This week, Margo chats with Minneapolis-based mixed media artist Amy Rice. Amy's nostalgic, subtly street-art influenced works are deeply defined by her Midwestern roots and growing up in a rural area, she found inspiration in the surrounding flora and fauna. Over the course of her career she has developed an appreciation for the simplistic yet beautiful things in life. While exhibiting her work extensively at galleries in the US and beyond she has received multiple grants and commissions.

Margo and Amy discuss:

• How 4-H and the family farm has impacted her creative path and influenced her work and life

• Why she doesn't have a lot of rules within her process
• How etsy and a printing press she paid $200 for helped her quit her job
• How her goals are displayed in the form of her artwork
• Art constipation and how she finds time to manage different projects
• Her love for gardening, hiking, and exploring nature
• Thinking creatively and being creative when you have limited resources
• What she learned from working with artists with disabilities

Amy's artwork has really become a manifestation of her stretch goals which can be seen in her work presented in Root Down. She says "I'm not satisfied anymore with a big garden; I want acres of stripes of living colors. I want my fields to be my canvas and flowers to be my paint. Slowly, year by hard-working year, it's happening. My paintings are just a few steps ahead of my reality."

Connect with Amy:

http://grovelandgallery.com/artist/amy-rice/

http://amy-rice-qvit.squarespace.com/

https://lanesboroarts.org/calendar/a-few-steps-ahead-exhibition/

https://www.instagram.com/amyriceart/

https://www.instagram.com/countylinegardens