Dennis Peterka, Painting
Waverly, Iowa
Dennis, a South Dakota native, received a B.F.A. in Art Education from the University of South Dakota and Master’s Degree in Art Education from the University of Iowa. His teaching career included stops at Kuemper H.S. in Carroll, Iowa with later positions in Boone, Waverly-Shell Rock Community Schools, the Davenport Museum of Art (now the Figge Museum of Art), and adjunct work for Wartburg College.
Highlights include being a recipient of a summer Fulbright Grant to Belgium and Holland, and being one of 16 art educators chosen for the Teachers as Artists Program sponsored by the Marie Walsh-Sharpe Foundation at Colorado College in Colorado Springs.
He has exhibited in competitive and one-man shows. His work can be found in private and corporate collections throughout the United States and England.
“My process of art making is an adventure with the media. Sometimes that process is directed by specific imagery and, at other times, I let the media suggest the painting and direction—sort of a subconscious to conscious ordering. Being raised in the rural Midwest has provided me with an abundant source of subject matter to use as inspiration.
Each painting begins as a very physical manipulation of the media. But, just as changes within the elements in nature alter its appearance, so does the process of painting determine the evolution of my work. As the painting develops I begin to fine tune the composition. The initial imagery becomes less and less important.”
