Photography by Elizabeth Lucille Photography
Sitting down with South Dakota artist Altman Studeny at Exposure Gallery & Studios is refreshing for so many different reasons. His insatiable passion for art, history, and the state is constantly growing each week as he travels from town to town as a resident artist for the South Dakota Arts Council. Some also might recognize Studeny for his column in Plankinton’s newspaper, the South Dakota Mail – a column he’s written for since he was 12 years old.
Tell us about your history with Plankinton, where you grew up and currently reside.
Altman Studeny: I came back when I got out of grad school in Maine and started teaching at Aurora Plains Academy, so I was the art instructor at the treatment facility in Plankinton. I was doing that for three years, and while there was taking my vacation time to do projects for the South Dakota Arts Council. I feel really connected to Plankinton; my mom’s family has been around Plankinton for a really long time. The newspaper has been in her family for 85 of its 125 years. I’m the fourth generation to be involved with it. While I was growing up I really liked poking through the archives and reading – kind of yellowing –pages from the ‘30s and the ‘40s and earlier. There’s all sorts of these crazy stories about locust swarms and baseball teams entirely made of brothers…
Seriously?
AS: Right?! These bizarre little facts that were mentioned in passing that became almost mythological to me. I have liked being around Plankinton because of a connectivity to those stories. There’s always something inspiring to find out that can be the start of a project.
To read the full interview, click here.
