Jerry Fogg has his art work on display at the Museum of Visual Materials until the end of June. Join us at his art reception on Friday, June 23rd from5:30-7:30pm. Meet the artist, view his new pieces of work, and enjoy complimentary treats.
Special feature of cheese & wine pairing samples brought to you by Cheese World.
Jerry’s art will be up in the Main Gallery May - end of June
Monday - Wednesday 9am-4pm
Thursdays & Fridays by appointment
Our friends at JAM Art & Supplies recently posted, An Inspiring Interview by Tana Zwart of Dan Thornson interviewing Jerry. An interesting read, and had to repost. Enjoy and thanks JAM Art & Supplies!
Jerry: Well, I’m practically from here. I’ve been here since the 70's. Initially, I grew up North, outside of Chamberlain, on Crow Creek reservation there.
Do you have a recollection of what downtown was like, art scene wise back in the day? Was it existent, nonexistent?
Pretty much nonexistent. I mean, back when I moved here, 41st St. was the end of town. There was nothing on that side of 41st St. I wasn’t really involved that much in the arts when I first moved here. It was mostly trial and survival tactics. Trying to pay bills and everything else, find work, and stay alive. As time went on, I have discovered that it’s come a long way, though, in its own right. Since the 70's, there is a lot more involvement in art businesses, galleries, constructive people and such than there was back then. A lot of businesses are opening their doors, allowing artwork to come in and be presented.
I feel like if you are an artist and you wanted to go into a business years ago, you were almost kind of looked at like an oddball. It’s kind of like, you want to do what? You wanna put that where? Coffee shops have always been around, but within the last five, ten years with generation X and millennials that are hanging out at coffee shops…that’s how you conduct business, and also sell your business, too.
Exactly. It also gives the proprietor a little bit more of a draw to certain people who want to come and see artwork.
So, tell me, education wise, did you go to school for art, or is it kind of self-taught?
I went to school for art, but basically it still turned out to be self-taught. It always ended up that way. I was always rebellious. I’ve always wanted to do a certain style of art, a certain type of art. My mind was set on that. And when somebody else…an art teacher or somebody…was trying to teach me something else…“Oh, okay, alright.”
So tell me, what drives you to create art? What inspires you?
My culture. Native American. I try to prove myself as…long ago I used to sing and dance as Native American to prove myself, and as I got older and moved into a bigger city where it wasn’t really that much of a genre anymore, I had to turn to something to still maintain that I am Native American. Just seemed like the artwork was, not the easiest, but the best way to do it because it brought forth the subject that I was trying to get across. Doing Native American oriented art, people look at it and say, “Wow, this guy’s Native American.” And when they see me, then it’s a whole different story. “You did this?” Blue eyed and light skin, they don’t think you’re Native. “We thought you’d be brown skin, with long brown hair.”
How often do you create your art?
Not answering your question, I can say as much as possible. I do try to get stuff out there. Right now, the kind of artist I am, I’m working with storytelling. That storytelling from culture and legends and stories of our people…there’s so much of it, and I try to work with that as much as I can. But I also like to hop on the bandwagon of what’s going on right now.