January 2021

Click the image to enter our virtual art exhibition featuring new and collaborative works by Charles O’Connell

Despite the pandemic, the Sheboygan North High Art Department knew that it was important to showcase the work that our Fall 2020 artist-in-residence, Charles O’Connell, created during his residency. What better way than to bring this exciting exhibition to a screen near you.

In this exhibition, you will see Charles’ artworks, screenshots of four of his videos he created which can be viewed here, and collaborative works with local artists, Lucas Bagemehl, Cooper Diers, Jordan Gottsacker, and Timon Tupper.

Artist Statement

The planet we occupy is brimming with beauty juxtaposed against abysmal chaos. These polarizing truths present us with potent content to research, protect, imagine, transpose and pursue. The endless stimulation is what keeps Charles O’Connell grasping for the unknown at the same time steadily achieving small goals.

Bio

Charles O’Connell graduated from the University of Milwaukee with a degree in Interdisciplinary Arts and Technology. The program reinforced diversity as a key element of his creative output. In 2015, Charles started a Record Label/Artist Collective by the name of, Future Fern Records. The collective steadily produces work and continues to expand as it gains momentum. Charles enjoys the freedom to experiment and the spontaneity of working with multiple mediums!

About The Sheboygan North High Artist-in-Residence Program

The Sheboygan North High Art Department created the NHS Artist in Residency Program (NHS AiR) in the fall of 2014. This program is designed to expose, educate and engage the North High community to local and regional artists each semester during the current academic school year. Our artist in residence works with our staff and students for one semester (18 weeks). The NHS AiR program is currently in its seventh season.

The goals of the NHS Artist-in-Residence (AiR) Program are:

to expand the experience of our students in the field of the arts,
to foster creativity, enrich education in any given subject,
to present staff members with new ideas and options for implementing creativity into the curriculum.

The 2020-2021 artist-in-residence season is supported by a grant from the Kohler Foundation, Inc

For press inquiries or details about our artist-in-residence program contact art department chair, Frank Juarez, by completing the form below.

The Sheboygan North High Artist Lecture Series (est. 2010) is an in-school program at Sheboygan North High School. We invite local and regional visual artists to share their journey as artists with the beginning, intermediate, and advanced art classes. Visiting artists present and introduce art students to such as but not limited to: how to present a portfolio, share a body of work, facilitate an art demonstration, or talk about about their artistic journey. This provides our students the opportunity to interact with the artists.

Due to COVID-19 we will be offering our artist lecture series as virtual artist talks for this 2020-2021 school year.

The 2020-2021 Sheboygan North High Virtual Artist Lecture Series is supported by a grant from the Kohler Foundation, Inc. This artist talk series is in collaboration with Artdose Magazine.

In this episode, artist Mel Kolstad talks about her creative process, the joy of working small, and the art of drypoint printmaking.

In 2018, Mel Kolstad was honored to present a TEDx talk about her art at TEDxFondduLac. It was entitled,“Channeling your Inner Kid for your Career”, and she spoke about how the things we loved when we were kids many times find a way into our lives when we’re adults.

It’s an axiom she lives every day. In her art practice, which has narrowed considerably in the last three years or so, she creates tiny drypoint and watercolor prints, usually in large series of 25 or more. Each of these series’ themes hearkens straight to the things she loved as a kid – vintage ephemera, her stamp collection, anything tiny, anything having to do with foreign language.

In creating these works, she is fortunate enough to be able to relive the magic she initially felt when experiencing these things more than 40 years ago, and feeling the joy and wonder of surrounding herself in her interests makes going to work every day a sheer pleasure. She never runs out of ideas.

About Artdose Talks
The 2020-2021 Sheboygan North High Virtual Artist Lecture Series is supported by a grant from the Kohler Foundation, Inc. This artist talk series is in collaboration with Artdose Magazine.