True Art is About Taking Risks

Janet Flom makes a statement through painting, sculpture and mosaic creations

What is artistic ability? To many educators, it is defined as the ability to replicate something, to draw or paint an object realistically. Local artist Janet Flom passionately disagrees. “I would love to be the teacher who opens the door for the student who wants to move beyond technique alone,” Flom said. “Students can be taught how to draw something realistically. It’s just eye/hand coordination. Art is so much more than that. It’s design, color sense, originality and the ability to express a personal and unique statement.” Flom teaches classes in her downtown Fargo studio.

In first grade, a nun at Flom’s Catholic school in suburban Detroit, Michigan, noticed her talent to draw realistically and encouraged her artistic ability. In the 10th grade, she encountered a teacher who favored abstraction with the opposite effect. Flom drew a picture of a plant, perfectly represented. “The teacher blasted it,” she said. “I did no art for 25 years.”

She decided that “art was a hobby, you couldn’t do it as a job,” and moved on to earn a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan in Russian and East European studies, followed by a law degree from William Mitchell College of Law. She practiced law in the Twin Cities, as a trial attorney, until moving to Moorhead with her husband, Joel and their children.

She then took a break from law to get settled in to her new community. She enrolled in an adult education class taught by local artist Sandra Miles, the two became instant friends, and Flom’s passion for art was reignited. “She dragged me to my first art workshop,” Flom said.

Flom began to experiment with various painting, drawing and sculpture mediums while attending Minnesota State University Moorhead to earn a bachelor’s degree in fine arts. She was greatly influenced by two professors, Carl Oltvedt and Zhimin Guan, who both pushed her beyond her comfort zone.

In 2000, she worked with David Hetland, consulting, designing, producing, and installing commercial art, specializing in liturgical art made from mosaic, stained glass, paint, murals, sculpture, furnishings, and graphic design. After his business closed, she started StudioWorks, LLC, with two others, in order to continue with on-going projects.

Flom’s public art is on display in many locations around the region. Some of the most notable pieces include mosaic work at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Fargo, Trinity Lutheran in Moorhead, and a sculpture carved from olive wood at Olivet Lutheran Church, Fargo. She is currently working on a mosaic installation and several paintings for Sanford Heart Hospital in Sioux Falls, SD, due the end of the year.

When she is not immersed in a commissioned project, Flom makes art that feeds her soul. That often includes watercolor paintings of her family.

“I don’t have to please anybody with those paintings,” Flom said. “I can take greater risks and something unintended can come through in the painting.”

These favorite family portraits serve as an example to her students that she practices what she preaches. See more of Janet’s work at www.janetflom.com.

[AWM]