Art from nature, of nature

MILTONA — The natural world is both a subject and a canvas for Olivia Hoppe. From her cabin in the country, she uses many mediums in her creation of art for owners and galleries across Minnesota; her home is a showcase in itself, full of projects and finished pieces on materials such as bone, gourds, wood, wasp nests and more.

“I was never good at staying on the paper,” Olivia said. “I was always drawing on everything else. That hasn’t changed.”

Olivia grew up in Aitkin, starting her artistic journey by drawing on the walls with crayons. Her father, Dennis Anderson, made leather crafts such as flyswatters, keychains, knife sheaths and rawhide rattles, and he bought and sold leather, furs, beads and other materials, doing a lot of trading.

“He’d bring stuff all the time, and he’d tell me and my sister, Kelly, ‘OK, figure out how to make this,’” Olivia said.

When in school, Olivia completed as many art classes as she could, which she continued to do at Central Lakes College in Brainerd.

“I took everything from ceramics to watercolor,” she said. “You never know what you’re going to need.”

Olivia continues to develop her artistic techniques through research and social media ideas, but plenty of her expertise comes from regular trial and error.

Olivia’s work with bones started when a friend of her father asked if she could paint a wolf on a deer skull for him. After that project, she kept on using that medium.

The bone-painting process starts with a good, natural cleaning, which can take about 2-3 years.

“If you boil them, they tend to turn greasy, which I don’t like,” Olivia said. “Once they’re clean, I wash them up, put primer on them (and) lightly sand that, and then, I’ll do the pen-and-ink drawing (before) a watered-down acrylic paint; I use it kind of like watercolor, and then I’ll coat it with polyurethane to protect it.”

Gourd art starts with the gourd, and Olivia grows most of them herself.

“I grow a little bit of everything: birdhouse, heirloom, bushel (and) kettle gourds,” she said. “You pick them after frost, and then they take about 6-8 months to dry. Then, … soak them for a few hours, scrub them (and) let them dry overnight, and then you wipe them down with bleach water because they tend to mold while they dry.”

When painting, Olivia again starts with an ink drawing. The next day, she starts painting with black and then works her way through whichever colors she wants to use, finishing with highlights in white.

Olivia’s artistic mediums also include wood slabs, sourced from the sawmill of her husband, Frank Hoppe.

“I need primer (before painting) because wood has a slight acidity to it, which will gradually deteriorate the paint,” Olivia said.

A wasp nest is another natural medium for Olivia. An inactive nest can be taken down, flattened and assembled into a paper, which she then draws on with ink and colors with colored pencil.
Another time, Olivia took a broken fishing net, wove some canvas into it and painted a water scene.

Olivia typically finds inspiration around her home, and her favorite subjects are owls, birds and flowers.

“There are a pair of barn owls who live around here,” she said. “I hear them hooting. We have a rooster who crows all night long; he crows, the owl hoots (and) it’s like they’re playing Marco Polo.”

Olivia also takes commissioned work, and she is interested in using farm equipment and buildings as subjects more often.

“I’ve been doing custom work for 15 years,” she said. “People always send me pictures, and I take as many of my own pictures as I can. … Fish are popular; they’re not my favorite, but they’re popular and they sell.”

Olivia has been all over the state to show her work. Her pen and ink on gourd piece, “Heart of the Night,” recently won the Friends of the Hopkins Center for the Arts Award in the Arts North International 31 show at the Hopkins Center for the Arts in Hopkins, where it is currently on display. She also has a couple of pieces at the Kaddatz Galleries in Fergus Falls, as well as little pieces of art in various gift shops. Her work will soon be appearing at the Ripple River Gallery in Crow Wing County and the Robbin Gallery in Robbinsdale. Much of her art can be found on Facebook under Olivia Hoppe Crafts and Seeds.

Always on the lookout for new ways to create, Olivia is interested in learning how to weave baskets; there is a willow tree near her home that she said looks like it would provide the right material for weaving.

“I enjoy doing it (art),” she said. “I like to try to use what I have (and) repurpose things other people throw away.”