January 16, 2026 | 6:30 – 7:30 p.m.
ARTIST TALK
January 16, 2026 | 5:30 – 6:30 p.m.
Disrupted Gardens are a selection of acrylic paintings that depict evolving ecospheres in a not-too-distant future where nature responds to environmental toxins and climate change by regenerating the Earth, our “Garden,” and inhabiting it with new creatures. The paintings feature “Specimens” (handmade sculptures) interacting with each other and the landscape through a hyper-realistic style that is mesmerizingly vital. Are the stories that the paintings suggest beautiful, humorous, dark, or hopeful? Is the viewer of the scene a human or another surviving creature? Are humans even in the equation? The paintings and sculptures have different aesthetic approaches with materials but exist as objects of creative activism that urge us to restore and nourish Earth and all its creatures.
Artists
Kristy Deetz
Kristy Deetz is emerita professor at the University of Wisconsin—Green Bay (UWGB). She has exhibited extensively at national and international venues. As curator, Kristy has organized exhibitions that have traveled to art museums, university art galleries, and art centers. She frequently serves as a visiting artist and has led numerous painting/drawing workshops at venues including Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, ME; Ox-Bow School of Art, Saugatuck, MI; Penland School of Craft, Bakersville, NC; Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Snowmass Village, CO; and Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Gatlinburg, TN. UWGB awarded her the 2011 Founders Award for Excellence in Scholarship. She received SECAC (formerly Southeastern College Art Conference)’s 2016 Award for Excellence in Teaching and a 2015 Silver Award from Graphis Design Annual, New York. Her paintings have been featured in Encaustic Art in the Twenty-First Century by Ashley Rooney and Anne Lee (Shiffer Craft, 2016), Encaustic Art—The Complete Guide to Creating Fine Art with Wax by Lissa Rankin M.D. (Watson-Guptill, 2010), and Dynamic Color Painting for the Beginner by Diane Edison (Abrams, 2008). An Erasmus Visiting Lecturer at the University of Kassel, Germany, Kristy has also been Artist-in-Residence at The Burren College of Art in County Clare, Ireland and recently at Baer Art Center in Hofsós, Iceland.