Susan Coleman was born and raised in rural eastern Missouri. She received her BFA in drawing from Webster College, in St. Louis, and her MA (drawing) and MFA (painting) from the University of Iowa. Susan has shown in venues throughout the Midwest and Eastern United States. Her work focuses on landscape themes encountered in the local environment.

How has your artwork changed in the last ten years?
I'm sure my artwork has changed in some ways in the past ten years, but I think the changes are subtle. I'm still very much moved by what I see around me. The issue of visual metaphor is still essential to my practice. Sometimes I think it's easier for the audience to see the changes than for the maker of the work.

What motivates you to continue making art?
I still feel that need to continue making art. It's a big part of my spiritual practice. When I neglect to allow myself time in the studio, something feels off. It's like a breathing space for me.

Laurayne Robinette was born in 1928, in Blockton, Iowa. She grew up on a farm west of Blockton with her two older brothers and her younger sister, artist Vicki Adams. After graduating from Drake University in the summer of 1952 with a B.F.A., she taught school that first year, during which she also married. She has three daughters and six grandchildren. She has taken numerous Des Moines Art Center classes, concentrating mostly on oil painting. At times, she has taught students in her home studio. She continues to paint and work in mixed media.

How has your artwork changed in the last ten years?
Hopefully it has progressed, but if so I can't tell! My methods for painting non-objective work have changed somewhat, as I haven't done scraped painting for a while. Instead, recently I have started dripping the paint on canvas, which is exciting and exasperating, since drips are very hard to control. ( I shouldn't try to control, I guess.) Most recently, I did a painting using the side of my painting knife to make short vertical lines on a colored ground - also hard to control. I will probably go back to the brush very soon! Actually, I have stayed with a varied process including scraping, blotting, smearing, scumbling and dabbing, as well as using the brushstroke to define image as well as abstraction.

What motivates you to continue making art?
I keep thinking I perhaps should slow down and not keep producing art, but then I decide I should "stay with the program" as long as I'm able. I enjoy painting as well as exhibiting, selling, and renting my work. These things keep me working.

Nancy Lynn Briggs was born in 1953 in Eagle, Wisconsin. Her father was a United Methodist pastor, so her family moved often within Wisconsin while she was growing up. Her mother was interested in art, but being a minister's wife was a full-time job. After attending the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point for five years in the seventies, then working on her own for several years, she was able to resolve some incomplete credits to receive a B.S. in Art in 1986. Nancy is married to Peter J. Stephano. She teaches at the Des Moines Art Center and works in clay, creating mostly Raku vessels and figurative sculpture.

"I am happy to say I reached my goal of being a full time artist/potter.  I teach about five ceramics classes a week at the Des Moines Art Center, and the rest of my time is spent producing work for sales at art fairs and galleries. The demands of the marketplace do have some limits on creativity/spontaneity.  Jurying into events 6-8 months in advance means I must produce a consistent body of work that matches the jury images.  It's amazing how much attention goes into maintaining a 10'x10' display.  I need to make artwork that has a strong subject matter that also has appeal to the general public.  I do not feel this has lowered the quality of my work, but it does not leave time or room for experimental, bulky or hard to sell art."

Sue Hettmansperger was born in 1948, in Akron, Ohio, and lived near there for nine years as a child. She spent the rest of her years growing up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where the family moved for her younger sister's health. She received her B.F.A. (1972) and M.A. (1974) from the University of New Mexico, in Lithography and Drawing. She has been teaching at the University of Iowa Art Department since 1977, and continues her own painting and drawing. She is in a committed relationship. She is a national affiliate with A.I.R. gallery, the first women's co-op gallery in New York. She is a 2008 Guggenheim Foundation Fellow.

How has your artwork changed in the last ten years?
The work I made ten years ago was following the scientific approach of paring nature down to its singular underlying micro truths. Since then, my awareness of chaos theory, systems of complexity, and the digital arena have changed my approach. I would say that the images have become increasingly in flux, hybridized and collaged.

What motivates you to continue making art?
As I said in other words ten years ago, there is an inner freedom in exploring visual invention, an interesting place to explore the self and the world.

