2023 Artist Mentors

Angela Johnson

I was thrilled to be part of the Drawing Water program at Trout Lake station this past summer because it combines my interest and passion for art and science.  As a community-based art instructor at UW-Madison with a master’s in art education and an MFA, much of my practice revolves around learning, collaborating, experimenting, and sharing with others. Being an art mentor was meaningful and I learned a lot along the way.

During my visits up to Trout Lake I emersed myself with the opportunity to slow down and observe, and be awed by nature through photographing, snorkeling, hiking, and exploring. I pushed myself in my artist practice to try new media including embroidery, bookmaking and cold wax, silver leafing images on kozo paper.

Ray Allen

My involvement with the Drawing Water program started when I arrived at Trout Lake Station in 2021 as a postdoctoral researcher and I was overjoyed to able to up my involvement in the program as an artist mentor this past summer! Both my undergraduate and graduate degrees are in science, but I’ve always maintained an interest and practice in art since grade school. I journeyed into the area of SciArt during my time at Duke University through their Art of a Scientist initiative and now I fully practice as a beadwork artist. My beadwork pieces intersect on Ojibwe styles, non-human organisms, and popular culture, and I aim to use as many high-quality materials as possible, including vintage and faceted seed beads and brain tanned deer hide. I also am originally from the area and am a Tribal citizen of the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians.

Mark Nutt

In some circles, I am known for my colorful intaglio prints, mixed media drawings and sculpture. Throughout my career, I have fluctuated between playful, abstract and representational imagery, while integrating life experiences with observations of our contemporary world.  I like to explore the nature of God and man through visual art,and culture.
 
Technically speaking, my hand-pulled fine prints are experimental in character, often featuring the luminosity of ink through layering and viscosity printing techniques.  While producing primarily intaglio monoprints and monotypes, printmaking has always been a comfortable, flexible medium to develop, refine and record my ideas and impressions. I have enjoyed experimenting with laser etching, screenprinting on encaustic along with repurposing wave-worn basalt rocks, wood and steel from the bygone lumber era, found along the beaches and shallows of the always inspiring Lake Superior.  

Creating art provides me a visual environment to study spiritual matters. I look for the intersection of life and scripture… and dwell as much as I can, as long as I can, in that place.  At times my art has a celebratory intent or prayerful origination.  As the natural world reveals glimpses of characteristics of God’s divine creative nature, I believe that He alone makes the best art, our natural world and I can only hope to imitate some small facet of His creation. I use my art as an avenue to investigate such truth and ideally advance my relationship with God.

2022 Artist Mentors

Adam Swanson​

​I am very excited about this Drawing Water artist mentor because water science has been a key focus of my work for more than a decade. In the early 2000’s I worked for years in Antarctica with the National Science Foundation where I developed my knowledge of important ocean related experiments. Currently, I’m a member of the Twin Ports Art Science Collaborative and my work has been influenced by researchers from Lake Superior and the SPRUCE climate change project in Northern Minnesota. Now, more than ever, the implications of human actions in an ever-changing landscape are on the tip of everyone’s tongue. My recent paintings make scientific data such as this clearer and, most importantly, inspire audiences to learn what can be done to change course.

Mindy Schnell

​I’ve been involved with Drawing Water since its inception and enjoyed working with the scientists and artists.  Trout Lake is very familiar to me and is the subject of my watercolors that represent my time spent on the water.  The fish paintings are the result of my curiosity and the fascination with what lies beneath.  
I’ve mentored art students in the local schools for over 20 years, conduct watercolor lessons weekly year round, and give private lessons.  
Owing to the recent influx of full time residents and a new generation of recreational opportunities, I feel it’s important to reach out with information that  will encourage good stewardship of our Northern Lakes.

Terrill Knaack

To explain my interest in the mentorship program I offer a very brief summary of my background. The early stage of my career was as an understudy of Owen Gromme, curator of zoology at the Milwaukee Museum of Natural History. My interest was in environmental education and art. After that seven-year period I became a self-employed artist. I also involved myself with the environmental issues concerning priority watershed work and management of the lakes of my region, as a volunteer.
When art and science combine, the intersect brings up the most interesting questions.
Albert Einstein is often quoted as saying, “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the true source of all true art and science” Both the artist and the scientific investigator are both humbled by the mysteries of nature; the living earth, the cosmos and mankind itself. By observing nature with great attention, it becomes obvious that any one phenomenon is inseparable from another. The passion to explore nature, to understand the interrelationship of an element of the biotic community to another, is undertaken because the mystery itself carries an aura of beauty with it. Art that is authentic is the result of the drive to reveal and understand relationships that may at first be hidden. Something is sensed and felt that is beyond the obvious. Poetry, painting, and music reach places within us that our thoughts cannot reach.