Local artists’ love for wildlife shows in OAC exhibit

Even if you’re more into art than hunting, this weekend’s Minnesota Governor’s Pheasant Opener in Owatonna includes an activity you won’t want to miss.

A wildlife art exhibit at the Owatonna Arts Center opened earlier this month. Works by wildlife artist Jim Killen will be on display through Nov. 12; Sherry McCartney’s wildlife photography remains up through Oct. 15.

McCartney said she loved taking photographs of animals and flowers even as a child.

“My grandmother used to give me her camera,” the Owatonna resident said, adding she also “took tons of pictures” while living in England for a year during college.

After McCartney married, she and her husband Matt, who now teaches second grade at Washington Elementary, moved to Colorado, where they spent a lot of time hiking.

“That just kind of sealed the deal for me with photography,” she said.

 McCartney continued taking photos while the couple’s three sons were growing up. As the family nest emptied, Sherry and Matt started hiking more again.

“We were trying to prepare ourselves for all this extra time we’d have, so we wouldn’t feel so lost,” she said.

McCartney also began meeting other nature photographers in the area and soon had a huge network of friends with a common interest. Group members, she said, “sharpen and hone each other’s skills.”

Recently retired after 15 years as an educational assistant at Lincoln Elementary, McCartney said her greatest joy comes from sharing her experiences and knowledge of animals gained over her years of wildlife photography.

“I love taking great pictures of things, but I love sharing the beauty of the things in nature that God has created for us to enjoy,” she said.

Because they’re easier to see, McCartney tends to photograph birds most often–but she admits the pheasant is one of the hardest to capture. Four of the works on display at the Owatonna Arts Center are metal prints of pheasants and about 70 other pheasant pictures rotate on a television monitor.

“Pheasants are so beautiful, the patterns on their feathers are just so mesmerizing,” she said, “but they are really skittish. They tend to fly off.”

While she feels she hasn’t nailed the secret to photographing the elusive birds, her work caught the eye of someone with the Pheasants Forever Foundation, which is how her work landed at the Owatonna Arts Center.

“I am so honored that I get to be a part of this,” McCartney said. “To be featured with Jim Killen is just a great honor. It’s really overwhelming.”

Killen has a storied and award-winning career spanning some 40 years. A dedicated conservationist, he is a three-time Ducks Unlimited “International Artist of the Year”. The group also named him among the “All-Star Artists” for its 75th Anniversary celebration in 2012.

His work has been featured in more than 20 state stamp conservation programs, and he’s raised funds for Pheasants Forever, Quail Unlimited, and other wildlife groups. He’s the only artist who has won the Minnesota stamp competition with works that feature sporting dogs as a partner in game conservation.

Killen grew up in southwestern Minnesota in the 1940s, graduated from Jackson High School in 1952.

“It was wonderful pheasant territory and habitat,” he said. “Farming practices were more appropriate for pheasants… They need to have cover, and they need to have food.”

Recruited out of college to work for Jostens, Killen worked as an art director in the yearbook division. As he says, “Once an artist, always an artist.”  

Along with his wildlife works, he started painting landscapes with theme “Vanishing America” in the 1960s. He believes he’s created around 600-700 works over the course of his career, perhaps 5% of them are portraits of pheasants. He agrees with McCartney, they’re not an easy subject to photograph.

“At my age, a pheasant flying is pretty hard to capture,” he said.

The Owatonna Arts Center show features more than two dozen works– prints, originals, some larger, some smaller. It includes works from his private collection.  

Killen said some of the works are offered for sale, with part of the proceeds donated to the Arts Center.

These days, Killen spends most of his time creating portraits of dogs, commissioned works that he completes in his rural Steele County studio. People seek him out to have a remembrance of their beloved pets.

“The eyes and ears of dogs express their emotion,” Killen said.

He has also painted his own beloved hunting dogs, whose portraits hang in the home he shares with Karen, his wife of more than 50 years.

“Karen is very instrumental in the coordination and is a partner in our business,” he said. “We have been working hand in hand since 1972.”

As Killen confidently takes the stairs to his second-floor home studio, it seems clear he has no intention of retiring from his art business any time soon.

“I feel my art is a gift of God, and it shouldn’t be wasted,” he said. “I feel very fortunate.”

For more information on the wildlife display, visit oacarts.org.