First Fridays at Iowa Artisans Gallery are a featured artist exhibition!

This Friday see the recent work of Greta Songe and John Martinek

Greta Songe – “I was born and raised in the bayou country of South Louisiana. After landing in Iowa for graduate school, I fell in love with the landscape, the sense of community, and the people. I’ve lived in Tennessee, Florida, and Louisiana. I currently live in Iowa, where I am an Assistant Professor of Art at Kirkwood Community College.
My designs are created for surface design, home decor, editorial illustration, and children’s literature. I find it essential to keep my work grounded in hands-on methods of creating. Drawing, painting, paper-cutting, or printmaking are usually a part of my process. Most designs are finished digitally, using it as an opportunity to fine tune compositions and color.”

John Martinek –

“It all began in childhood with drawing and painting as a form of play and a way to make things happen in two dimensions.  It was an extension of real world play, of bringing characters and objects into another space and to make them do things and create stories. My brother and I spent hours drawing scenarios to show each other and to make each other laugh.  At that time, I wasn’t thinking about the purpose of it all other than that it was interesting and fun.  The drawing or painting itself was not important or valuable.

At the most fundamental level, it comes from a biological need to create and communicate with other humans.  I have always been a very visual thinker, and drawing is a way for me to map things out and analyze them in sort of an architectural way.  I was motivated further by the fact that I was singled out as someone who was good at art.  Other children and adults told me I was good at art, so that started to form part of my identity as an artist.

Later, when I was in college and started to study art more seriously and from an academic standpoint, it was because I was exploring my interests and abilities and returned to that desire to learn and create this way.  Also it was a social thing, a way to define this part of who you are and who you want to be, and to experience this exploration with others.  It helped me to figure things out and share my ideas.  It was always unlikely that I would get up and give speeches or debate…but art was a way to communicate that fit me well.  In addition to that I have always been a “maker”.  My other career is as a cabinetmaker and finish carpenter which is also very visual.  I need to be making things with my hands to be satisfied.”