But Beck didn’t always feel that way. “There was a time when I thought of myself as a country boy from Minnesota who’d like to be a big city artist from New York and paint about the world,” Beck recalls. “Thinking like that can lead you to do the worst kind of art. You have to paint what you’re interested in. I’d rather paint a plowed field with some conviction than paint a crucifixion with none.”

But Pfeifer returned to the Red River Valley in the fall of 1992. “I never felt connected to a place other than the Red RiverValley,” Pfeifer says of his decision to return. “This is a place that is psychologically comfortable for me.” His art reflects this comfort. A 1995 graduate of North Dakota State University (B.S., fine art), Pfeifer works as a foreman for Roers Construction, a local commercial contractor, and exhibits his art at various exhibitions and competitions throughout the region.

“My father was a builder of houses, cabinets and boats,” he begins. “I had my studio space in the same space as his wood, tools, smells and noise. [Growing up,] I was always fascinated with miniature replication of reality in toys. I looked at comics to follow the action, rather than read the description. I enjoyed the early radio dramas and adventure/mystery books. My art is a compilation of all these things, plus thousands of artists seen as a possible source for ideas.”

In an artist’s statement, Oltvedt once wrote, “My work is the residue of a response to being; each of the images carries multiple levels of meaning beyond the surface of the subject as figure, landscape or still life. The underlying forces of life work throughout nature, producing delicate beauty, raw destructive force or variations in-between, to move and shape us all. Everything we see and experience around us is impacted by those forces, which in return generate a response from me in the form of paintings, drawings and prints.”

“I use the still life theme and subject matter as a vehicle for expressing my reactions and thoughts about day-to-day experiences,” Marth writes, “though sometimes I make work just to satisfy my love for gooey paint and wonderfully oxidized surfaces.” Marth’s creations have appeared in and won honors at numerous competitions and exhibitions. In 2000, he presented “A Decade of Still Life,” an exhibit spread out over six locations. It was Marth’s way of increasing community awareness of the various art spaces available in the area.

Today, Kim works as a corporate photographer in Minneapolis. Recipient of the Gold Award for excellence in corporate photography from Photo/Design, New York, his other accolades include a Gold Award from the national Community Relations Report and the Best of Show for the photography and design of the North Dakota Arts and Humanities annual report. He has been featured in the Minneapolis Star Tribune and the International Photo District News as well as several other publications.

With so much turmoil in his early life, Kim is still able to bring fresh eyes to his photography. “I try to look at things as though I’ve never seen them before,” he once said in an interview. “I strive not to be influenced by other people’s preconceptions of how things ought to look.” The same goes for planning a photo shoot. “It doesn’t really work to plan a photograph, then go out and take it,” Kim continued. “What I do is go to a place I think might be interesting, then try to have the patience to let the photograph come to me.”

In a way, Kemp’s life has mirrored his art. A native of England, Kemp showed an incredible openness to change in the fall of 1985, when he opted to leave home and study sculpture abroad as a graduate student at the University of North Dakota. Kemp earned his master’s degree in 1990 and has remained an active member of theGrand Forks community ever since. Today, Kemp works as a freelance artist and craftsman, working on various commissions and displaying his work at exhibitions throughout the region.

Academia provided more than an opportunity for Kaul to teach; it also provided inspiration. “As a painter, I was working at faculty meetings, during conversations and while having coffee,” he later recalled. “I saw color, composition, textures, rhythms and edges that reminded me of either new works or solutions to works in progress. The character of a face, the way light fell on the coffee cups in a meeting and the wonderful color combinations seen while driving home added to the vision.”

Now retired from teaching, Kaul continues to exhibit his work — primarily acrylic-and egg-tempera paintings — in solo and group exhibitions throughout the region. His art also appears in more than a dozen collections

Jones was born and raised in Fargo. He returned to his hometown nine years ago, after working in different capacities in the art business in different parts of the country for many years. Over the years, Jones’ paintings and charcoal drawings have appeared in dozens of solo and group exhibitions from California to Norway. His pieces are also included in many museum, corporate, and private collections in the United States and Europe.

A graduate of the University of North Dakota (B.A., 1966), theUniversity of Louisville (M.A., 1981) and Indiana University (M.F.A., 1987), Morrissey is a mixed media artist with a vivid style and a keen understanding and love for what she does. “On my internal hard drive is stored a repertoire of feelings and images, always at the ready for my use,” she muses, “the mix and match of which often delights me, amuses me or leads me to something more profound.”