Mainspring Announces Five Local Artists Selected for the Houston County Artist Mentorship Program
Mainspring is thrilled to announce the five mentees chosen to participate in the second cohort of the Houston County Artist Mentorship Program: Eliana Babinski, Cody Alan Gavin, Kennedy Holdmeyer, Matthew Pearson, and Brooke Perry. The Houston County Artist Mentorship Program is a six month stipend-paid program providing tailored mentorship for these five Houston County emerging artists.
Eliana Babinski is currently focused on creating work with ink pen, some digital designs, and felt landscapes. She has a small business selling stickers and prints called Rainbow Rose Art. Ela focuses on making small things that make her happy. Right now her inspiration is coming from getting to be outside exploring the local area and finding patterns within nature. She’s excited for the artist grant and is looking forward to learning from other artistic people.
Art has always been a part of Cody Alan Gavin’s life. He started creating and crafting with his grandmother from a young age on the farm. In school, art was always his favorite subject. After high school graduation, Cody attended Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) pursuing his BFA for one year, where he loved being in such a creative environment. Years later, the art of hair has become Cody’s main medium. He enjoys photography, acrylic paint, spray paint, canvas stretching, and interior design, in addition to many other mediums; but most of all, hair coloring.
Kennedy Holdmeyer has been drawing and creative writing for years, and went to Perpich Center for Arts and Education in Minneapolis for her senior year of high school to improve her art skills. She’s currently attending UW-Stout for Art Education, and mostly draws portraits digitally, as well as colored pencil illustration and collage.
Matthew Pearson received a degree in creative writing with emphasis in poetry, and has spent a lot of time being taught the linguistic arts. He is mostly self taught in all forms of visual art, and is an illustrator and designer of characters. He has self-created his own comic books; his style lies in the cosmic, and Mathew is interested in capturing ideas such as consciousness and space in his works. Matthew’s art embodies power and emotion, along with a promotion of the inner self without shame. His art expresses his political beliefs and views of the world through imagery of machines, people, and characters that appear in his works.
Brooke Perry is a self taught emerging artist. She is currently in an experimental stage and enjoys working with mixed media and currently developing her watercolor and soft pastel work. Through her artwork, she hopes other people can look at and experience an emotion and an understanding of the world around us.
About the Artist Mentorship Program: The Houston County Artist Mentorship Program will train the five mentee artists over the course of six months through 1) art workshops taught by regional mentor artists; 2) tailored art career mentor sessions in both cohort and individual settings; 3) artist career training courses taught by leading Midwest arts organization Springboard for the Arts; and 4) a culminating group art exhibit at Mainspring in December.
The participating five artists will be mentored over the course of the program by regionally established mentor artists.
Mainspring is a community art and cultural hub that provides meaningful opportunities for Houston County residents to connect, inspire, and be inspired. The 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization celebrates and invests in Houston County’s community, culture, and creatives through events, education, and shared resources. www.mainspringmn.org
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts & cultural heritage fund.
