Artists

Anita Baedke-Plucker, nicknamed Katie, was born and raised in Terril, Iowa. After graduating from Terril Community School, Anita attended Buena Vista College, Storm Lake, Iowa, receiving a BA in Art Education. She put her artistic career on hold as she soon married and stayed home with her two boys. As the boys grew older, Anita was able to create more work and began to enter area art shows. Her artwork continued to evolve and grow popular as she went from art show to art show, to having limited-edition prints published, to displaying her work in juried regional and national exhibitions and galleries.

After joining the Spencer Area Arts Council, Anita became Director of the Gallery Shop and later, worked full time as the Director of Education and Outreach for Arts on Grand in Spencer until the art department position at the Spencer Middle School opened. Anita resigned after 15 years of teaching, enabling her to become a full-time artist and to continue her love to teach by conducting workshops throughout the Midwest and at her new studio/gallery, Artworks by Anita, in Terril, Iowa.

Artist's Statement
"My watercolor paintings and colored pencil drawings reflect my life in the upper Midwest - rural landscapes, waterscapes, architecture indicative to this area. Currently my inspiration and focus for my work are the designs, the patterns created as nature and man play with the surface of the land and water. I find beauty in the ordinary, often overlooked remnants of a vanishing way of life - the homesteads, farmsteads and the buildings (barns and corncribs in particular) now empty where farm families and businesses once thrived here in the Midwest. "