Nancy Lee Purington was born in 1947, in Davenport, Iowa. She grew up in Davenport and Princeton, Iowa; Delavan, Wisconsin; and Bettendorf, Iowa. She was the oldest of three children. She received her B.F.A. in Painting in 1973 from the Kansas City Art Institute after a year at Drake University. She studied textile design in Kansas City while obtaining her teaching certificate, and taught one year of art in the Kansas City school district. After moving to New York City and working as a textile artist for a year, she returned to Iowa for graduate school. She received her M.F.A. in Design in 1983 from the University of Iowa. She taught Textile Arts for several years in the University of Iowa Home Economics Department. She is now a full-time studio artist and part-time art and design consultant. She is married and has two sons and three grandchildren.

What motivates you to continue making art?
Observing patterns of infinite change on the Mississippi River's surface and simultaneously experiencing the horrific tug of an invisible current defines the birthplace for my motivation. At elementary school age, these experiences elicited the subjects of beginnings and endings within the context of change.

Vicki Adams was born in 1931 on a farm near Blockton, Iowa. She grew up on the farm with her parents, two brothers, and a sister, artist Laurayne Robinette. She attended one year at Drake University directly after high school, then she married, moving to California and other places as her husband was moved around in the military. When they returned to Des Moines, she began taking classes at the Des Moines Art Center, and eventually returned to Drake part-time, and earned her B.F.A. in 1974. She received her M.F.A. from Drake in 1978. Her emphasis was printmaking, and she taught printmaking classes for several years. She has three children and one grandson. Her work is mostly abstract—collagraphs and handmade paper works. She is associated with the Octagon in Ames and Arte Gallery in the Des Moines East Village. Recent awards include: First Place in The Community of Artists show at the Octagon Center for the Arts in Ames in 2006, and an Honorable Mention in the Des Moines Women's Club Annual Exhibit in 2007. She also had a 2008 solo show at the Des Moines Playhouse.

2008 Updates: "Although I'm ten years older than the last time you interviewed me, I seem to be volunteering more than ever.  My special interest is in NAMI Iowa where I volunteer in the library and write short book reviews.  I volunteer at the Heritage Gallery once a month and enjoy seeing other artists works."

Gelsy Verna was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti in 1961. She lived there and in Zaire for the first few years of her life, but since 1968 grew up in Montreal, Canada. She is the second of six children; her father was a radiologist and her mother, a teacher. She received her B.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in December 1988, and her M.F.A. from there in December 1990. She taught art at the university level, including the University of Iowa and the University of Wisconsin.  Her artwork consists mostly of collage, works on paper, mixed media, and oil on canvas.

Sadly, Gelsy died unexpectedly on March 11, 2008, at the age of 46; her five-year-old daughter, her mother, and her siblings survive her.

Robbie Steinbach was born Imogene Kay Robshaw in 1948, in Belle Plaine, Iowa. When she was in fifth grade her family moved to Grundy Center, Iowa, where her father died when she was 13, and where she graduated from high school. She has one younger sister. She received her B.A. from the University of Northern Iowa in 1970, in English. She taught high school and junior high English for several years, then became interested in photography. She received her M.A. (1989) and  M.F.A. (1990) in photography from the University of Iowa.

2008 Update: "I have recently been photographing creative women – visual artists, musicians, writers – in Taos, New Mexico. When I first discussed this artistic project with a friend, she suggested I call it by the acronym SIWOT, Strong Independent Women of Taos.  That has been its working title since then.  Eventually, it will be a book with text by my friend, writer Lyn Bleiler.  She and I have been granted a residency by the Emily Harvey Foundation in Venice, Italy, for summer 2009, to work on editing and shaping this project."

Helen Marie Casey Cook was born in 1918, in Cedar Falls, Iowa. She has two sisters, and grew up mostly in Cedar Falls other than a year or two early on in Georgia and Florida. She graduated from the Iowa State Teachers College (now University of Northern Iowa) with a Kg-PRI certificate in 1938. She is now widowed, and has four grown children. Her specialties are watercolor painting and cut-paper silhouettes. She has done several commissioned paintings for local organizations and businesses. One of her favorite subjects is a large stone barn near Cedar Falls.

