SEASON OF THE ARTS
This is a partial photo of five 40 ” x 60 ” Tangled Oaks pastels installed 40 ” x 300 ”.
hood – along with weekly trips to the DeWitt post office , where she admired a 1930s-era New Deal mural called “ Shucking Corn ,” by John Bloom , a Grant Wood protégé and husband of sculptor Isabel Bloom . The mural was the first painting she had seen . It fired her imagination and confirmed her decision to become an artist .
Wagener pursued her dream . She graduated from the University of Iowa and received her B . F . A . in 1989 from Corcoran College of Art and Design , part of George Washington University in the District of Columbia . After she completed her formal education , she came home to Iowa where she briefly taught at Marycrest International University in Davenport . She also immersed herself in the Iowa landscape and started drawing pastels of scenes that spoke to her – scenes she discovered along country roads .
“ For me , making art is about the experience of being in the landscape and trying to figure out how I ’ m going to capture the joy , bliss , and nirvana that I feel ,” Wagener said , describing her work . “ For me , it ’ s like church . Looking at a landscape is like a prayerful experience , and I ’ m trying to bring back those feelings and emotions I had while I ’ m making the paintings . Hopefully , I can share my feelings from those moments I had when I stood in the field .”
Wagener has been quite successful sharing her feelings of joy and bliss through her landscape paintings . Today , her pastels can be found in permanent collections of the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art , Iowa State University Museums , the University of Iowa Museum of Art , the Tucson Museum of Art , and Davenport ’ s Figge Art Museum , as well as the Dubuque Museum of Art .
“ The Dubuque Museum of Art is very pleased to exhibit and share Ellen ’ s compelling body of art with students and adults
throughout our region ,” said David Schmitz , the Museum ’ s Executive Director . “ Ellen is a true homegrown success and a remarkable example of how far passion and dedication can take an artist .”
Stacy L . Peterson , the Museum ’ s Associate Curator and Registrar , echoed Schmitz ’ s sentiments , “ Ellen has a passion for nature and the Midwest that radiates from her pastel landscapes . Her work references the traditions of the great Iowa artists Grant Wood and John Bloom while making new connections to modern art . It is an incredible honor to bring this exhibition to Dubuque .”
Although she moved to Scottsdale , AZ more than 15 years ago , Wagener is still an Iowa girl at heart – and it ’ s reflected in her captivating paintings featuring rows of soybean and cornfields and big , ever changing skies .
Waiting For the Pink Floyd Moment is a series of ten small paintings of a field along Highway 61 . Wagener got up before daybreak to capture the sequential moments of a sunrise as it takes place over just 20 minutes . “ I watched the sun rise over the same field ,” she said . “ The field goes from an inky cobalt blue and then as the sun rises the sky turns bright with colors of pink and orange and saffron somewhere in the middle of the series . And then it ends at the point where the sky turns ochre , yellow , and cream .”
Why call the sunrise paintings a Pink Floyd moment ? “ I listen to a lot of Pink Floyd music when I work , but when I watch a sunrise , I ’ m often interested in waiting for that moment when the sunrise is at its highest moment , and often there is a lot of pink ,” explained Wagener . “ For me , that ’ s the best moment in a sunrise . And that happens at painting number 7 in the series . Then the sun backs off , and the sunrise sort of mellows .”
While Waiting For the Pink Floyd Moment
captures just 20 minutes in time , Iowa , Four Seasons , Spring , Summer , Autumn , Winter spans an entire year . The four , 60 x 40 inch pastels capture seasonal changes in an Iowa cornfield from spring ’ s new growth to a bare , winter field after the harvest has been completed .
Tangled Oaks , five , 40 x 60 inch paintings of savanna oak trees , reflect the influence of Asian art and almost appear to be wood block prints . Wagener drew her inspiration from a 100-year-old oak tree rooted in a Jackson County prairie . She worked on the pastel drawings in her garage from 4:00 a . m . until 11:00 a . m . every day until they were finished , working back and forth across the paintings from end to end .
“ Savanna oaks tend to be found in clusters or groupings and have their own little ecosystem because they do exist in clusters ,” said Wagener . “ They weave in and out of each other and create an abstract pattern amongst the branches . It ’ s almost like looking at an abstract Jackson Pollock . If you stand back , you almost can ’ t tell it ’ s a tree because you ’ re not seeing the top or full trunk or what ’ s going on underneath . It ’ s about the lyrical nature of the tree – about how the trees intertwine with each other and create their own community .”
Global warming is next on Wagener ’ s agenda . “ I ’ m doing things on climate change ... paintings of fire in Arizona – wildfires , drought , tornadoes , and storms ,” she said . “ I think the story of global warming is being told in the landscape . It ’ s not a hoax or a political issue .”
Watch for Wagener ’ s global warming pastels sometime in the near future . But for now , visit the Dubuque Museum of Art and enjoy Wagener ’ s Pink Floyd Moment , Four Seasons , Tangled Oaks , and the other pastels featured in her No Ordinary Moments exhibit . v
24 ❖ Julien ’ s Journal