All About Gina...
Gina Winther, exhibiting under the name BlackBearStudios, is an artist based in Springbrook.
“I started as a woodblock printmaker but am currently experimenting with relief carving and other mixed media such as paint, ink, pencil and mosaic,” she said. “For relief carving I use pine from the lumberyard but have also carved images into planks and driftwood I scavenged from the Lake Superior shore. For a while, I constructed sea chests and carved into the lids, continuing on the theme of the sea. Each lid is slightly different but all show a falcon flying over trees or water and towards a heart, and usually surrounded with a phrase or word.
“I was thinking of my family and immigration stories when I carved the sea chest lids so their surnames appear. I like the idea that the planks might have been a part of a boat or structure at one time and ultimately ended up as a carved object rescued from the water.”
Winther said she works “intuitively” and is attracted to “bold and graphic images found in everything from graffiti to Mexican retablo art.”
Images that keep reappearing in her art include a beating or pulsating heart, trees, birds of prey, bones, ocean waves and a running fox/coyote/wolf.
“The fox/coyote/wolf is usually running towards something or over something,” she said. “Sometimes there are words or phrases mixed around the images. I like the idea of taking these symbols and mixing them to create a sort of northwoods version of a relic or craft object, or combining a graffiti look with a carved surface.”
All of the carvings are finished with spar urethane, a wood finishing varnish, to make them extra durable.
“I try to make art objects that last and carry a feeling or message,” she said. “For me, this makes my artwork more personally gratifying.”
Winther studied art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. For eight years she lived in the Lowertown Artists Lofts Cooperative in Lowertown, St. Paul.
“The co-op was a great place to learn from others’ experiences and interact with a diverse group of artists,” she said. “Just by being around people who are creating all the time you are exposed to and see new things and learn about the artist’s life and different types of art. I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to experience living and working there.”
Winther was also a member of the Stevens Square Center for the Arts and Highpoint Center for Printmaking and served on the board at the Lowertown Lofts Co-op.
Winther’s work has been exhibited at the Washburn Cultural Center, AZ Gallery in St. Paul, Stevens Square Center for the Arts, The Stillwater Artists' Guild, Altered Aesthetics Gallery in Minneapolis, BirdxBird group exhibit, the biannual St. Paul Art Crawls, member shows at the Highpoint Center for Printmaking, Red Hot Art Festival in Minneapolis and other various art shows.
More information on Winther and her art is available by emailing her at blackbearstudios@hush.ai.
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Gina Winther