2008 Update: "I sold my house two years ago and moved to a retirement home. About a year after I moved I gave up driving, but one of my friends picks me up every Thursday to paint. I still love to do buildings and landscapes. Shortly after the move I was honored by the city as a Cedar Falls Treasure for my painting and silhouette work, and in April of last year I had a One-Woman Show at the center in New Hampton, Iowa. I am now 89 years and am slowing down. I have trained three other ladies in silhouette cutting."

Marcia Joffe-Bouska was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1951. She is the oldest of six children, and she grew up in Prairie View, Skokie, and Glenview, Illinois. She received her B.A. in Art and Art Education from Clarke College, Dubuque, Iowa, in 1973. Her M.A. in Painting and Drawing is from Northern Illinois University, De Kalb, in 1977. She is married and has two children, and has lived in Council Bluffs since 1977. Her current work is mixed media sculpture, both relief and in the round, using traditional and non-traditional media.  She continues to draw and paint in addition.  She works from a studio in her home.  She also is a teaching artist and is listed on the Artist in Schools and Communities rosters of Nebraska and Iowa.

What kind of artwork are you doing now?  How has your artwork changed in the last 10 years?
The work I do now is sculptural.  Ten years ago I was working predominantly in painting and drawing media and was just beginning some explorations into small found object sculpture.  I describe my current work as mixed media sculpture.  I incorporate found objects and traditional and non-traditional art media in both relief work and sculpture in the round.  I feel less restrained by media in my current work—I can use whichever media and technique best communicate my concept.  Much of my work still involves color and in this my background as a painter is still very evident.

Elizabeth "Libby" Bennett Momberg was born in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1930. She grew up in Omaha, then moved when she was 13, to Ames, Iowa. She was the youngest of four children. She attended college at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri. She is divorced, and has five grown children. She has an interior design business, and paints in watercolor and oil.

2008 Update: "Everything is the same with one exception—I don't have a gallery. I had bad luck with one and had health issues that went on for two years. I have sold several paintings however. My paintings have changed in that I am painting on smaller wrapped canvases and using a palette knife. Since the last interview my design business has scaled down and, having been ill, I haven't painted as much. I am still inspired by nature—landscapes, flowers, trees, gardens.  There is also that inner push that says i have to paint the beauty of the world."

Balpreet Kaur was born Barbara Wise in 1946 in Iowa City, Iowa. She grew up there with four younger siblings. She graduated with a B.A. in Theater from Clarke College, Dubuque, Iowa, in 1969. She was a student of ceramics in 1969-70 at Kunsthaandvoerkerskolen, an art school in Denmark. She received graduate degrees from the University of Iowa, Iowa City: an M.A. in ceramics (minor metalsmithing and jewelry) in 1972, and an M.F.A. in metalsmithing and jewelry in 1975. She worked for several years at Hands Jewelry. Balpreet's married name was Barbara Nilausen; she added the "K" for Kaur when she converted to Sikhism, but did not formally change her name to Balpreet Kaur until 2001, after her father died. She is divorced and has one son. At the time of the interview, she made jewelry and metal sculpture.

2008 Update: "I have looked at my work online and have all my equipment in the basement of our home, but have not been motivated to do any work as yet.  I was given a gift, I do recognize that.  However, the caring and death process took such a toll that I do not know when I will return to art.  I have taken tai chi, chi gong, and am working toward a Reiki Mastership in the Reiki Jin Ki Do/ Reiki Shindo lineage.  My hope is to work with death and dying.  Of late I have begun to sit at the bench again and am contemplating designing a ring for myself.  The sculptural small table forms are beginning to pop back into my head."

Vicki Ingham was born in Lynchburg, Virginia, in 1952. She grew up mainly in Fairfax County, Virginia, and spent summers in Birmingham, Alabama, with her father and stepfamily after her parents' divorce in 1962. She has one younger sister and two stepsisters. She received her B.A. in Anthropology in 1974 from the University of Delaware. After taking art studio courses from 1977 to 1980, she received an M.A. in Art History in 1994 from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In the interim years between degrees, she worked as a writer/editor for Southern Living in Birmingham. She is single, and works full-time at Meredith Publishing as a book editor. She paints with oil, and studied landscape painting in Italy in 1992 and in 1997.

