional exhibitions, Muskegon Museum of Art, MI
Art Festival exhibitions, Grand Rapids, MI
Celebration exhibitions, Grand Rapids, MI
Jump Start exhibitions, Urban Institute for Contemporary Art, Grand Rapids, MI
"Duck, Duck, Box", LaFonstsee Gallery, Grand Rapids, MI
"Gluttony", South Division Satellite Space, Grand Rapids, MI
"War Toys —— Street Power", Sanctuary Folk Art, Grand Rapids, MI
Artsplace, Newaygo Council for the Arts, Outsider Art Show, Fremont, MI
Sanctuary Folk Art Gallery Artists at Imagine 360, Grand Haven, MI
Inside/Out Gallery Show, Traverse City, MI
"Bits and Pieces", Lowell, MI
solo show —— “One of a Kind”, Fanny Garver Gallery, Madison, WI
“Dolls and Other Effigies”, John Michael Kohler Art Center, Sheboygan, WI
solo show —— "The Women Come and Go, Talking of Michelangelo", Brittingham Gallery, Madison Art Center, Madison, WI
“The Figure in the Landscape”, Artist’’s Choice Museum, New York, NY / curator: Jack Beal,
“Northern Images”, Seven North Country Artists, Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters, Madison, WI
“Making Her Story Visible”, State Capitol Rotunda, Madison, WI
“Michigan: The Place and the Lake”, Bergsma Gallery, Grand Rapids, MI
solo show —— Court Gallery, Tweed Museum, U. of Minnesota at Duluth, MI
Drawing and Small Sculpture Show, Ball State University, Muncie, IN
Great Lakes Regional Exhibition, Cleveland, OH
Invitational Sculpture Show, Lake Erie College, Painesville, OH
Drawing and Small Sculpture Show, Ball State University, Muncie, IN
National Graphics show, University of South Dakota, SD / purchase
solo show —— Zoo Exhibit, Vaughn Library, Ashland, WI
solo show —— Northland College, Dexter Library Gallery, Ashland, WI
MFA Show, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
Ann Arbor Film Festival, Ann Arbor, MI

travel
Amsterdam, Brussels, Greece, Crete, Morocco, Thailand, Viet Nam, Guatemala,
Mexico