1. How did you get involved in the arts?
I was born into an artistic family. Most of the adults around me while I was growing up were working in the arts, or very active craft artists. My education before I could read involved sitting in on my artist father’s color theory classes, learning how to draw color wheels along side his adult students.
In Duluth I started getting involved in the arts community by hanging out at Wussow’s Concert Cafe and making fan art of my favorite local bands. A great example of this era of my art is the Woodblind coloring book.
2. Who are artists that you admire?
We are really blessed with a strong arts community here in the Twin Ports. A few of my local artist heroines/heroes are Sarah Brokke, Shannon Johnson, Brian Barber, Jonathan Thunder, Adam Swanson, Moira Volliard , & Karin Kraemer. I love how each is so dedicated to uplifting other artists and growing the local artistic community.
3. Where can people find your art and more about you?
I have a web page (www.ageniusz.com) and am fairly active in my public social media pages (FB/IG: ageniusz_art) . During the month of April I will have a small art show up at the Hillside Co-op. I have work for sale at Alt Creative and Lizzards here in Duluth, and at Canvas Convergence in the Twin Cities.
I am also an active street painter/chalk artist. In the summer months you can literally stumble over me on sidewalks around the Twin Ports, hire me to temporarily decorate pavement for/at your event, or you can visit me working on large scale murals at many of the Chalk Art Festivals in our region.
4. What is your greatest accomplishment so far in your career?
Making the cover for the 2024 Homegrown Music Festival is a huge honor! It is arguably the coolest job in the Twin Ports art scene.
Besides that I was recently voted the “Northland’s Best Local Artist” in the Reader, I was a 2023 artist in residence at the Science Museum of Minnesota, and recently won an important professional chalk artist award at the “Bloom in Chalk” festival in Safety Harbor, Florida. I always assume “the greatest” is yet to come, but those have been some big highlights so far!
5.Do you have any words of wisdom for those starting off in the art world?
Every artist invents their own way to make art. No amount of education or youtube or expensive art supplies can make up for just personal experimentation and experience. I’ve taken art classes my entire life, but in many ways I am still considered “self taught” in my favorite mediums. You just need to make/experiment/play in some form of art every single day. Gather tips from others, take classes when you can, but ultimately you just need to make art and keep making art.
