Virginia Folkestad ///
Born ///
Huntington Park, CA
Blue Silo Artist ///
Since 2010
Education ///
BFA, Metropolitan State University of Denver, Denver, CO
Medium ///
Conceptual practice, Sculture, Collage, Assemblage
Virginia has been here at Blue Silo since 2010. She shares the studio with Keith Howard. Her work is conceptual, and her practice involves many layers of material that are unique to traditional art-making. For example, her ripped magazine pieces are painstakingly sewed together in a large format resembling an open weblike blanket. She mentions that it’s not the only part of the process. The installation piece will be immersed in water and dried before the work is considered complete. Virginia has been making art full-time for many years while making time to also travel the world and enjoy her large family. She has four children and eight grandchildren. Yet, she continues to involve herself in the art community in Denver and beyond. She exhibits at galleries and institutions regularly. Like many artists here, home isn’t necessarily close by. Virginia lives in the suburb, Centennial, which is about 20 miles away. Her studio is stacked with work in progress and materials that hang from the ceiling as if to see how an installation might work. Light comes in from the Westside where the noise from the trains is a daily occurrence. Virginia and Keith have the most unique layout of any studio in the building. It has, what appears to be an old loading dock inside the space that splits it into thirds. This makes the area her studio mate uses about two and a half feet lower than the rest of the space. They’ve broken up the shared space in a crisscross format making it easy to go between projects to maximize their shared experience. Virginia has made one area exclusive to her power tools. She also has a wall nearby to hang the experimental mixed material work she creates. The depth of her work is vast and complex, yet, she connects her work so meaningfully to the organic life it resembles.
Echo ///
Medium: /// Thermoplastic, pine, steel, volcanic rock
Collection: /// The Artist (Photo by Dave Rosenberg)