News

Learning art On-the-Prairie

By Alicia Wicklund

04/17/2012

Parents don’t hesitate once to drive the extra mile because a bridge is out. Students would not think twice about missing their two hour art session. The waiting list of potential students also keeps piling up.

About 20 miles west of Bottineau is a small art studio called Studio-on-the-Prairie. People of all ages can explore their artistic side under the coaching of Marjorie Teske, who just loves sharing her passion for art.

“How many people get to do their passion,” said Teske. “I get very excited about it and I love the process of it. I offer every medium I can think of besides airbrush.”

Teske created her current studio in 1999 after her husband Darrell got tired of having students around the kitchen table. Yet, since then, her studio has slowly creped to almost overtaking their entire house.
An average two hour session has three to five students, with each student working on his or her own desire.

She teaches five days a week and said, “I use to teach Saturday, but I don’t have energy for that anymore.”

Her passion for art has not been her entire life. As a teenager she sketched and designed dresses. Then she went to college to become an elementary school teacher, completing one year at Dakota College at Bottineau and finishing in Minot.

“I went through classes called methods, one of them being a methods class to teach children art,” Teske said. “This teacher gave us an assignment to draw what we saw out our dorm window. I brought it back and she looked at it and sniffed, ‘Eyes but no eyes’ and she walked on. She never told me what I was to be seeing with my eyes that I didn’t. I never learned from her. I was crushed.”

When Teske created bulletin boards for teaching, she would use the grid method.

“You take one square and transfer it over to a larger square. But I didn’t trust my own ability,” she said.
Teske did not do any kind of art until 1979, about 19 years later.

“I attended an art show in Westhope and an older lady in the neighborhood said, ‘You should come to an art class. We have a traveling instructor,’”she explained.

Teske jumped right into oil painting. She still has her first creation.

“That teacher took time to do some basic instruction and walked us through some steps,” Teske said.

Other instructors she learned from would even finish the art for the student. Teske did not agree with this.

“Old Myrtel that got me started…she was a teacher herself. She said to me, ‘These people aren’t getting the basics. I want you to start a beginners class. You know how to do it. You are a teacher,’” Teske said.

So she started a class that was simple and the students were finishing their own work.

“We all have a beginning at something,” she said. “Don’t expect so much of yourself that you are discouraged. Just let it happen.”

One person told her, “Don’t ever bother going to an art school. They are going to try and change you.”

So she listened. Teske has developed her own style of art from all the studying she does, as well from trial and error. She added, “You know what? You can learn a lot from YouTube!”

She’s written booklets on how to use watercolor pencils and said she wouldn’t live without her computer.

In 2000, the principal at Newburg elementary told Teske their teachers wanted to write grants to get art into the school.

“He asked if I would be interested in teaching it. I told him without a hesitation, ‘Oh yes’.” Teske said.

That’s where her passion for art and teaching children began. She was glad when she retired from that, because she didn’t have energy to teach students in her home studio too.  

As one looks around Teske’s art studio, paint brushes are seen everywhere.

“One of my second graders told me, ‘Mrs. Teske, you must be really rich.’ I asked her, ‘What made you think that?’ She said, ‘You must have hundreds of paint brushes’ and I told her, ‘That’s why I am not rich. When I make a dollar, I go buy another brush or another book.’”

If one looks at her bookshelf, art books are crammed in, as well as piled on the coffee table and under nooks and crannies.

She started borrowing art books from the area libraries.

Then she thought, “I live so far out-of-town. If I want to learn something about a subject, I am going to build up my art library. So I have a huge variety. It might be safe to say I have the largest art library in Bottineau County,” she laughed.

Teske finds her inspiration where she lives. Her favorite pieces she creates are cloud formations over the prairie, painted in soft pastels.

“And that’s when I get lost in creating,” she said. “God has blessed me so much because he has given me a place I love to live and to be a farmer’s wife has been marvelous. I am out here and I can walk in the prairie and I can teach. I am very blessed.”

She also looked for inspiration in the artwork of Myrtel Bush and Sarita Huber.

“Myrtel was very encouraging and a wonderful painter. She’s died since then. Sarita sold at a lot of shows. Oh could she sketch,” said Teske.

