Local Artist Spotlight: Andy Sjodin

Article by Becky Fillinger, Photos provided

As you venture from studio to studio during Art-A-Whirl, have you ever been curious about the artists behind all the fabulous artwork? How did they become artists? The answer for me is Yes! I talked to Andy Sjodin about his journey to become a contemporary realist artist, his approach to creating a painting, career as an art instructor and all the locations you may find him and his artwork during and after the festival. 

Andy SjodinQ:  Please tell us about your journey to becoming an artist.

A:  I had a talent for drawing from an early age. Throughout junior high and high school I took all the art classes I could. In college I let that go a bit, only taking the one fine arts course required for the B.A. program at St. John’s University. I come from a working-class family. My father wanted me to be practical and utilize my college experience to prepare myself for a lucrative career path. I was originally a math major and intended to become an engineer. Looking back, though I did enjoy mathematics, I realize that these choices were made more for my dad’s sake than they were for mine. I did not finish my undergraduate career as a math major. In my freshman year I was placed in a philosophy course simply for the lower-level humanities credits. I had never before experienced the more formalized way of thinking about ethics, epistemology, phenomenology, life, choices, god, existence…all of it! I loved it. I felt at home and thrived in the philosophy courses. Part way through my college career it became apparent to me that philosophy was a much better fit as a major than math, so I switched. This was a good choice, the right choice. My dad did not understand or approve though. This was the first time I was able to make a bigger “life choice” on my own. It was the first time I really veered from what was expected of me. This choice ultimately set me off on a path that I had not foreseen, one where I felt more confident to make choices that were right for me, even if others did not approve or understand, even if I was not sure where they would take me.

I wandered through most of my twenties after college. I served as an AmeriCorps volunteer in Washington State for two years. I spent many months driving around the country, backpacking, camping, mountain biking, and visiting friends and family in different places I moved to Thailand and taught English for a school year. After returning to the states, I moved to Homer, Alaska. Throughout the time that I was doing all of these things I continued to create art. It was a hobby. I enjoyed it, but I did not take it all that seriously. During my second winter in Homer, I decided to take a painting course from Asia Freeman at the local community college. Asia holds an MFA from Yale, runs a gallery in Homer, teaches, and is a working artist. I was excited to take a course from her. I had only dabbled with painting. Drawing media had always been my primary approach to creating art. I was a bit intimidated by paint for some reason. In taking the painting course I was hoping for some guidance in how to approach creating paintings. The course went well. I enjoyed doing the work and received a lot of good feedback. At the end of the course Freeman gave all the students a final critique. She finished her critique of my work by suggesting that I consider pursuing painting more seriously, and that I should think about entering an MFA program. This feedback gave me a sense of clarity that I was not expecting. In receiving this push from Freeman I realized that I had wanted to be an artist, a professional artist, since I was young. I just never had the confidence to give myself permission to even consider it as a possibility. Receiving such encouraging feedback from a working artist with the credentials that Asia has gave me the  confidence I needed to pursue a career as an artist.

I ended up returning home to Minnesota later that spring. After getting re-established back home and working for a while I started looking into art training programs. I was looking at MFA programs throughout the country, but was mainly focused on getting into MCAD. While looking into MFA programs I stumbled across the atelier system of training. I was completely unfamiliar with atelier programs for artists and did not even know they existed. An atelier program is more akin to a trade school. Atelier programs are skill-based training programs for drawing, painting, and sculpture. They have evolved out of the apprenticeship model of the old masters and base their methodology upon that of the old masters. When I learned about this style of training I was sold. I wanted to obtain the skills necessary to execute my artistic ideas in a sophisticated, high-quality manner. This is what an atelier offers.

And Water

Dried Bouquet

Two Plums II

I was surprised to learn that we have an atelier program right here in NE Minneapolis - The Atelier Studio Program of Fine Arts, which was originally Atelier Lack in Uptown. After visiting The Atelier in Minneapolis and talking with the directors I quickly decided that this was the path that I was going to take. I interviewed in the spring of 2010 and entered the core program as a full-time student that fall. I trained at The Atelier for four years, graduating in 2014. Since graduation I have continued to push myself in the creation of my work, ever eager to achieve a higher degree of quality and artistic expression. I’ve also taught classes and workshops throughout the years since my training. In 2018, I joined the core program teaching staff at The Atelier Program of Fine Arts and continue in that role today.

Q:  Thank you for sharing how you came to see yourself as an artist. Please tell us about the studio programs and the courses that you teach. 

A:  The core program at The Atelier Studio Program of Fine Arts includes twenty-two full-time student positions. It is a small, intimate school. Five days a week we start the day working from a live nude model from 9am to noon. During this time students work in graphite, charcoal, black and white oil paint, or full-color oil painting, depending on where they are at in their training and which project we are working on. In the afternoons students work in their individual studio spaces on projects specific to where they are at in their training. In the first year of the program students are working on drawings and paintings of plaster casts in either charcoal or black and white oil paint. In their second year they progress to still life paintings in full-color. In their third year they start portraiture. In the fourth year, students take on a larger culminating interior project. And interior is a painting of a figure or figures in a full-room setting, as opposed to, say, a simple head-and-shoulders or three-quarter portraiture. We also offer an optional fifth year for students who want to do more interior work or imaginative work. There are five core program instructors at The Atelier. We each have a day of the week that we come in to critique the core program students. In the mornings we give each student at least one critique on their figure work. In the afternoons we make our way around to each studio space to give students critiques on their independent projects. Beyond the more formal critiques we also offer students guidance and advice on all the aspects of being a career artist: marketing, framing, social media, website, applying to grants and shows, pricing, etc. It is the aim of our program to produce working career artists.

