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Artist Olga Krasovska sits in the rear corner of the K.K. Berge building, faced by her husband and flanked by one of her local champions. She sits framed by a large picture window that offers the Minnesota River and the Roebling foot bridge as an arresting back drop, awash in mid-afternoon sunlight.
One of her paintings, a European cityscape, sits perched upon an easel, girded by the two large windows in the back of the building; begging for attention. Another, an image of a dark and fairy-like woman, leans haphazardly against a corner of the wall; waiting its turn at the easel and in the sunlight.
“I think people need art because they want to see pretty things,” says Olga. “Not my individualized feelings about an object. People want to have pretty things in their house. Simple. Like that.”
Her voice sounds exactly as you’d expect it after hearing her name: Thick. Bold. Low in tone and rounded. At times it seems as if a syllable sticks in the bottom of the mouth and is just passed over. Yet, she’s easy to talk to, engaging and familiar.
She seems to love beauty, the “pretty things,” as she has said, and beauty was one of the things that drew her to make a new home in Granite Falls.
“It’s totally different in Granite,” says Olga. “I do like it, because for my profession you need peace and quite and you need nature... It’s a beautiful place. So scenic.”
She was born in the Ukraine and says she’s studied painting since she was eight-years-old; getting her start while growing up in Egypt. She attended the Pedagogical University in Krivoj Rog, Ukraine and was invited back to teach. She describes the school as a teachers college.
She met her husband, Gary Schoenberger, in the Ukraine and immigrated to the United States in 2004. She talks briefly about the immigration process and it’s difficulties. “Immigrating the legal way is the long way,” says Gary. And Olga seems to have taken the long way here; matriculating through St. Paul where she lived for the first six years; navigating culture and climate shock.
She’s not here to talk about all that though, it’s quickly passed over. She’s here to talk about her art, her first exhibit in her new hometown and what is just the second exhibit the newly saved and renovated K.K Berge building has hosted.
However, she does say, “I’m probably the most comfortable with this move to here... I have idea to have ‘Russian garden’ in summer. I couldn’t have that in St. Paul—I can have it here. It’s interesting here.”
She describes her unique artwork, which is like her: bold, soft and vibrant. “I have an unusual technique,” she begins. “I work on fabric—cotton.
“Nobody else does it, so it gives me an interesting angle in art. And it’s not primed (like canvas), so there’s no way to stop pigment, ink, watercolor, water, from moving whatever way it feels like moving. So that’s what makes it soft and so unpredictable and hard to...”
She creates beautiful, detailed works of art with materials that most people could only use to create a Rorschach test.
“I call it ‘No Control’ painting,” interjects her husband. “But she controls it.”
She describes her style: “I do like the impressionistic color pallete, but don’t want to stylize so much to the point where it’s disappearing. I want to keep it modern and fresh, but not too modern to the point where it starts to look abstract or subjective.”
Art made to simply be beautiful.
And, as an Art Council member herself, Olga hopes—also—that her art is inspirational. She taught art for eight-and-a-half years and she rattles off her list of things she’d like to teach and the types of people she’d like to collaborate with in her new hometown.
But first, there’s the K.K. Berge exhibit, which will run from this Friday, February 17 - March 22. On Friday the event will begin with a wine and cheese tasting event from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Fellow Art Council member, Diane Ladner has been sitting next to Olga listening. She’s asked what makes Olga the right artist to be one of the first to blaze a trail for the Arts Council and the K.K. Berge building.
Her answer is almost as simple as Olga’s first answer about the need for art.
“I think she’s a great artist,” says Diane. “I have a piece of her work in my kitchen and I’d like to have more of her work. I’m just thrilled she’s going to be our second show. I want other people to see how beautiful her work is. I’m just so excited that she’s here.”
Artist Olga Krasovska sits in the rear corner of the K.K. Berge building, faced by her husband and flanked by one of her local champions. She sits framed by a large picture window that offers the Minnesota River and the Roebling foot bridge as an arresting back drop, awash in mid-afternoon sunlight.
One of her paintings, a European cityscape, sits perched upon an easel, girded by the two large windows in the back of the building; begging for attention. Another, an image of a dark and fairy-like woman, leans haphazardly against a corner of the wall; waiting its turn at the easel and in the sunlight.
“I think people need art because they want to see pretty things,” says Olga. “Not my individualized feelings about an object. People want to have pretty things in their house. Simple. Like that.”
Her voice sounds exactly as you’d expect it after hearing her name: Thick. Bold. Low in tone and rounded. At times it seems as if a syllable sticks in the bottom of the mouth and is just passed over. Yet, she’s easy to talk to, engaging and familiar.
She seems to love beauty, the “pretty things,” as she has said, and beauty was one of the things that drew her to make a new home in Granite Falls.
“It’s totally different in Granite,” says Olga. “I do like it, because for my profession you need peace and quite and you need nature... It’s a beautiful place. So scenic.”
She was born in the Ukraine and says she’s studied painting since she was eight-years-old; getting her start while growing up in Egypt. She attended the Pedagogical University in Krivoj Rog, Ukraine and was invited back to teach. She describes the school as a teachers college.
She met her husband, Gary Schoenberger, in the Ukraine and immigrated to the United States in 2004. She talks briefly about the immigration process and it’s difficulties. “Immigrating the legal way is the long way,” says Gary. And Olga seems to have taken the long way here; matriculating through St. Paul where she lived for the first six years; navigating culture and climate shock.
She’s not here to talk about all that though, it’s quickly passed over. She’s here to talk about her art, her first exhibit in her new hometown and what is just the second exhibit the newly saved and renovated K.K Berge building has hosted.
However, she does say, “I’m probably the most comfortable with this move to here... I have idea to have ‘Russian garden’ in summer. I couldn’t have that in St. Paul—I can have it here. It’s interesting here.”
She describes her unique artwork, which is like her: bold, soft and vibrant. “I have an unusual technique,” she begins. “I work on fabric—cotton.
“Nobody else does it, so it gives me an interesting angle in art. And it’s not primed (like canvas), so there’s no way to stop pigment, ink, watercolor, water, from moving whatever way it feels like moving. So that’s what makes it soft and so unpredictable and hard to...”
She creates beautiful, detailed works of art with materials that most people could only use to create a Rorschach test.
“I call it ‘No Control’ painting,” interjects her husband. “But she controls it.”
She describes her style: “I do like the impressionistic color pallete, but don’t want to stylize so much to the point where it’s disappearing. I want to keep it modern and fresh, but not too modern to the point where it starts to look abstract or subjective.”
Art made to simply be beautiful.
And, as an Art Council member herself, Olga hopes—also—that her art is inspirational. She taught art for eight-and-a-half years and she rattles off her list of things she’d like to teach and the types of people she’d like to collaborate with in her new hometown.
But first, there’s the K.K. Berge exhibit, which will run from this Friday, February 17 - March 22. On Friday the event will begin with a wine and cheese tasting event from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Fellow Art Council member, Diane Ladner has been sitting next to Olga listening. She’s asked what makes Olga the right artist to be one of the first to blaze a trail for the Arts Council and the K.K. Berge building.
Her answer is almost as simple as Olga’s first answer about the need for art.
“I think she’s a great artist,” says Diane. “I have a piece of her work in my kitchen and I’d like to have more of her work. I’m just thrilled she’s going to be our second show. I want other people to see how beautiful her work is. I’m just so excited that she’s here.”
