Charles Beck

One of the most recognized artists in Minnesota, Charles Beck continues to be influenced by the landscape of Otter Tail County. He was born in 1923 in Fergus Falls where he lives today, and he began drawing in grade school where he would trade his works for candy and marbles. Beck attended Concordia College in Moorhead in the 1940's where he studied art under Cyrus Running. Sports Director Jake Christiansen convinced him to play football (another important aspect of his college career). Beck credits Running and the Christiansen brothers (Jake and Paul) at Concordia as being great influences in his life.Beck graduated from Concordia in 1948 after taking time off to serve as a pilot in the Naval Air Force. He continued his education at the University of Iowa where he received his Master of Fine Arts degree in 1950, and then returned to Fergus Falls where he worked as a sign painter.

In 1953 Beck enrolled at the University of Minnesota where he studied under Cameron Booth, Walter Quirt, and Malcolm Myers. It was at the U where Beck was first introduced to woodblock prints, and he completed his first print The Holy Family. Beck joined the faculty at Fergus Falls Community College (now Minnesota State Community and Technical College or M State) in 1960 where he taught for 27 years. Concordia granted Beck an Honorary Doctorate in 1980, and in 2006 M State honored Beck by naming the new gallery after him. Beck's subject matter is the landscape and nature of Otter Tail County. Instead of an exact representation, Beck attempts to create an interpretation of his own experiences and vision.

Sandra Barnhouse

Sandra Barnhouse has a BA in Art Education from the University of Northern Colorado, and received her MA in painting and printmaking from St. Cloud State University in 1975. After graduating Barnhouse stayed in St. Cloud, where she had a twenty-year career as the publications editor for St. Coud State. Barnhouse became interested in the Barnhard School building, located north of Underwood, MN, in the late 1990's, and during a time of dramatic change in her life she was able to purchase it and transform it into a studio, home, and gallery. it is now known as Barnhard Arts. In addition to being a visual artists, Barnhouse is an accomplished writer. In 2006 she published It Takes a Whole Damn Village, calling for the abolition of the classroom model of K-12 education. She is currently working on another book about cultural history.

Karl Beck

Karl Beck was born in Fergus Falls, and is the son of artist Charles Beck. He attended Concordia College in Moorhead where he graduated in 1973, and he then taught Geography, Civics, and Sociology at Underwood High School in Underwood, MN. After retiring, Karl Beck began turning wood in 2002, and most of his turnings are from locally obtained materials. Beck has a great appreciation of what a tree has to offer under its bark, and he is “amazed at the beauty of the grains, textures and shades that each piece of wood offers.” The challenge, Beck finds, is trying to show those characteristics in the finished piece.

Chuck Christianson

Chuck Christianson is a native of Fergus Falls, Minnesota born in 1958. He studied painting and drawing with Charles Beck in the late 1970's. He also studied with John Stuart Ingle, Lois Hodgel and others at the University of Minnesota, Morris where he earned his B.S. in Art History and Studio Art in 1981. Over the past thirty years Christianson has exhibited throughout the Midwest and several Southern and Western States. Locally his work is in the permanent collection at M State, Fergus Falls, where he has had six solo exhibitions, including a drawing retrospective in 2007 and an early year retrospective in 2008. He was awarded Lake Region Art Council/McKnight Individual Artist Grants in 1991 and 1997. Chuck is married and still lives in Fergus Falls with his wife Ramona who is director of the Fergus Falls School of Dance.

Gretchen Farnberg

Gretchen Farnberg was born and raised in Fergus Falls. She lived in Redwood Falls, MN, for forty years, but moved back to Fergus Falls in 1990 to “be around people interested in the arts.” A child of the depression, Farnberg found that creating something from nothing was a “jolt of joy” and this has supported her lifelong love of creating. Farnberg graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1951, and has continued to study at the U and Southwest State University. She also studied under Hazel Belvo in Grand Marais. Farnberg has exhibited and taught with numerous organizations, and currently she is active in the Art of the Lakes, New York Mills Cultural Center, the Grand Marais Art Colony, Glacial Ridge Artists Alexandria, and A Center for the Arts.

Scott Gunvaldson

Scott Gunvaldson was born in Minneapolis in 1952, and graduated from Fergus Falls High School in 1970. After high school, he attended Fergus Falls Community College from 1970-1972, where he studied under Charles Beck. Gunvaldson currently lives and works in Fergus Falls, and owns his own business: Sign and Design. His primary mediums are oil and acrylic, and his inspiration comes from the natural world and people. Gunvaldson is also a muralist, and has completed a number of murals including the Viking Library System Bookmobile and a mural at Minnesota State Technical and Community College (M State) in Fergus Falls. The Fergus Area College Foundation commissioned Gunvaldson to paint a portrait of Charles Beck in 2007, which is now exhibited in Legacy Hall on the M State campus.

