Today we’d like to introduce you to Beau Bakken.
Hi Beau, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I feel my most proper self with a paintbrush in hand. I had been hired a few times for specific art commissions in my youth and younger adulthood, but I think my professional art career launched in 2010 after I painted a large mural of a hundred-year-old photo of my hometown Hallock’s main street. I’ve since been hired for many more outdoor murals, indoor murals, business signs, and wall hangings.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I suppose it’s been a bit bumpy. I lose confidence in my abilities frequently in the middle of each work whether it be a large outdoor mural or canvas, but almost always I find a way to button them up in the end. Some projects with time deadlines have encroached on my marriage/family time. Most of my art career time has been alongside a full-time day job. There’s been some busy times and lessons learned. For the most part, I’ve seen a nice slow and steady growth in my career with little investment in marketing. Outdoor murals especially have kickstarted great word-of-mouth traffic for me.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Professionally, there are four types of paintings I’m generally hired to do: Outdoor murals, Indoor murals in schools and restaurants, business signs, and indoor wall hangings for homes and offices. I enjoy painting the outdoor murals the most, but of course, our weather in Northern Minnesota affords only a few months each year to get after them. I don’t know how I set myself apart from other artists. One lesson from my grade school art teacher Kay Rosengren has been a true north to my entire art career. The lesson was “paint what you see, not what you think you see”. I apply that to not only dimensions but also colors. In nature, tree trunks are rarely brown. They are grey or purple or orange or all sorts of colors. Shadows on snow are the richest blue. The mountains in the distance are truly purple. A glance at a window from inside will reveal white trim being darker than a pine tree branch behind the window pane. I think of these things a lot while taking in my surroundings and I try my best to apply that knowledge to my work.
What do you like best about your city?
What do I like best about Hallock? It’s a cozy small-town hamlet that still has a lot of amenities. I’ve been to small quaint towns in Europe and I feel like we’re getting some of that mojo in Hallock. When the weather agrees our family walks around town are often finished by grabbing excellent craft beer and rootbeer at Revelation Ale Works. We have a great coffee shop, Bully Brew, in town for breakfast stops and lunches. We have clothing stores for men and women. We have a great grocery store. I get my hair cut in town by a top-notch barber, N.C. Ryden. I love this town. I have nothing ill to say of it.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.artcommissionsbybeaubakken.com
- Facebook: Art Commissions by Beau Bakken
