ABOUT Martin
Martin Waldera is a St. Paul artist who loves color and motion. His paintings draw you in with wonderful colors and textures. Martin paints primarily contemporary landscapes and abstracts. His abstracts feature iconographic forms that are strong and compelling. His landscapes are more interesting than most you have seen. You must see these paintings in person to appreciate the iridescent paint, the vibrancy, and the composition.
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These recent paintings are the culmination of years of small successes and many failures, a continuous process. As diverse as the Minnesota climate are the influences evident within these acrylic paintings. I begin working serendipitously on multiple pieces and rely on "happy accidents," then I paint more intuitively in reaction to my initial marks. When finished I hope to discover elements of ancient maps, paths of the explorers, primitive cave drawings, aboriginal symbols, mythology figures, astrological signs, abstract land forms, great geologic events, oriental ideograms, native pictographs, rock and roll music and the blues.
Education:
I am a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a B.A. in Studio Arts. In studying art history, I was attracted to the Surrealists, especially Dali and Tanguy, as well as Duchamp. At the U of M, George Morrison made a lasting impression upon me with his abstractions of earth and sky and their relation to the horizon. Recently, I've enjoyed the abstract woodblock prints of Hodaka Yoshida and their "primitive energy." Together the study of these artists and others have shaped my interpretation of art and guided my hand to create work that defines me.