Woman Made Gallery Artist Registry

Linda Rzoska is a native of Southwest Michigan, educated as a fine artist taking her baccalaureate degree from Western Michigan University in 1976 and her graduate degree from Aquinas College in 2005. Since her high school years in Bangor; Rzoska has been in the process of creating artwork, whether it is for her own personal expression or commercial/business purposes. Her professional creative career started in 1976 with employment as an illustrator for a Kalamazoo industrial firm. Her “commercial” work encompassing a wide range of mediums from ink line drawing, watercolor, colored pencil and digital vector & raster work, has appeared in books, advertisements and magazines. Her varied work experience has included positions as a design/illustrator for Eaton Corporation; as a freelance art director, illustrator and graphic designer dealing with companies, agencies, and publishers throughout the United States; and the owner and Creative Director of Kalamazoo’s Design & Illustration Associates. She joined the faculty at Kalamazoo Valley Community College in 2000 where she is the Chair of the Art and New Media Program of the Center for New Media. She currently teaches Concept Development and the History of Illustration there. She has received a number of awards for her illustration and fine art; notable are two International Awards of Excellence from the Society for Technical Communications.

Educated as a fine artist, Rzoska has continued with her fine art career. Rzoska’s artwork has been selected for numerous juried shows and is represented in many private collections. She has been an artist in residence at the Burren College of Art in Ireland. Her most recent solo exhibits were in It Skildershuis Atelier in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands, The Burren College of Art, Ireland and Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan –her current work being inspired by her interest and research in nature, folklore, mythology and comparative religion.

Professional Experience

Exhibiting Artist
1976 to Present

Faculty / Chair: Art & New Media Program
Center for New Media, Kalamazoo Valley Community College, Kalamazoo, Michigan
January 2011 to Present

Faculty / Program Coordinator
Center for New Media, Kalamazoo Valley Community College, Kalamazoo, Michigan
2000 to January 2011

Faculty
Kalamazoo Valley Community College, Kalamazoo, Michigan
1999 to 2000

Freelance Illustrator
1995 to Present

Principal / Creative Director
Design & Illustration Associates, Inc., Kalamazoo, Michigan
1981 to 1996

Graphic Designer / Illustrator
Eaton Corporation, Kalamazoo, Michigan
1979 to 1980

Illustrator
Kalamazoo Manufacturing, Kalamazoo, Michigan
1976 to 1979

Artist's Statement

From my experiences I see that many of us in western civilization are living in a wasteland of sorts. What do I mean by “wasteland”? The author Nigel Pennick tells us that through our human history and ancestry we have had a collective cultural relationship with the landscape. He explains that we are not separate from the landscape - we are part of it. Reality is what we walk, see, touch, and experience. Pennick states that the “wasteland” comes when the living landscape is rejected or ignored and when humans, in favor of material wealth, abandon the spiritual aspect of nature.

The northern and western European folk traditions, as well as our Native American folklore, are rich in tales regarding this spiritual aspect of nature or the “spirit of the land”. I have traveled throughout 16 countries, including my own, that share this folk tradition and have, many times, experienced this atmosphere or presence in the landscape that seems to exist beyond the everyday realm of my modern human cognizance.

In my current artwork I am striving to visually communicate this spirit or soul of a place that I have witnessed along with the human collective relationship with the landscape. I attempt to not only reproduce what I see through my eyes but also create a visual representation of what I experience. The artwork visually displays a personal sense of spiritual connection and an invisible and inaudible communication. It is created to honor all the living things that exist in every aspect of the landscape. Often I portray this life in human form in order to relay the precious and beautiful qualities of all life. On the whole, the imagery in the artwork is meant to represent a sense of life with no limitations of space and time, a sharing of spirit, mind and heart, a spiritual recognition and belonging, a joining in an ancient and eternal way.

Selected Exhibitions

Midtown Gallery 2nd Anniversary Invitational, July 2011
Midtown Gallery, Kalamazoo, MI

Solo Exhibition, May/June/July 2011
Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI

Center for New Media Faculty Show, 2011
Kalamazoo Valley Community College

Center for New Media Faculty Show, 2010
Kalamazoo Valley Community College

Juried Regional Fine Arts Competition, 2010
Carnegie Center for the Arts, Three Rivers, MI

Solo Exhibition, May 2009
Burren College of Art, Ballyvaughan, Ireland

Solo Exhibition, February/March 2009
It Frysk Skilderhus, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands

Center for New Media Faculty Show, 2009
Kalamazoo Valley Community College

Center for New Media Faculty Show, 2008
Kalamazoo Valley Community College

Center for New Media Faculty Show, 2007
Kalamazoo Valley Community College

Solo Exhibition, October 2006
Nazareth Transformation Center, Nazareth, MI

Solo Exhibition, November 2006
Fire, Kalamazoo. MI

Center for New Media Faculty Show, 2005
Kalamazoo Valley Community College

Forum Exhibit: “Landscape”, 2004
Kalamazoo Valley Community College

“Out of the Wasteland” Exhibit, 2004
Parkview Hills, Kalamazoo, MI

“Poetry and Artwork”, 2003
Parkview Hills, Kalamazoo, MI

Center for New Media Faculty Show, 2002
Kalamazoo Valley Community College

Corporate Art Program Exhibit, 2000 to 2002
Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI

Juried Regional Fine Arts Competition, 2000
Carnegie Center for the Arts, Three Rivers, MI

20th Michigan Artist’s Competition, 1999
Battle Creek Arts Center, Battle Creek, MI

West Michigan Area Show, 1999
Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI

Juried Regional Fine Arts Competition, 1999
Carnegie Center for the Arts, Three Rivers, MI

5th S.W. Michigan Regional Art Comp, 1987
Krasl Art Center, St. Joseph, MI

West Michigan Area Show, 1984
Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI

56th Annual W. Mich. Juried Arts Comp, 1983
Muskegon Museum of Art, Muskegon, MI

Juried Regional Fine Arts Competition, 1983
Carnegie Center for the Arts, Three Rivers, MI

Samarkand Artist Market Member Show, 1978
Samarkand Artist Market, Grand Rapids, MI

Samarkand Artist Market Member Show, 1977
Samarkand Artist Market, Grand Rapids, MI

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