Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Naomi RaMona Schliesman . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Naomi RaMona , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
Naomi Ramona Schliesman seeks to create objects and installations that create a collision of scale and materiality with ideas that are not fixed in our interpretation of them. She uses materials associated with sculpture; like wood, fiber, plaster, plastic, rubber and metal. With these materials she juxtaposes the visual weight of these resources while utilizing the architectural grid while she makes these objects and installs them. This is done with the intention of extending an understanding of interior versus exterior, hard versus soft, and domestic versus institutional.
The ‘unknown’ has been a component in her work for most of her career. Her fascination with science has helped her further understand how to cope with its devastating effects of how we treat our environments, as to where we live and care for our own bodies. Her research into the world of the unseen has led to an exploration of the world of subjective visualization. Ideas like environment, religion, sex and death are monolithic concepts. These ideas when viewed through a cultural lens are opaque. Through her preoccupation with these ideas she asks the viewer to consider their personal awareness of these themes while interacting with the artwork.
Large ideas like death, religion and environments are monolithic concepts. These ideas when viewed through a cultural lens are opaque. Through my preoccupation with these ideas I ask the viewer to consider their personal awareness of these themes, and to think of the Turning Points that have happened in their lives.
“Turning Point”, exhibition is about how we have had to learn to pivot and turn at different opportunities, especially when COVID hit, creating working from home, homeschooling, self-care, and trying to navigate a “new normal” that has us both online and off-line.
Some of the main pieces in the exhibition titled “Comfort” series, are a block of soft fabric with bright colors and circular shapes on them. If you sit and stare at the pieces, the illusion of the fabric will start to move, and the circles will start to “swim” across the pattern, so it creates this mysterious illusion. I feel we are all coming out of our own illusions, and the comfort series is a new series that I am making that is about the softness of comfort, the plush fabric, and the hardness of the structure, the frame. It speaks to how our society has been hardened and softened, all at the same time. This new exploration into this body of work is making me think in different ways, and how to actually utilize the fibers and patterns, that I’ve used in my work consistently throughout my art career, and how it can play a new role and how we visually see things. How things can be an optional illusion of what we are really seeing. The mirrors also play an important role to the idea of illusion, how we see ourselves and with the paly, it can bring on healing. She invites everyone to experience, “Turning Point”, and to play with these illusions and to learn more about themselves.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
Naomi RaMona Schliesman was born in 1978 and grew up in the small rural community of Fergus Falls, Minnesota. Born into a family of laborers, which included farmers, nurses, seamstresses, bar owners and woodworkers, Schliesman started using her hands at an early age to play with tools and to create objects out of a variety of media. Growing up, her family frequently moved from home to home. She became accustomed to the cycle of moving, tearing down walls, building additions, the redecoration and personalization. It was through these frequent transitions that the importance of applying her ornamentation and aesthetic led to a sense of space that said “home.” It was the disparate ornamentation of the décor of home, school and church that fostered an acute awareness of how different spaces were decorated and the types of ornamentation that signified the function of the space.
History and continuity play a large role in shaping Schliesman’s understanding of self and family. Schliesman is an award-winning interdisciplinary artist with over 25 years of experience. She has exhibited her work in New York, Chicago, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Pittsburg, Brooklyn, Seattle and across the Midwest. She received an MFA degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison 2009, and a BFA degree with an emphasis in sculpture from Minnesota State University Moorhead. Schliesman has received a Fellowship from Ragdale and Kimmel Hardening Nelson Center for the Arts, was awarded 2nd place for Miami University Young Sculptors Competition for William and Dorothy Yeck Award, and was a LEAP finalist for the Society of Contemporary Craft Award. She was selected by Smart Growth America, Forecast Public Art and West Central Initiative to create a reusable community engagement kit consisting of both virtual and physical tools to be implemented in West Central MN. Recently she was selected to be one of two Artist Organizers for a project mentoring youth for the development of the multimedia exhibit “Return to Normal? COVID Diaries from Local Youth” funded by CDC Foundation in partnership with Springboard for the Arts, Otter Tail County Historical Society and Otter Tail County Public Health Department. She has traveled abroad to Italy, Scotland, Ireland, France, United Kingdom, Netherlands and Belize to study art movements and has done artist residencies at Vermont Studio Center, Kimmel Hardening Nelson Center for the Arts, Ragadale, The Traveling Museum and Hospitalfield Arts.