Jay McDougall

Jay McDougall represents the sixth generation of a Minnesota woodworking family. Beginning as lumber, coal and ice merchants, this family tradition has evolved into Jay's elevating wood as an art medium to a new level. McDougall received his BS degree in Industrial Education with an emphasis in Wood Technology and Furniture Design from UW Stout, Menomonie, WI. Jay has also studied with Tage Frid, Dale Nish, and Lissi Oland. Influences include the works and philosophies of George Nakashima, James Krenov, and fellow Minnesota native George Morrison. His career as a self-employed woodworker has evolved over its 30-year span. McDougall's early years were spent designing and building original pieces of furniture. He has also been a contributing writer for Fine WoodWorking Magazine. McDougall's hand-sculpted wall pieces and vessels are the distillation of this career spent pursuing economy of line and pure forms.

Jeffrey Opp

Born in Stanley, North Dakota, Jeffrey J. Opp joined the U.S. Navy after graduating from High School. He served overseas in Sicily and on completion of his enlistment decided to return to civilian life and pursue a university education. Currently based in Fargo, North Dakota, Opp studies at Minnesota State University Moorhead seeking a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in photography. He begins photography projects by doing historical research and incorporates that research in to the context of his work. Opp states: “My main motivation to create photographs is rooted in an intense desire to explore and understand the world around me. I use the camera as a tool for discovery.”  Upon graduation he intends to pursue a Master of Fine Arts degree.

Marion Otnes

Marion is a self-taught watercolor artist and has exhibited across the U.S.  She has exhibited since 1984 at the National Wildlife & Western Art Collector's Show & Minnesota Wildlife Heritage Show in Minneapolis, as well as numerous other shows across the country.  The first hand knowledge of subject matter is the artist's hallmark.  Her work is of individual birds and animals she and her husband, Gary, have studied while banding birds and operating a Wildlife Rehab Center at their country home. 

Pomme de Terre Pottery

Josh Pehrson

Josh Pehrson was born in 1974 in St. Peter, Minnesota and was raised in Fergus Falls. "My passion has always been to be an inventor every day of my life" says Pehrson. Like so many great artists, his works have taken on many mediums. An accomplished woodworker, he apprenticed for four years at a custom shop in St. Paul where he built, repaired, and restored antiquated pieces of Victorian mansions. A love for designing and building motorcycles has also helped hone many of his talents. He was introduced to wheel thrown pottery by his friend and mentor Lori Charest. Josh's fascination with crystal glazes started three years ago and since then it has become an obsession. Combined with great skill, craftsmanship, and artistic sense, these stunning crystalline pieces reflect his influences from life around him.

Eric Santwire

Born in Rochester, Minnesota, Eric Santwire grew up nearby in Detroit Lakes.
After graduating from Minnesota State University/Moorhead in 1992 with a major in Film Studies and a Minor in Studio Art, he spent twelve years living in Minneapolis.  There, he supported himself with jobs as varied as optical company courier to life insurance claims examiner, using the rest of his time to explore the city’s rich arts scene while practicing art in the mediums of filmmaking, photography, painting, writing and music.  Starting in 1990, and since moving to Fergus Falls in 2004, he has worked freelance as a photographer, painter and videographer/editor.
In addition to having most of his family close by, Fergus Falls’ main attraction for Eric was the newly and beautifully renovated Kaddatz Hotel (now the Kaddatz Artists Lofts), where he became the building’s second new tenant.

Les Skoropat

Born in 1952 on Flag Day in Bismarck, ND, Skoropat first learned about taking photos from his mother, the unofficial family photographer. She could chronicle an entire year of family events with twelve pictures taken with an Ansco 620, which was stored in the kitchen cupboard with a blue flashbulb in place, ready for the next birthday or Holiday. Skoropat worked as a school photographer at St. Mary's Central High in Bismarck, where he developed a fondness for the simplicity of the black-and-white image, and where he began his camera collection, which includes his mother's Ansco.

The artist currently lives in Pelican Rapids, MN.

Kirk Williams

Kirk Williams was born in Fergus Falls in 1949. He studied art and graphics in Tacoma, WA, and then transferred to Minneapolis College of Art and Design where he studied illustration and sculpture. Williams works in three different mediums (pastel, sculpture, and antique assemblage) and is influenced by the desire to create “imagination turned tangible.” He has participated in numerous shows throughout the Midwest, and the Pioneer Retirement Home in Fergus Falls commissioned a sculptural fountain, Grandpa and Grandma . His parents, Earl and Dorothy Williams, helped found a scholarship fund for the Minnesota State Community and Technical College, and Williams has honored them with his sculpture The Trumpeter. Currently Williams is working on a pastel series at his home in Fergus Falls, and more information about his work can be found on his website, www.kirkwilliamsart.com.

Jeffrey Zachmann

Jeffrey Zachmann has always been fascinated with motion and all things mechanical, and his sculptures focus on motion and how the viewer reacts to it. He believes that people are “awakened and drawn to motion with a primordial fascination.” Zachmann graduated from Minnesota State University Moorhead in 1980 with a BA, and then worked as a functional potter for fifteen years. During that time he experimented with kinetic sculptures in clay, but found it to be a frustrating medium for that type of work. After experimenting with different materials Zachmann found that stainless steel was the perfect medium for what he envisioned. Zachmann has exhibited and been commissioned for works all over the world, including Australia, France, and Germany. Locally his work can be found in Fridley, Bloomington, and Minneapolis, and he has work in the collections of Minnesota State Colleges and Universities.