2008 Update: "In some ways not much has changed for me. I live in the same apartment, I work at the same company, probably doing much the same type of thing, editing decorating books. I'm still painting in oil. But a couple of things have changed. I came to terms with accepting myself as an artist and believing in that as my calling, whether I sell anything or not. There are so many of us out here making art, and it's hard sometimes not to feel overwhelmed and lost in the crowd, but I have to keep believing that we each have our calling, our gift, and the responsibility to use it. I keep making art because I need to. It's part of who I am. I want and need to sell what I produce for financial reasons, but finding buyers is also the other part of the conversation--I'm putting it out there, and I need someone to respond. It's really a gift when people like your work enough to want to live with it.

I started focusing on Italian landscapes in 2003, when I discovered Poggiarellino, the wonderful farm in Tuscany where I've stayed four times. I finally have a website and am trying to figure out how to use the internet to find a wider audience."

Peggy Jester was born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1937. She grew up in Des Moines and attended Catholic and public schools. She received her B.A. from the University of Colorado in 1960. She worked as a commercial artist until she got married; she has three children. She earned her M.F.A. from Drake University in 1981. She is a painter and printmaker in Des Moines, and over the years has taught several classes at the Des Moines Art Center.

2008 Update: "In 2004, I purchased an etching press. At that time I was on the faculty at the Des Moines Art Center teaching printmaking and drawing and I often worked there on prints off times. I wanted to have my own press in my studio. In 2005, I began using Z*Acrylic polyester plates with lithographic properties. The images I used are from a found 1930's album of 3"x3" black and white photographs which I enlarged on a laser printer and printed onto the polyester plate. I enjoyed layering the images using many colors, images and transparent overlays. Two years ago, I began another experimental project: plants and flowers layered onto Plexiglas plates, then laid on damp printing paper that often already was printed with one or more transparent colors. The results amazed me...embossed relief forms often ozzing with colors from the plant material. I have shown both series in exhibitions and art fairs. They have been well received. Last summer (2007), I spent a week at Crown Point Press in San Francisco under Kathan Brown doing an intaglio workshop, learned more about classic intaglio techniques. Spring 2008: Thinking a lot about painting. What does one paint?"

Sara Ellen Slee Brown was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1945. She is the second of four children. She grew up mainly in Michigan, first in Hastings, then in Ann Arbor. She earned her B.F.A. from the University of Michigan in 1968, and her M.A. (1980) and M.F.A. in Painting (1981) from the University of Iowa. She is married with two children. She works in mixed media, including gouache and colored pencil, as well as painting with oil.

How has your artwork changed in the last ten years?
When I resumed making artwork in 2000 I was somewhat unfocused. Then I read an article about a photographer who had begun using a flatbed scanner to take pictures of flowers with beautiful results.  I was intrigued with this idea and so began to experiment with the technique myself as I already had all of the necessary equipment. I soon became enchanted with the method and results I was able to produce with this new medium. I have been making my art using it ever since.

What motivates you to continue making art?
Making art is the one activity that allows me to express myself in a deeply satisfying way.  Being in the flow of creativity is completely satisfying.

Wendy Suzanne Rolfe was born in 1958 in Marblehead, Massachusetts, a "beautiful little fishing village and seaport." She grew up there with two sisters, a brother, and a half-sister. Her journalist father watched the children at night when Wendy was growing up, while her mother worked as a nurse on the night shift. Wendy attended the University of Tampa and the Academy of Art College in San Francisco, and received her B.F.A. from Parsons School of Design (New York) in 1983. She met her husband, an Iowa native, in New York. They married and moved here in 1990. They have two daughters, a casket-making company, and have started a retreat center, Mineral Crossing, with hermitages on their land. She works primarily in oil on wood panel.

What kind of artwork are you doing now?
Somewhat similar to what I have always done, except I am emphasizing my craftsmanship in painting and not so much the metalwork at this time. I feel it is crucial for me to focus on the idea of thought without too many distracting details. Therefore, I am trying to concentrate on simplicity of painting and its philosophy.

