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Anne Flaten Pixley '53, Wendell Arneson open art shows

By John Andert '10
September 10, 2007

Two distinguished art shows will mark the beginning of the exhibition season at St. Olaf Flaten Art Museum in Dittmann Center: an exhibit by Anne Flaten Pixley '53, "To Make a Mark," that shows the span of her work over the past 56 years; and St. Olaf Professor of Art/Art History Wendell Arneson's "New Work" that showcases the work he created during his recent sabbatical. The opening of both exhibits will be celebrated Friday, Sept. 14, 5-7 p.m., with music provided by Sean Wesche '02. Both shows will run through Oct. 22.

Arneson has been on the faculty at St. Olaf since 1978, specializing in painting (oil, acrylic and watercolor), drawing and color design.

PixleyArt
A detail from one of Pixley's works that will be displayed in Flaten Art Museum through Oct. 22.
Pixley and her family moved to Northfield soon after she was born in Paris, France. She grew up in Northfield, where her father, Arnold Flaten '22, was a faculty member at St. Olaf. She says it was an easy choice and painless transition to attend St. Olaf, where she studied art and art history. Graduate studies took her across the United States, including New York, Massachusetts and California. Her own work has shown in many group and solo exhibitions throughout the United States as well as in Switzerland, Japan and France. The last time Pixley exhibited at St. Olaf was in 1975.

Pixley calls her work abstract. "Rather than starting out to depict something, I often have the experience of seeing something in a landscape," she says. This holds true to her extensive use of one or two colors and the patterns she incorporates into her art. Through these qualities, and her experimentation with light, color and texture, she has developed a collection of pieces that triggers the senses and gives illusions of mist, fog or sunlight. Other mediums she has used include handmade paper and watercolor crayon.

Like most artists, Pixley says that she ultimately wants people to walk away from her art looking at the world in a different way.

Contact Jill Ewald at 507-786-3556 or ewald@stolaf.edu.