Artist statement excerpt - M. Kampen:
This quilt has been my obsession, my companion, and my solace for the last six months.

As Alzheimer’s Disease took away more and more of my husband’s abilities, I became more and more desperate to do something.  There was nothing I could do to stop the disease, but I was sure there was a way that I could do better at living with it, and helping my husband live with it.  ...

... The process and not the product was the most important part of this endeavor. I love what the quilt expresses for me, and it gives me real joy to look at it and realize that I can do much more than I ever thought I could.

Artist statement excerpt - K. Thompson:
Last year my former fiance tried to strangle me. It was the second time he had assaulted me.

How do you deal with that? Not the legal side (I did finally have him arrested) but the human side, the confusion.

This year I needed peace; I needed something beautiful to think about. I went to Arts on Grand and said I wanted to make a mosaic. I had done a little sample piece when the big mosaic was done in 2000, and I knew I had enjoyed that.
Someone showed me the tiles in the AOG basement, and the mortar, and the tools, and I got started.
I haven't stopped.
Something happened inside me. ...

In a sad cooincidence, my mom also had a tough year. Her husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. I think it's amazing we each found peace this year in a parallel art: her quilting is the fabric version of my tile mosaics. ...

This is the first big pice I did after I arrived in the AOG basement tile room.
The image is related to ambivalence (is t a sunrise or a sunset? West coast or East coast? Morning or evening?) and, I suppose, doubt (how do I know what is right, or what is wrong?) It also refers to endings and beginnings (which is this? Is it the end or the start of a day?).

 
Puddle. 2002

This is the first piece I did just for me. I wanted a puddle to put under my tree.
The two black swimming things represent evil and danger to remind myself it's a tough world out there.

Nyla Medsker Eala

Artist statement excerpt - N. Medsker:
Because we are sent with a destiny, God equips us with tools to manage each turn in our journey on earth.

The Journey is paved with the artistic ability to express each challenging turn in life. Pain, and even life-threatening abuse did not end this journey.

(cont.)
Each work has encouraged victory rather than defeat. God gave the ability, not just to allow survival from, but victory over each emotion. After it was poured onto paper, clay or other mediums, it could be learned from and let go of.

Onward and upward, the Journey continues...

"# 1"

 
"Beginning of Hope"

Theresa Odom - drawing & scratchboard

Artist statement excerpt - T.Odom: These two pieces go together – not only because they are of the same image, but also because they are a beginning and an end.
The original sketch was done about a week before my husband, Jim, was admitted to the V.A. hospital in Sioux Falls, SD, in 2001.
... on November 10, 2001, he pasesd away. ...
I started back to classes just after Thanksgiving that year. Thankfully most of the five weeks worth of work I had to make up were projects, including a project in Drawing class. ...  sat down with a sketch one evening and started working on a scratchboard. All of my love and all of my pain together, went into that piece. Every stroke of the tool that took away the blackness also helped to take away the pain and release the beauty and peace of a moment in time when there was no pain - for either of us.

Idalene Tessum - rosemaling

Artist statement excerpt - I. Tessum: I first learned to do resemaling in an adult education class I took in Everly in the 1970's.  I suffer from hight blood pressure and arthritis. 

Concentrating on painting takes my mind off worries about my health...

Jonee Rose Broughton - quilt

Artist statement excerpt - J. Broughton: Her Prairie Wings group in Sioux Falls was very helpful to so many breast cancer patients.  The massive challenges each member has faced have been lessened because of the interaction of love and understanding only they and their families fully know.  For Jonee, quilting provided a temporary means of setting aside the constant concern that invades daily life when confronted with an unforgiving disease such as cancer. 

Randy Harig - models & paintings

Artist statement excerpt - R. Harig: When I am involved in a project, my concentration is focused on the project at hand and not on the pain from my arthritis and DJD (Degenerative Joint Disease).  I have come to appreciate my art and have improved the ability to finely detail my projects.

I will continue to draw, paint, and build my projects to keep my mind sharp even when my body is not.

Leonard Olson (foreground) - kaleidescopes
Marilyn Rehnstrom (background) - quilts

Artist statement excerpt - Leonard Olson: On August 29, 1997 I had four ambulance rides.  That day really wasn't all that bad, considering the alternative could have been a ride in a hearse...

(cont.)

They eventually did four bypasses to move blood around the five blockages in my coronary arteries.  While I was hospitalized, some dear friends brought me a kaleidoscope...

(cont.)

I've also foun that kaleidoscopes provide a valuable metaphor on life.   Just when you think you've encountered the most beautiful image possible in a kaleidoscope, a slight shift will change everything.  At first, you may feel very disappointed as theoretically, that image will never again appear.  However, while different, the new image is also beautiful and you discover that more changes will produce still more beautiful images.  Soon you learn to let yourself go and just look forward to what will happen next.

Marilyn Rehnstrom - quilts

Artist statement excerpt - M. Rehnstrom: Working with fabric has always been a favorite hobby - working with color, texture and techniques...My first quilt was a log cabin for my son Steve in his chosen colors of rusts and blues.  Following his death in October 1982, my friend (angel) Judy Hart asked me to teach classes at her store.  The concentration necessary for class preparations was difficult, but just what I needed to "reach out"...