What motivates you to continue making Art?
It is what connects me to my inner spirit as well as the desire for sanity in a world where most people feel disconnected, invisible and at times desperate. It allows for inner and universal language to have its voice. The arts to me are what heals and unites all that we do not easily understand and makes us live too long in fear and limitation.

Peggy Chambers Johnston was the first peacetime baby following World War II born at Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in Denver, Colorado. She grew up in Denver with two younger brothers. She attended the University of Wyoming, but work on her degree was interrupted by her husband's military service. She finished work on her B.A. in art education in 1975. She lived in Wyoming for several years, teaching art at a community college and other venues, then lived in Denver until moving to Des Moines in 1990. Since then, she has been teaching art at the Des Moines Art Center, freelancing for magazines, and working on her own in mixed media, creating hand-made books and embellished chine collé monotypes. She is married and has two children. She continues to take continuing education classes and workshops in printmaking, painting, papermaking, and book arts.

2008 Update: My life hasn't changed much at all in the last ten years.  I don't know if that is good or bad.  I am better-known for my work, now, and have won some nice awards.  I continue to teach wherever I can, whenever I can.  I continue to accept commissions for books and related objects for special needs or occasions.  I am one of the founding members of the Prairie Book Collaborative, a group dedicated to the book in all forms.  We are in the process of finishing out third collaboration.  It has run into many problems, but we are hoping that it will be finished in the next couple of months.

My motivation:  Books incorporate virtually all of the arts and sciences as well as many crafts, so they are endlessly fascinating to me—here's my list which keeps growing.

Janet Hart Heinicke grew up in Richmond, Indiana. She graduated from Wittenberg College in Springfield, Ohio, and was an art educator in Indiana and Ohio before completing a master's degree in art education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Later, Heinicke earned a M.F.A. in painting and a doctoral degree in curriculum at Northern Illinois University, in De Kalb, Illinois. From 1982 to 2001, Heinicke worked as chair of the department of art at Simpson College in Indianola, and for thirteen of these years she also was chair of the Fine Arts Division. Though officially retired as Professor in 2001, she taught as adjunct faculty at Simpson until spring 2004. At present she teaches at the Des Moines Art Center and offers lessons in her home.

What motivates you to continue making art?
I think the source material for me has not changed a lot.  However, as I reflect upon several one-person exhibitions mounted about 1998 and 1999, especially the "Universality" show, where the ideas undergirding the work were so important to me that sometimes the work became didactic, I know that I have changed my intent and purpose in much of what I am producing presently.  In my studio I have a little quotation which I slid under the glass on the table where I work.  It says something to the effect that the artist should "continue the testimony of what humans have seen, believed, felt and thought; we must have the courage to ask ourselves what we really care about....if we do not know, we cannot express it.  To seek beauty and meaning in our lives is to bring it into our art."  I think that now is the time to "harvest the spiritual wonder of life."

Elizabeth Slaughter Miller was born in 1929 in Lincoln, Nebraska. She grew up in the Lincoln area with a brother and a sister and her parents. At the University of Nebraska, she was president of the Delta Phi Delta, the honorary art association, and graduated in 1951 with a B.F.A. in painting and printmaking. After a summer teaching art at a girls' camp in Minnesota, she worked at the Des Moines Art Center and in Waterloo. 

She taught art at Drake University in Des Moines, where she met her husband, a music professor. They were married in 1958, and they have two daughters. She earned her M.F.A. from Drake in 1969. Before retiring in 1995, she taught painting and drawing at Iowa State University for 24 years, earning the title of Distinguished Professor. She paints in oil and watercolor.

What has changed in the last ten years?
"The main thing that has changed in my life is that my husband and I moved into a townhouse at a retirement community two-and-a-half years ago.  I have a studio in the lower level and continue to paint.

I am now in "Arte Gallery" located in the East Village.  I had a solo exhibit there in November and December 2007.  I still have work in the Corner House Gallery in Cedar Rapids.

My work has not changed.  I still paint mostly landscapes and flower gardens."

