Riverland Community College

Animals were the earliest subjects of art, and art based on animals has been a feature of all cultures since. Our imaginations naturally relate to their richly expressive qualities. The James Wegner Art Gallery is pleased to pair two artists whose work continues to develop that tradition in surprising and very personal ways. Though they take different approaches, both artists’ creations present animals as engaging personalities, and reflect unique sensibilities through a rich exploration of materials. Their work also suggests a connection to folk art traditions outside the established art world.
 
Donna Jean Carver’s paintings evoke the innocence of yesteryear and rural life on the farm, but her evocations of scenes of barnyard animals often have a humorous or surreal twist as well. Ms. Carver has a long personal history of living in rural Minnesota, and her experience as a “farmer’s daughter” has been translated through what she calls her “memories real and imagined” to produce a unique vision. Working since 1961, “as time permitted”, she has a long history of art and craft production, selling crafts full time for several years and having images of her crafts featured in national magazines like Lady’s Circle and Popular Handicrafts. She has exhibited at the Hopkins and Edina art centers and the Mill City Museum.  
 
Mary Kathleen Scott’s Reindeer sculptures are complex and fascinating, and connect to an equally rich mythological narrative that the artist has developed to complement them. Reindeer are the only female deer that grows antlers like their male fathers and brothers, and female deer often lead the herd migrations. Ms. Scott evokes the reindeer herd as elemental figures, with multi- media assemblages that coalesce into calm and powerful personages. Ms. Scott, whose creative work first centered on poetry, has had her paintings and poems published in SageWoman Magazine: New Moon; A Magazine for Girls and Their Dreams; Gaia; A Journal of Literary & Environmental Arts; and in Orphic Lute and Gypsy Cab magazines.
“Now I sculpt and sew, bind and braid with cloth, polymer clay, yarn, fabric and wood as well as found objects and natural materials. I have been ‘shape-shifting’ with the mythic Reindeer Goddesses for three years” according to the artist.