Gary & Eve demonstrating their technique at the St. Cloud Art Crawl, summer 2015. Photo by Sarah Drake.
Deep Well Horizon, 1st Place 2-D Art, Visual Arts Minnesota, Art for Artists Show, 2010.
Here is a YouTube video about our work from the Mill Stream Arts Festival in 2020.
A great selfie technique - find an interesting mirror or reflective window!
Eve and Gary Wallinga live and create in St. Cloud, Minnesota.They have been conceptualizing and rendering their paintingsas a joint effort for fifteen years, while winning many awards in the process. Their work was originally inspired by the Aboriginal dot paintings of Australia. This art reflects the native peoples’ religious beliefs regarding the concept of “dreamtime,” which refers to the creation of the natural world by Ancestral Beings. In Aboriginal thought, there is no dichotomy between the spiritual and the physical—the physical world is manifested by the Dreaming Beings.
Eve and Gary’s painting tools are wooden sticks, with which they apply dots of acrylic paint. They work, often simultaneously, sitting on the floor with the painting between them. They have moved between abstract and representational pieces, while always trying to maintain the mystical quality of Aboriginal art.
Recent paintings have also been inspired by the Byzantine mosaics and Murano glass they viewed on their 30th wedding anniversary trip to Venice, as well as the serendipitous exhibit there honoring the 150th anniversary of Gustav Klimt’s birth. Concurrent exhibits in the city introduced them to the work of some of his contemporaries, including Galileo Chini. They are admirers of American painter Eyvind Earle and Mexican artist Leonardo Nierman, whose influence is also evident in their creations.