(upbeat music) - I love plein air, painting outside on the spot in the open air.

And it's a movement right now that- It's a movement to me, 'cause I wasn't paying attention to it up until maybe 10 years ago.

And it's gotten awful popular.

It's good for you, it's good for the mind and soul.

I wouldn't choose to paint outside like today, but you know, sometimes I've paid for workshops where you you will go out and paint.

(laughing) But I can flip my hatch up and paint most of the time, and I've done that in the winter, in the rain.

And the wind is actually the worst thing.

If you can't get out of the wind.

The heat and the sun, you can get an umbrella or find the shade.

But it's something you have to just deal with.

It's impressionism, I suppose.

I didn't always used to be that loose, but painting outside, that really, really loosens you up and helps you get rid of the fussiness, and it's just so much more fun.

I think it's fun to teach that style, and it goes really fast.

And get a painting done pretty quickly.

(light music) And now I'm gonna try to find this very important triangle on this bit of construction here.

It's fantastic to see them get lost in their work.

Like, no phones, no electricity.

Like I said, no bells.

It's fun to just watch them actually, almost, it is, it's 100% focus.

(upbeat music) It's getting a little drier.

A little drier.

That happens.

That's why we have newspaper.

I teach K-12.

All the K-6 kids I get to see in the high school.

It's typically an elective, and I just follow the state standards, but I get to design the courses.

And of course, painting's my favorite.

I like drawing as well.

But we do everything from clay, to mixed media, to drawing, to fiber art, string art.

It's just fun to see them, I know it sounds simple when I say make stuff, but just to make stuff.

(upbeat music) I started out painting the elevators in the country.

I would go on photo shoots and take pictures of the elevators.

Gray.

You know how we like black and white photos.

It was a lot of grays, and I thought that was fun to paint with just grays with a little bit of color and a little bit of color there.

And I had a show with just elevators of the local towns about 10 years ago.

Then I got into just landscapes, and my last show was Beltrami Forest blueberry picking and with a few people thrown in.

And that's what I enjoy doing is local, local stuff.

It just happens when I am sleeping, I think.

And I wake up and I have this idea.

That's really the truth.

I maybe follow the seasons too, though.

When I did my elevator series, it was winter scenes, and sometimes I'd fake a truck or two in there.

During the summer, it was the blueberries.

You're kind of just lost in what the paint is doing, 'cause watercolor will float to the left and it'll float to the right, and then gravity takes over and there's granules in some of the paint that separate and they do their own thing.

Sometimes there's a big old accident and that turns into something really cool, like what happened to us out in the car today.

So you gotta have fun with the paint and let it do some of the work.

Sometimes you can control it and sometimes you can't.

Sometimes it's a disaster, sometimes it's really awesome.

Tonight, when we're sleeping, it'll do its own thing.

We're gonna kill the paper today with gray.

Remember how we used okra the other day?

I never dreamed of going very far.

I visited the cities and Duluth and whatnot, but I always tended to come back home.

And then I met my husband, and here we are living happily ever after, and I love it here.

You can get in your car and travel, and that's what I do.

(chuckling) I just am very happy with the K-12 system and teaching kids.

I think it's just so relaxing.

I guess it's happy, but it's calming, too.

And when you're painting, you're thinking about the kids at home, and you're thinking about, I still have my parents.

You're thinking of things as you're painting.

Sometimes you're not even thinking about your painting.

You're just painting and you're thinking about supper, or you're thinking about Sunday.

You know, do I have a job at church tonight?

And you're just painting and it's like, whoa, how did that happen?

(upbeat music) I'd love you to come to my shows.

I'd love you to walk into my shows.

I think you'll find a place that will remind you of a place that you've been.

It'll trigger a memory or a story, and then you'll start talking about your story.

These paintings that I do, I'm hoping to bring back stories for people to discuss.

- [Announcer] Funded by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4th, 2008.

And by the members of Prairie Public.