When asked what her favorite piece of art was that she has created she said, “I sculpted my husband carrying a calf. He loves what he is doing. He is my big encourager and helper and cuts all the mats for me. I am left handed, and for some reason, the mat cutter just doesn’t work for me.”

What makes Teske happy about art is to watch her students’ self confidence bloom.

“It can add to their grades when they learn problem solving from creating art. We encourage them how to solve it without my having to show them everything. Pretty soon they become more independent,” she said. “Art is extremely important. Parents are seeing the benefits it has on their children.”

Her world centers on art.

“My chiropractor told me I should keep on teaching because I will have stronger bones. And there is truth to that because I am constantly moving while I teach,” she said.

But does her mind or her hands ever get tired?

She said, “No, not mine. It’s just exciting to learn something more. It’s not the teaching of art; it’s the physical parts where I play out. I do all their matting and framing so kids can go home with a professional looking piece of art.”

She continued, “A child is just beaming from ear to ear when they walk out of my studio with their work framed. It sets it apart from school art.”

Teske said there are doctors that recommend being involved in art.

“It sets aside a person’s illness for awhile. They are starting to use art more in therapy,” she said. “To have that moment that you become entranced in creating… as long as it’s something that takes you away from the pain, or traumas. That hour just melts when you are focused on creating something.”

Four years ago Teske injured her back and art helped her start recovering.

Like injuries that happen unplanned, there are days where artistic talents don’t go as planned.

“One of my art students likes painting roses, but there are days that it doesn’t go just right. So he sets that aside and does cartooning and he’s good at it,” she said. “We don’t have to be all just one or the other. We can be both.”

There are moments Teske gets to witness when a student surprises even themselves of their accomplishments.

“When I was doing the art classes in Newburg, there was a boy that found art just a little bit overwhelming in drawing. But, one of our projects was sculpting an object using junk,” said Teske. “So my husband dug out old washers, bolts and cultivator shovels. This boy just started moving the junk around.”

She continued, “Pretty soon he had what looked like four legs and added copper wire and glued dried black beans to it. ‘Tada, an ant eater’ he said. And he won Best of Show at the North Dakota State Fair in his category. He was thrilled and I was thrilled. But to watch him walk, you knew he was very pleased of himself. That was remarkable. That’s what keeps me going, all the imagination that happens here.”
One form of art that is becoming popular is doodling.

“I just recently purchased a book to teach doodling. When I was on the school board in Westhope, oh my, my agenda paper was doodled all over. It’s a fun thing and it relaxes you,” Teske said.

A few years ago now, her and her husband used to rent pasture up by the Peace Garden.

“We were up there walking and came upon a 30 gallon crock all cracked in pieces. I said to Darrell, ‘We can’t leave that lie there. I will take it home and paint on it. That’s a piece of history,’” she said.

Teske ground all the sharp edges off and sold as many as she could paint.

Her studio is set up in different work areas and soft music plays. When she painted her studio, she painted the saying, “The creative spirit needs time, quite and inspiration in order to emerge.”

She even donates paintings to fundraisers at Dakota College at Bottineau. One of her next project’s is a painting a bull moose’s paddle.

Recently 14 of Teske’s students competed in the North Dakota Junior Duck Stamp Contest. Of them, Best of Show and Runner-Up awards were given to both of her students, Mark Staples of Harwood, N.D. and Logan Lamoureux of Westhope. A total of 1,184 students across the state exhibited art. Seven of her students won awards, four received honorable mention and three others participated.

“I’ve always told my students, once I reach Best of Show I think I will retire,” she smiled. “One of my fifth graders this year said, ‘Are you going to retire?’ I looked at him and said, ‘Not until you get Best of Show’ and he grinned.”

Teske said all of her student’s give their heart to art and what they accomplish.

“They may not always agree with the judging, but they keep trying until next time,” she said.  

Darrell and Marjorie have two children, a daughter that lives in Canada and a son in Westhope, five grandkids and one great grandchild.

Teske has received numerous awards, including People’s Choice at the Westhope Art Show, as well as one from Newburg’s school for beginning the art program.