by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
Besides being the best of good neighbors, Sartell artists Judith Bergerson and Peder Hegland have something else in common – textures, wonderful textures.
Hegland, a potter, creates works that practically beg viewers to touch them: works of glossy glazes, others of rough-hewn stony surfaces, still others that combine the two textures, often with etchings made into the clay.
Bergerson, who paints, draws and makes collages, also excels in textures: the tracery of tree branches in woods; rocks, pebbles and boulders; entangled roots on a mossy ground; water pooling or flowing.
It’s no wonder viewers see correspondences in their works. After all, they live as neighbors in the Pine Point area north of Sartell, near the river and with woods all around them, with nature always “speaking” to them.
“I live exactly 39 steps from Judith’s studio,” Hegland said. “It’s a great thing to have an artist living next door. Someone who understands. We talk a lot.”
Bergerson agrees.
“Peder is a wonderful neighbor,” she said. “He’s a very introspective and gentle man – a kindred spirit. We are both very much loners because artists work alone.”
Many of their artworks can be seen side-by-side in an exhibit showing in Gallery St. Germain in downtown St. Cloud, across from the Paramount Theater. The show, entitled “Neighbors: Painter + Potter,” opened June 3 and will continue through July 16. Gallery hours are 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Wednesdays-Fridays; and 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturdays.
Neighbors
How did it happen two acclaimed artists happen to live so near each other?
Twenty-five years ago, Peder Hegland and his wife, Marilyn Peitso, moved to Sartell’s Pine Point area. At that time, their neighbor was Rita Bartlett, who years later decided to move to an assisted-living apartment. Bartlett’s daughter, Judith Bergerson, and her husband, Mark, then bought the house from her and moved into it for their retirement years. Bergerson and Hegland were surprised and delighted to learn they were living next door to each other – two artists, two kindred spirits who quickly became good friends.
Bergerson
Bergerson (nee Bartlett) grew up in St. Cloud and graduated from St. Cloud Tech High School, as did both her parents back in the 1930s. She graduated with a degree in art and art education from St. Olaf College and taught at a high school in Roseville. When her daughter, Erika, was born, Bergerson decided to be a stay-at-home mom and artist.
Still later, she and her husband moved to Wyoming, Minn., and started a gallery, art supply and frame business in Forest Lake, which they owned and operated for 35 years until their retirement.
Hegland
Born in Racine, Wis., Hegland studied chemistry at Luther College in Iowa, but one day he decided to take a pottery class and immediately liked working with clay. Gradually but certainly, his passion moved away from chemistry to art, specifically pottery. That was more than 40 years ago, and his dedication to pottery is stronger than ever.
Hegland’s wife, Marilyn Peitso, is a pediatrician hospitalist for CentraCare in St. Cloud.
They have three grown children – Hailey, Robin and Matthew.
Bergerson’s art
Sometimes, in describing her works, Bergerson says she “builds” them as much as she paints them.
That is because her works are highly layered, with images painted over images, textures upon textures, colors upon colors. She often works on five, six or even seven canvases at the same time, going from one to the other, working out solutions as she sees visual possibilities.
Most of Bergerson’s paintings are semi-abstract landscapes or reflections on nature, mostly done in acrylic paints or a mixture of acrylics, colored pencils or crayons. Bergerson is also a masterful drawer with pen-and-ink and pencil. She is fond of doing series of paintings or dryings, sometimes on the same theme, as a series of small paintings of crane birds she did years ago.
At Gallery St. Germain, one of her drawing series is on display: 25 small panels of drawings, each about 6 inches by 6 inches, with a wondrous range of subjects, some related, some jarringly not: Juxtaposed are superb drawings of a bird’s nest, a farm landscape, trees shaken by a wind, a trio of kohlrabi, a street scene, a star-studded night sky, a seashore. Together they evoke the wonders of nature, of shapes, of forms and the staggering differences and yet similarities of apparently unlike things.
Bergerson’s larger canvases are often semi-abstract landscapes that draw the viewer in, layer by layer. There are strong structural grid patterns throughout the paintings; and then sinuous delicate lines (often of tree trunks and branches); and sometimes there is water present or geologic rock formations, all interacting in ghostly gossamer layers. The paintings evoke smells of a landscape: damp humus layers with roots exposed, sap and bark, leaves, rocks and pebbles, pools of water, sun filtering through onto the woods’ ground. At times, Bergerson’s paintings give the impression one is looking into and through a landscape, even in its most hidden aspects, as if in a mysterious X-ray process.
“I’m not a message artist,” Bergerson said. “I like observing and finding the order in everything. That’s what I look for, structure and order.”
Bergerson describes herself as an intuitive painter. As she paints, she lets the painting “inform” her as to how it should develop in a constant process of surprise and discovery in exploring shapes and relationships.
Hegland’s art
In his 40 years of making stoneware, Hegland has always been awed and inspired by the great pottery from ancient civilizations, including Greece, Pre-Columbian works and many others.
Pottery is a unique art because, like most potters, Hegland makes his pots, dishes, platters, vases and cups for human usage. Thus, when he creates his stoneware, he combines day-to-day practicality with aesthetics. People are happy to use the stoneware because it’s not only useful but beautiful in its colors, designs, textures – the look and feel of a coffee cup, say, as someone lifts it to drink from.
“I make my works mostly on the potter’s wheel, though I also do some clay-slab work,” Hegland said.
One of his stoneware works in the Gallery St. Germain show is a tall vase that recalls in its stately shape a stylized human sentinel standing guard at some ancient palace. Its surface is high-glossed glazes of dark to medium browns with a touch of reddish-brown. On the top (head part) there are wavering lines, bluish; on the upper (chest area) there are leaf-like segments; and on the long bottom part there are vertical etchings into the glazed black. The piece, partly because of its vaguely human connotations, conveys an image of strength, of vigilance and even a aura of magic as if it’s the totemic object of some tribe.
Every year, Hegland and Bergerson host a for-sale show at their two studios. More recently, they tried a tentative collaboration, with Hegland making stoneware objects and Bergerson painting or etching on them. They were very pleased with the results, so much so that they intend to do more collaborations.
And why not? After all, good neighbors lead to good collaborations.
Judith Bergerson talks with visitors at the opening of an exhibit featuring her works, along with the works of her neighbor and friend, potter Peder Hegland.
“Taking Flight 2” by Judith Bergerson is a painting that celebrates the majestic wonder of nature.
Peder Hegland stands in his north Sartell studio among nine of his unique stoneware creations.
These cups are good examples of how Peder Hegland combines everyday practicality with aesthetics in his stoneware creations.
These are some of the panels in Judith Bergerson’s 25-panel series of drawings at the Gallery St. Germain.
This impressive vase by potter Peder Hegland has the aura of an ancient totemic object, like a sentinel to ward off evil spirits
“Evening Shadows” by Judith Bergerson is a good example of her layering of shapes and colors. It was done in acrylic paint and colored pencil. Notice the birds in the lower third.