Laura Waldo-Semken was born in 1969, in Kansas City, Missouri. Her parents divorced when she was two. She grew up mostly in Kansas City, Kansas, with her two older brothers; one of her brothers died in 1980 at age 18. She also has a stepsister and stepbrother from her father's remarriage. She received her B.F.A. in Printmaking from the University of Kansas in Lawrence in 1991. She is married, and at the time of the interview, worked part-time for the Episcopal chaplain at the University of Iowa and ran a café for homeless people one day a week. She works with wood, paint, collage, and found objects.

What has changed in the last ten years?
"In the last seven years, I have not been quite as active as an artist. My daughter, Fenna, was born in 2000. I began playing my viola again and now play in a trio and the community orchestra. I quit doing art fairs when my daughter was born and have not found the drive to return to the fair scene. Instead I spend my summers as a camp coordinator at University of Iowa School of the Wild at the Macbride Field Campus. I am hopefully passing on my love for the woods, prairie, birds, and conservation education.

I am working more two-dimensionally with fabric. I am definitely still using aspects of sacred geometry and numerology. I still like what my artist statement has to say.  

I like fabric because it allows me to work bigger and more spontaneously. I also appreciate the tactile nature of fabric and flexibility. I am always learning new techniques and currently would like to learn more about printing on fabric and methods of transferring images to fabric. This medium seems to combine sculpture, my abstract designs, and my love of collage with existing imagery.

Joy motivates me to continue making art. When I am immersed in a creative project my heart is happy. I know that sounds corny but it will have to suffice. Writer is not one of my many part-time careers."

Mary Andrews Muller was born in Evanston, Illinois, in 1934. She is the second of four children. Her family moved a lot, living in Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New York. From sixth grade through high school, she grew up in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. She received her B.A. in art from Principia College in Elsah, Illinois, in 1956. After getting married and having five children, she returned to art and studied with Dimitar Krustev and Robert Brackman. She taught at the Art Center for twenty years, and still teaches painting and drawing in her 

home studio, and continues her own work. She has painted many portraits, including one of former Governor Terry Branstad.

She is currently teaching at the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women in Mitchellville, and is selling note cards printed with her students' artwork. They are available at $10 per package of 5, and all of the profit goes toward their art supplies.

What has changed in the last ten years?
"My artwork has not changed dramatically in the past ten years, with the exception of there being a steady list of portrait commissions. I have to work very hard to find time to paint my landscapes and florals. My teaching takes up a great deal of time. Teaching art lessons at the Iowa Correctional Facility for Women in Mitchellville, which I started in 2004, has turned out to be a huge investment of time. We frequently have exhibits of their work.

The biggest change in my life has been the hiring of an assistant. I have one who does anything I ask her to, including emptying the dishwasher, keeping my financial records, running errands, etc. She, however, is filling a large portion of her employment photographing and matting prison art work, and I am now looking for an answer to freeing her up to do my work. In exchange for their art lessons, I have a student who does my photo filing, one who schedules our models for portrait classes, one who stretches my canvases, builds partitions to block out light, shovels snow—whatever—and students may model for classes to help pay for their tuition.

My Artist's Statement includes changes in approach to my painting, especially the use of red backgrounds for my landscapes and florals. The portraits continue to be an adventure, because each subject is different from all others I have painted.
 
Attendance at the Art of the Portrait Conference for the Portrait Society of America has been an annual addition to my calendar because of the opportunities and information regarding portraiture presented there, both painting techniques and the business of portraiture.

In addition to many family and business portraits, I have also been privileged to paint portraits for Iowa State University's Agricultural Dept., the Law School at Drake University, Lt. Gov. Sally Pederson for the Governor's office at the end of her administration, and several for Planned Parenthood.

The computer and digital camera have completely changed my approach to my business and my organization of it. They have also facilitated the use of teaching aids for my classes.

Five or six years ago I began having gardens built in my yard for plants and flowers to paint and have available for my students to paint. I added a four-season porch for a new studio. My classes had taken over my space, and I needed to have my own."

What motivates you to paint?
"I have always painted because I enjoy it, but I at one time thought I could have set it all aside for playing bridge, tennis and bowling. But not anymore. I have reached a place where I just have to paint, and I find as much pleasure in watching students grow as in creating my own images."