Elyse Lodermeier is a studio art/painting major with a minor in art history here at UW- Stout. She is from Zumbrota, Minnesota and finds the painting community here at Stout very supporting and an excellent environment.

What sparked your interest in art?

“I grew up in a day-care, so I have always been around creating projects and my sister always drew around me. I feel like the real spark happened when I went to community college and I had a professor there that was like, ‘Just go for it’, and I kind-of fell headfirst into it ever since.”

What styles or mediums do you prefer to use?

“I usually do watercolor and inks, so water-soluble type things like gouache. I’ve kind of had a mix of figurative and abstraction type art, right now. It’s kind of ‘fantastical’ with really bright colors with that mix of figurative in it.”

Are there any projects that stood out during you’re here at Stout?

“One project that I had to do was to paint 50 paintings in 10 days. So Tim, my professor, told me that I looked like I was stuck in whatever I was painting. He said that I really needed to get loose and that I really needed to go fast. So, he looked at my two compositional notebooks I had and looked at me and asked, “How many pages are left in those notebooks?” I said, “Probably around 50 pages.” He then asked me to do them all in 10 days. After that I left and, kind of, just stared at those notebooks. It ended up being a whirlwind of insanity for those next 10 days. I, basically, turned my whole bedroom into a painting studio. Paints were on the floor and on the ceiling. I remember at some point I just poured ink onto a sheet of paper because I was like ‘I don’t care’ but it was insane.”

Do you take influence from any artists in particular?

“There are a couple on Instagram that I like and follow. One of them is John Singer Sargent. He is a 1920’s painter that dabbled in watercolor along with other mediums. One of my favorite paintings of his is ‘The Chess Game’. As I have gotten older through Stout I’ve really fallen in love with impressionist painters, which I never thought I would do that.”

What are your plans after graduation?

“Hopefully, go on to graduate school, to be honest. I’ve decided, and I still have to talk to my advisors, to drop my Animation Degree. I was an Animation BFA and a Painting BFA with and art history minor, but I just kind of lost my heart for animation. I haven’t lost my love for it, just my heart for it. After graduation, I’m hoping to pursue something in illustration and painting, and I would love to go onto graduate school. Preferably in another place or another country. I’m kind of a ‘go-with-the-flow’ spirit, so all I know is that once I graduate I’m ready to hit the road running, I’m ready to explore what I need to and be what I want to be in the process.”

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