Schliesman taught 2D and 3D Design and was the Gallery Director for the School of Arts at Minnesota State University Moorhead, from 2011- 2013, and she was the Artist Development Director for rural programing at Springboard for the Arts in the Fergus Falls, MN from 2013 -2020, where she managed the Hinge Arts at the Kirkbride residency program, facilitated the Work of Art: Business Skills for Artists workshops, Artist Development panels, and mentored artists across the United States through one-on-one Artist Career Consultations. Schliesman currently serves on the Fergus Falls Public Library Arts Advisory Committee and the MinneShowta Board. She resides in rural MN where she lives with her daughter and continues her studio practice and freelance work, she is a contracted Artist Career Consultant and Work of Art: Business Skills for Artists facilitator for Springboard for the Arts, and is a teaching Artist for Kaddatz Galleries, and Gallery Curator and Arts Calendar Editor at Lake Region Arts Council. She continues her collaborations with Artists and organizations nationwide on art, storytelling, community projects and connecting others to resources and tools achieve their goals and collaborative partnerships.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
Being able to be a creative problem-solver, artist organizer and learning this at a very young age from my family of makers and laborers has given me life skills that I can share with others. And since I learned these skills at a young age and learned how to apply them to daily life with problem-solving through art, making, building and community organizing by being involved in girls scouts, church functions and youth retreats. I am now applying all these skills through my own art-making and consulting with artists nationwide. These life tools and skills have developed me into the professional artist that I am today, and to be able to help others see the “Big Picture” and set their goals and dreams of being successful. Being able to see Art in a different lens and to work with artists to see their potential, helping them form and develop career goals and opportunities for themselves is one of the most rewarding aspects of being a professional artist and an Art Career Consultant. Creating visual work is my passion and what gives me joy and a voice in my communities. And being able to share advice, resources and professional tools with other artists and creatives gives me joy and is rewarding to see other artists and creatives seeing their potential and helping them use the resources and tools they need to be successful.
Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?
Yes, the business side of being a professional artist and owning a business. You do not learn the business side of things in art school or with your art degree. That is why I am passionate about the Work of Art Series that I facilitate for Springboard for the Arts. These workshops provide artist with the essential tools and resources to learn about the basics of what you need to have as an art business. Each unit is descriptive and helps to layout the foundation to build an art career. These are step by step indeed tools and resources that are all in one book! https://springboardforthearts.org/professional-growth/work-of-art-program/
Contact Info:
- Website: https://naomischliesman.weebly.com
- Instagram: @naomi.schlieman
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/naomi.schliesman
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/naomi-ramona-schliesman-9b2382b/?senderId=naomi-ramona-schliesman-9b2382b
- Other: https://video.pioneer.org/video/postcards-naomi-schliesman/ https://video.pioneer.org/video/postcards-xenos/ https://smartgrowthamerica.org/creating-a-toolkit-for-in-person-and-virtual-community-engagement-in-rural-minnesota/ https://smartgrowthamerica.org/five-stories-about-artists-helping-to-solve-covid-19-transportation-challenges/ https://springboardforthearts.org/covid-19-storytelling-project/ https://www.minnesota.edu/news/fergus-falls-artist-naomi-schliesman-exhibit-mending-what-once-was-beck-gallery
Image Credits
Image of me holding Orange and Yellow log – Nik Nerbrun Image of me with Kids – Michele Anderson Image of me welding – Carl Zachmann Images of my artwork all other images – Naomi RaMona Schliesman