Besides teaching the core program students I periodically offer workshops through the school.

Q:  I saw your one-man show at the Stone Arch Condos and loved the moods you create by color. How would you describe your art?

A:  Most of my work is in the contemporary realist style. I create representational work that is primarily executed from life. I paint and draw a variety of subjects, including still lifes, portraits, animals, and interiors. Occasionally I will do a landscape, but not often. From time to time, I will also create work that is more imaginative or that incorporates abstract elements in the imagery. These pieces are often experimental or just for fun and don’t end up getting shown.  

A lot of my work is quiet and contemplative. I like to create work that allows the viewer to slow down and dwell within the pictorial space. Much of our life feels increasingly superficial, like we are all flitting about and disconnected. Through my work I strive to create something of depth, of quality; something that encourages an experience that is intentionally antithetical to the superficial and flitting. Often the palette I use in my paintings is muted. My compositions are spacious. I like to allow the light-play to act as more of a protagonist than the objects themselves. I enjoy painting subtle moments in nature: an interesting shift between warm and cool notes; a soft transition of light across form; the simple harmony of muted colors throughout a composition. These are often the things that grab my attention and that I work hard to capture in my work.

Q:  How do you approach the technical aspects of creating still life paintings?

A:  I do more still life painting than anything else. I would probably do more portraiture and figurative work if it wasn’t for the cost of hiring models. I really enjoy painting people but do not like working from photographs. I enjoy working from life. Nature gives us an immensely complex and rich array of visual information. Working from photographs is much more limited in this respect. The work I do from photographs is always of a lower quality than that which I create from life.

With still lifes, as with all of my work, composition and light are the most important elements. I put a lot of thought into my compositions. I strive to think abstractly about how to construct the pictorial space.  I often start with an idea in my head and then create thumb nail sketches (small black and white abstract sketches). With these sketches I strive to understand how the pictorial space is going to be broken up between light and dark shapes. I try to create a simple image that is attractive and interesting. Once this starts to work, I move into the studio where I spend hours fleshing out the idea with objects and lighting. I really enjoy this part of the process; it is a very creative and free part of the process.  Once the composition has come together, I will sometimes do a color study (small, simple version of the painting) or I just move onto the preliminary drawing. The preliminary drawing is done in charcoal and is the same size and dimensions as I intend for the final painting. In the preliminary drawing my objective is to find all of the shapes and how they relate to one another. I keep it somewhat simple and only push the drawing in those moments where I need to develop a further understand of how the drawing elements need to work. These are often the more complex moments of the composition. Finally, I transfer the drawing to the surface that I intend to paint on. The painting process consists of developing layers of paint, some thin and more transparent, some thicker and opaque, that allow me to communicate how I am interpreting the light and form that I am observing. This is a slow process that requires a lot of sensitivity to the relationships between values, colors, color temperatures, and edges. Overall, the process is a practice in communicating how light describes form.

Q:  What do you hope viewers take away from your paintings?

A:  Ultimately all true art is a window into oneself. This sounds a bit hokey…I hear it. But I think it is true. I experience it as true in the art I love. I hope that those who view my work and connect with it are given a contemplative window into themselves. 

Q:  Where may we view your work?

A:  Besides my website www.sjodinfineart.com, Instagram and Facebook, I am currently showing work in a variety of venues. I have work in multiple galleries: The Grand Hand Gallery, St. Paul; Robert Lange Studios, Charleston, SC; Studio Pintura, Minneapolis; Susan Powell Fine Art, Madison, CT; Williams Fine Art Dealers, Wenham, MA. Also, I currently have work hanging in Zeller Studio in Hopkins as a part of the Minnesota Portrait Showcase (April 20 - May 30). For Art-A-Whirl (May 17 - 19) I will be showing work in three locations: The Atelier Studio Program of Fine Arts, Studio Pintura, and in The 1330 Quincy Building. Every year during Art-A-Whirl, The Atelier finishes off the school year with the full-time student show. Some of the instructors show work in a fundraiser show called “Artists for The Atelier” which hangs in conjunction with the student show.  Per usual, I will be participating in the “Artists for The Atelier” show. I will be spending most of the Art-A-Whirl weekend at The 1330 Quincy building in Studio 401. This is where I will be hanging a large selection of my work, including originals and prints, all of which will be for sale.  I will have a number of pieces hanging in Studio Pintura during Art-A-Whirl, as I typically do. Finally, I will likely be showing work in The Mill Yard at Stonebridge Lofts in Minneapolis sometime this year. Nothing has been confirmed yet, but I’m hoping to be a part of the show that will open there in August.

Q:  When you're not painting or teaching, what are your hobbies?

A:  I love reading, particularly classic novels - the Russians are my favorites - and science fiction. I live out in the country and like taking my dogs for walks. I enjoy cooking. I also love listening to music. I am an avid bird hunter; I love following my pointers around looking for birds throughout the fall.