Local Artist Lynn TenHarmsel Enters Artprize
“I tend to put other things ahead of it, but it’s my little quiet time, peace of mind, relaxation,” TenHarmsel said. “My meditation is what it is.”
Lynn TenHarmsel was inspired by her family to submit her minimalist landscape painting “Vibrant” for ArtPrize
Artist Lynn TenHarmsel leaves her art to chance.
“Most of my pieces are just something that I came across, something that was interesting, maybe a photo I had taken,” TenHarmsel said. “You see something that catches your attention, and you look at it again, and just kind of hesitate.”
“Vibrant,” an acrylic-on-canvas painting of one small, beautiful tree alone among others that have all lost their leaves is on display in McKay Tower, adjacent to Monroe Center.
“This was the last one standing,” TenHarmsel said. “My first thought was of a friend’s daughter who they recently lost about a year ago to Leukemia. She loved outdoors and nature, and she was just a bright young lady.”
This is TenHarmsel’s third year of ArtPrize, each year displaying minimalistic acrylic paintings of trees in winter. She did not go to school for painting, so she has stuck with acrylics because it is the medium she knows best. Her background is primarily in photography.
Photography was deeply important to TenHarmsel’s father. Though he taught her about lighting, setting, perspective, and a number of other factors that can make you see a subject in, quite literally, a new light, he was also a physics teacher who saw the world with very straight lines.
“That kind of helped me be the opposite of it,” TenHarmsel said.
TenHarmsel’s photos were more experimental than her father’s, and it put her in a great position to embrace painting when her husband and boys got her an easel and some paints one Christmas.
TenHarmsel struggles with what fans of popular culture might call the Peter Parker dilemma. In other words, her art, like Peter Parker’s superheroing under the guise of Spider-Man, must always compete with the requirements of the life she chooses.
“I tend to put other things ahead of it, but it’s my little quiet time, peace of mind, relaxation,” TenHarmsel said. “My meditation is what it is.”
On the other hand, the things that make it difficult to find time to make art, like spending time with or supporting her family, are ultimately TenHarmsel’s motivation to make and display her art.
“Our kids were ultimately the ones who convinced me to apply for ArtPrize the first time,” TenHarmsel said. “I want to set an example. You can be nervous about something and unsure, and you can still do it.”
Just as TenHarmsel is inspired by her family, evidence suggest that her family is equally inspired by her. She noted that her oldest son has begun taking photos and making hype videos.
“He’s taking it to a whole different level,” she said. “He enjoys photography, he’s taking a videography class, and he’s using the same tools and software that I do.”
Before becoming a stay-at-home mother, TenHarmsel worked in IT, web development, and graphic design, but art has always been a refrain that she returns to. In school, she took as many art electives as she could. She studied building and construction management in college, and her drafting classes gave her the skills she needed to design her home. Moreover, there has always been photography.
From far away, one could mistake “Vibrant” for the cracked white bark of a birch tree. There is a precision to the lines that imply rather than present leafless trees in winter, and that spark of color, the little evergreen in the distance shining through, it is truly vibrant. For those who stop and look, it might communicate a message of resilience. Times are hard now, but you are made of different stuff; those who trouble you will not survive the winter, and your view will no longer be obscured by them. For others, it may be a story of hope. In this sun-starved field of desolation, something new and unexpected has popped up.
After TenHarmsel’s explanation that this last tree standing reminds her of a friend’s daughter who passed away due to Leukemia, the tree feels a bit more ephemeral, as if you can only see it out of the corner of your eye. If a tree falls in a forest, does it make a sound? Yes, every time someone who remembers that tree returns to where it once stood. That tree, though no longer present, made an impact on someone.
“Vibrant” is subtle, but it is powerful.
You can vote for ArtPrize via the Flockx app until Thursday, September 26, two days before the end of ArtPrize 2024. If you are interested in voting for “Vibrant,” its Voting ID number is 36373.
