Member Artist Spotlight

Friends’ members are eligible to apply for a Member Spotlight which is displayed on the east wall of the first floor lobby.

Onsite showcases run for four weeks, those at partner locations are typically quarterly. We generally book 9 to 18 months out.

John Caron's Member Artist Spotlight of two paintings at Hopkins Center for the Arts

John Caron

HCA Member Spotlight, Hopkins Center for the Arts

On view through March 1.

Yale to Indiana “Pipeline” in the 1970s

Yale University School of Art produced most of the Indiana University art professors in the 1970s. Among the noted artists who taught at Yale were Bernard Chaet, William Bailey, Jack Youngerman and Al Held. Yale’s proximity to New York City and its artists was one reason for its renowned faculty. Another was that Yale chairs Josef Albers and Jack Tworkov invited major artists to teach at Yale.

My experience at Indiana University was with Roger Tibbetts (MFA Yale 1975) who studied under Al Held and Jack Youngerman at Yale.

Guillotine (1976) was inspired by Al Held’s series of paintings which included House of Cards.Roger Tibbett’s work was more like Al Held’s newer black and white geometric illusions.

 Portal (1976) is a layering of pure, candy colors in a geometric format reminiscent of a doorway or window opening.

Ac ollection of colorful paintings on display at the Hopkins Activty Center entry gallery

Marie Kelly

HCA Member Spotlight, Hopkins Activity Center, 33 - 14th Ave N.

On view through March 12.

Marie Kelly is an artist whose work is inspired by nature, human situations, and abstract thought. She has been painting and drawing for over forty years and has studied at the University of Minnesota, Edina Art Center, Hopkins Center for the Arts, and with private instructors. She has exhibited in several locations in the Twin Cities, and a landscape painting was awarded an Honorable Mention in a juried art exhibition. Many of her works are commissions and found in private homes and offices. Marie is currently exploring the properties of oil paint as a medium. She enjoys creating with its unique qualities; from thin, watercolor-like landscapes to thick, layered, brightly colored abstracts. She enjoys painting portraits of people and their pets. Marie loves the ocean and has collected shells worldwide and created individual artworks for people across the US. The most popular designs are her Shell Letters and Shell Chimes. She lives in Minnetonka as an empty nester with her husband and two Boston Terriers. She is a licensed Architect and Interior Designer, a book reader, a community volunteer, a grandmother of seven, and someone who loves to travel - anywhere, anytime. Should you like to contact her directly, she would love to hear from you. Prints of her originals and photos cards are available to order online. Commission information is found on her website. More of Marie's work can be seen at MarieKellyArt.com

Paintings by HCA artist Mary Jo Bartos at Cream and Amber bookshop and cafe

Mary Jo Bartos

HCA Member Artist Spotlight at Cream & Amber, 1605 Mainstreet

On view now through Mid-March, 2026

This series started in a collage class.   It was a quick project — with the one requirement — it was to include a house with a red roof.   The collage papers used were painted/stamped/altered papers.   The houses showed up in a variety of shapes and sizes…. As well as the environment surrounding them.    They were whimsical and fun.   And so I continued to make more and more of them.  

Interesting note — that although red is a vibrant color —  it has the densest and the slowest moving vibrational wave.    Yet it is a super stimulating color.

When I look at the collection, I think that maybe — Just maybe — they really are self-portraits ….  With aspects of me or events/places from my life.

Enjoy …..    Red Roofs!!!!

Mike Ruth Member Spotlight at The Depot 2026

Michael L. Ruth

HCA Member Spotlight Artist at Hopkins Depot Coffeehouse

ARTIST STATEMENT

These images are my version of Zentangles. I started doing these in 2018 after a friend introduced me to the Zentangle Form. I tried doing them by hand, but I wasn’t as adept with my hand skills as I am with a mouse. I adapted my ‘Zentangles” to these pieces which started simply with the name of “Zen” followed by a version number. Then Covid hit. 

I began the Covid-19 experience while on a road trip to North Carolina starting in early January and ending near the end of February 2020. At this time Covid was beginning to take hold in the U.S. In late February 2020, I began creating a graphic series of work which I call “The Pandemia Series” (pan day mia). 

The Pandemia series has individual pieces as well as works that are sequential, representing to me the spread of and response to Covid-19. The series is made up of digital visuals completed using Affinity Designer, Affinity Photo, with Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. These presented here are printed on Chromaluxe metal. The are approximately 100 pieces in the series. 

As a photographer, my first inclination was to visually document what was happening and began roaming out to find places to photograph: mainly empty streets, stores, playgrounds, etc. That was good but a lot of people were doing that. Something else piqued my interest, something more personal. 

The result is The Pandemia Series. Artwork created while under the stress of living with isolation due to a pandemic, an absent government, as well as cultural tensions like we have not seen in 50 years. 

MICHAEL L. RUTH earned a B.A. in Photography and Cinema from The Ohio State University, an M.Ed. in Graphic Communications from UW-Stout, and an ED.D. from University of Minnesota. Originally from Columbus, Ohio, he has lived in seven states. He has held jobs from baler of hay, taxi driver, construction worker, account clerk, printer, pit crew for an NHRA team and a Land Speed Record motorcycle team, advertising production manager, TV set and graphic designer, and concert rigger. Mike ended up teaching animation and special effects at Minnesota State University Moorhead. After 28 years living in Fargo-Moorhead, he retired and moved to Detroit, where for five years worked as an events production coordinator. Michael returned to Minnesota in the summer of 2019, still busy creating photographic images and Visual Graphic Art.     www.mikeruth.media

 


Contact Us

Interested members should contact Jim Clark at 952-548-6489 or jclark@hopkinsmn.