Wendy Lemen Bredehoft is an innovative full-time mixed media artist from Wyoming who describes her art as that which “investigates visual nuances, focusing on details that provide a basis for understanding and responding to specific places and experiences, especially those informed by nature.”
I selected Bredehoft to be included in the “Our Bond With Nature” online art exhibition (October 25 – December 25, 2018), and to receive a Special Recognition Featured Artist Award for several reasons: Her enthralling, multi-faceted works of art immediately ignited my fascination; she explores different challenging mediums as she pursues her growing creative journey; she brings attention to details of natural regions that are unfamiliar to most of us; she is an artist advocate and proactive art leader (with too many credentials to include here); and through her dedication and tenacity has been raising awareness about artists in her beloved state of Wyoming in addition to inspiring others throughout the global art community. Suffice to say, I am proud to have selected her as one of our world changers.
About the works of art she submitted to the art exhibition, which you see here, she writes, “The waters of Turneffe Island Atoll, off Belize, inform these fluid acrylic strappo monoprints. On a recent visit, I became entranced with the kaleidoscopic layers, textures and colors seen through the lens of crystal clear waters. Turneffe is a marine reserve and the largest coral atoll in the Belize Barrier Reef System, home to an astounding array of sea life.”
Bredehoft works as part of the artist group known as Sequencing, which includes photographer Susan Moldenhauer and dancer/choreographer Margaret Wilson. Additionally, she is a co-founder and member of the artists’ groups Pipeline Art Project (Pumping art from the energy state of Wyoming), and Laramie Artists Project.
With a few other contemporary artists she launched the Pipeline Art Project: pumping art from the energy state of Wyoming. She explains, “We selected the name Pipeline Art Project for our consortium because we deal with environmental issues on a daily basis here, and as artists we wanted to elevate the notion that there is as much value in promoting the work of Wyoming artists to the rest of the country as there is in promoting gas and oil and other extraction materials.”
The founders of Pipeline periodically exhibit their work together in Wyoming and elsewhere in the U.S. They also partnered with the WY Arts Council “to re-establish a regular convening of visual artists, in conjunction with the Council’s Visual Arts Fellowships Awards. This conference provides professional development opportunities and connects WY artists with each other and with regional and national professionals in the arts, including gallery owners, curators, critics and artists.”
In 2016, Pipeline partnered with the online news file, WyoFile.com, to present Studio Wyoming Review, an online review of art exhibitions around the state. Managed by artist, gallery owner and administrator Camellia El Antably, this publication provides the only regular statewide review of artists and their artwork, providing a venue for artists and writers.
Bredehoft is also a proud co-founder of Touchstone Laramie, a biennial, community-artist exhibition hosted by the Laramie Artists Project, a local organization run entirely by Albany County, Wyoming artists. Known as one of Laramie, Wyoming’s most intimate and unique art experiences this project transforms an entire floor of hotel guest rooms into more than 30 individual artist-designed galleries. Touchstone Laramie 2018, housed at the local Fairfield Inn & Suites, brought in $46,000 in art sales for the weekend. In a town of 32,000 people, that is a remarkable feat.
The artist has received much deserved accolades for her outstanding artistic achievements including the Wyoming Arts Council’s Visual Art Fellowship Honorable Mention Award (2016), multiple Individual Artist grants for artistic research and travel, and artist residency opportunities. Her artwork is in the collections of the Wyoming State Museum; Albertson College of Idaho; University of Wyoming Law School, College of Health Sciences and Coe Library; Stony Brook School, NY and other public and private collections.
Bredehoft attained an MFA in Visual Arts from Vermont College in 1996, and a BFA in Visual Arts from the University of Wyoming in 1984.
She was the Education Curator for the University of Wyoming Art Museum; served as the Director of Cultural Resources for the State of Wyoming that “went on to support cultural programming for the 500,000 citizens who chose to live in the 98,000 square miles of WY” and was the Arts Education Specialist for the Wyoming Arts Council. She states, “I learned that quality of life was important, even in the most remote areas of the state.”
The artist is currently a board member for the Western States Arts Federation and the Wyoming Arts Alliance, and has served on numerous boards, advisory and grants panels during her career, ranging from the National Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. Department of Education to the Jeffery City (WY) Arts Council.
Bredehoft is also one of the founders of a Facebook group for WY artists, and explains, “We joked that if 50 artists belonged to the group we would consider that a huge success. Ten years later Studio Wyoming includes over 600 members who use the site to share artwork and news, pose questions, share professional development tips and more. Now when we meet ‘new’ artists we are often able to say, ‘I know your artwork! It’s so nice to know your face.'”
Visit Wendy Lemen Bredehoft’s website: wlbart.com
Visit the Touchstone Laramie website: laramieartistsproject.org/touchstone
Join Wendy Lemen Bredehoft in Social Media
facebook.com/wendy.bredehoft
facebook: Studio Wyoming Public Group for Artists
View art from the “Our Bond With Nature” Online Art Exhibition
Kudos, Wendy!