Art Talk with Armin Mersmann
Examine the creative process and the always important “what if” during this discussion-based class.
We will meet every other week for sixteen weeks (eight sessions) for general art discussions from the creative and technical to the business side of all things art. In addition, you will have the opportunity to show the art you are working on or have completed.
This class will keep you fired up about art with interesting discussions with fellow artists and Armin alike. “Art Talk,” a course designed to be virtual, will utilize the enhanced opportunities Zoom provides as we show relevant artworks instantly, make changes in Photoshop and explore examples of artists on the fly as we reference them.
Bi-weekly class dates are: 1-3 PM on Mondays…. 1/9, 11/23, 2/6, 2/20, 3/6, 3/20, 4/3, 4/17
Cost is $185.00
Armin Mersmann was born in Remscheid, Germany, in 1955. Along with his parents, he immigrated to the United States in 1962. He grew up in an artistic environment and was greatly influenced and tutored by his father, Fritz, a successful oil painter. Mersmann feels his career as an artist was inevitable: “I never made the conscious choice to be an artist, it’s just what I did.” After six years of college, Mersmann began a very successful stint as a portrait artist in Chicago, IL. Although commission work was financially rewarding, he stopped doing it and soon found more interest in the fine arts—work that at times is controversial but more satisfying conceptually. “Art, my sanctuary, the very thing that gave me such pleasure, was now reduced to making a living. Art is too precious for me to make decisions based on finances.” This does not mean Mersmann will never do a commissioned portrait; rather, it has to interest him conceptually, and he insists on total control over the image.
Although Mersmann is mainly known for his intense naturalistic graphite drawings, he also works in photography and encaustic wax, which is much more abstract than his drawings. “My interests have become exceedingly experimental with more attention placed on the surfaces of the work itself. Discovering and rediscovering my chosen medium is the everlasting stimulus that keeps me interested and excited. Accidental process and meticulous planning co-mingle in all my work. Texture, either real or illusionary, and that one ever-elusive brushstroke, the one that says it all; this keeps me searching and exploring.”
Mersmann has taught drawing, the Creative Process, iPhoneography and Advanced Critique at the American Academy of Art, Chicago, IL; the Colorado Academy of Art, Boulder CO; Northwood University, Midland, MI; the Midland Center for the Arts, Midland, MI; and countless workshops within the United States. He lives in Midland, MI, where he is the Senior Visual Art Curator and Artist in Residence at Midland Center for the Arts. He shares a studio with his wife, Valerie Allen, who is an accomplished artist in her own right.