Written by Wade Rupard/Photograph by Logan Werlinger
March 13 2015
When many go to art galleries, they search for deep meaning and emotion in what they’re viewing.
But Carly Swenson’s newest show at the Third Street Gallery isn’t about preconceived ideas or a larger meaning.
The work is a bit of a shift for Swenson. Much of her previous art focused on issues of feminism, social injustice and gender issues. This collection, however, doesn’t have the same sort of deep meanings.
Swenson set out to create intuitive pieces of art, with her stream of conscious dictating the next brush stroke and next layer of paint.
“You basically just start with no preconceived idea of what it will be or what it will look like when it’s finished,” she said. “You just kind of enjoy the process and let texture and imagery develop out of it as you go.”
Swenson’s show, titled “Acknowledged or Not,” is at the Third Street Gallery until the end of the month.
In the past, Swenson would work backward from a central message, having an idea of what she wanted the viewer to see and feel when the work was completed. But for this work, she went more with feeling and had no preconceived ideas about what the work was going to look like or mean in the end…
Carly Swenson is an intuitive painter originally from northern Montana. She spent more than a decade working primarily as a mixed media artist before shifting to acrylics. Swenson received a BFA in Visual Arts with an Art History Minor from Bemidji State University. During and after university, she traveled and lived abroad, this included studying in China, traveling throughout Europe and living both in England and the Azores.Swenson’s work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions throughout the US and internationally. Her freelance writing and mixed media journals have been published in nationally distributed art magazines. She has facilitated art workshops for various age groups. Swenson’s work is also included in the permanent art collections of Angra do Heroismo Museum and Bemidji State University (Bemidji, MN). Currently, she lives in St. Paul, MN with a smart little dog and a weird little cat. They’re nice.
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Carly Swenson • Intuitive Artist 
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