LOCAL ARTIST: Danielle Clouse

I will be interviewing our areas creatives every so often for "Creative Culture". This will give my readers an opportunity to get to know local talent and what turns in their creative minds in order to produce the work they do.

The first artist for the feature is; Danielle Clouse, a Spirit Lake resident. When I first saw her work I thought it was incredibly developed and surprised me that she was in her early twenties. As an art collector, I looked at Danielle's work and seen big potential in her artistic career. I have a deep feeling that she will become recognized and possibly one of Iowa's great painters considering her method and subject matter. Her conception of color is intelligent and insightful. Her work embodies a conceptual illustration in Iowa's landscape. She does it differently and does it well.

_Q & A With Danielle Clouse_

_How would you describe your art background?_

My art education started at a young age with a father who was a K-12 art teacher and a mom who encouraged creative thinking. It was never forced; I just had a natural tendency to make and create things. It was just there all the time. I think I even had a tendency to answer science and math questions with pictures and diagrams because I didn't know how else to answer them! I'm sure I confused quite a few teachers.

After H.S. I attended Iowa Lakes Community College and studied under Byron Lindell; I moved on to Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, MO in 2005. There I received an extensive education in 2D and 3D art, and majored in two separate studio practices - painting and ceramics. Both complimented each other in my thought processes. I returned to the Lakes area in 2007 to take a position at the Pearson Lakes Art Center, and I consider myself a full-time artist on the side, painting in my studio when I have time.

_Some places your art has been displayed?_

I have had work displayed at the Pearson Lakes Art Center, The Wine Bar and Art Gallery, McNider Art Museum in Mason City, Art in the Park, A Piece of Work in Spirit Lake (the Downtown Spirit Lake contest) and most recently, the office of the Lt. Governor at the Iowa State Capitol. I will also be displaying a couple of works at Art on 16th in Spirit Lake. (I often joke that I also display my work at a bank - my mom, who works at Iowa State Bank in Ruthven, has "borrowed" paintings from me to use in her office...I think she considers it a trade for putting up with me.)

_What influences/inspires your paintings?_

Right now I am stuck on the Northwest Iowa landscape. The possibilities seem endless, and I consider it my responsibility to make it fresh and different using my technique. I get caught up in the natural pattern of things. The land may be flat, but there may be trees or fields breaking it up to give it the feel of a patchwork quilt. Weather also has a lot to do with it - the lighting created by fronts moving in and out of the area change the look drastically. Existing structures such as barns and other rural buildings often provide geometric forms to work from.

In addition to landscape, there is color. A specific color in a natural setting will catches my eye, producing color combinations I may not have considered otherwise. Like the dark brown, bare ground of recently burned fields next to the bright ochre of a nearby wetland in early spring, topped off with varying shades of grays at 4:00 in the afternoon. Or an orange Volkswagen Thing parked next to a reddish-brown brick building with turquise blue sunny-day sky does the trick as well. Boy, I could go on and on....

_Artists who inspire you?_

One of my favorite artists is Richard Diebenkorn. I also find myself absorbed in a wide range of art, from plein air works to very abstract painters with impressive use of color and composition.

_Have you witnessed "periods" or transitions in your paintings? If so please explain._

The freedom to paint whatever you want is a wonderful feeling; the more I paint, the more I find things progressing and new ideas starting to develop. I ended my college career with a series of large scale paintings based on rural structures that turned into colorful, abstract paintings. The subject matter? Barns. But they certainly didn't look like barns after I was finished with each painting.

After trying my hand at plein air painting, I've moved that abstraction technique into my new body of work, a series which I call Rural Abstraction.

_List upcoming shows:_

The Wine Bar and Art Gallery in Arnolds Park, Iowa. Show open on July 1st and runs to August 12th. And I am currently pursuing Gallery Exhibitions for 2010.