ART TALK

Meet the Teacher

Kristin Gjerdset

About the Artist: Kristin Gjerdset is a professional artist and professor of art at Wisconsin Lutheran College (WLC) in Milwaukee, where she teaches painting, drawing and art history, and serves as the gallery manager. Her definition of the classroom goes beyond the typical four walls. Classes often involve local field trips to the zoo, museums, area parks and preserves, artist studios, galleries – wherever she believes students will be inspired to create. Her own life as an artist includes exhibiting but her best moments on the journey have been residency experiences at wilderness sites. She has been selected as the artist in residence to five national parks - Glacier, Everglades, Mesa Verde, Great Basin and Rocky Mountain, three Wisconsin state parks – Whitefish Dunes, Potawatomi and St. Croix – and Caribou Ranch Open Space in Nederland, Colorado. She also believes in the importance of sharing art at the local level and has been involved in teaching children from underserved areas of the city, painting murals, creating for chalk drawing events and participating in public art projects over the years. In addition to all that, Gjerdset enjoys time with her rescued animals – a family of dogs, cats, birds, and fish.