This interview is also available as a zine.
“Bringing The Outside In” is on view through June 2025 at The Ox Museum, Indeed Brewing, 711 15th Ave NE, Minneapolis, MN 55413.

Photo Courtesy of Marge Buckley
EM: If you had to summarize your artistic practice in two sentences, what would you say?
MB: My primary mediums are painting and playwrighting; my work depicts people and the worlds we build together as flawed, challenging, and worthy of deep study. I use dramatic colors and surreal compositions as tools of optimism which assert that the systems around me can be transformed in radical ways.
EM: I’m loving these paintings with densely marked compositions – can you tell us a bit about your process?
MB: I’m an experimental artist in the sense that I love to experiment! I tend to just go for it based on an initial idea and reference materials, but without planning too much about how I’m actually going to paint the work. I usually do a couple layers of acrylic or gouache before I switch to oils, so the underpainting essentially becomes a sketch that I’m building off of. I’ve been playing with these scenes where nature takes over human industry, so I try to strike a balance where you can make out structures under the overgrowth.
EM: What else are you working on right now, and what should folx look forward to?
MB: I’ve always got a bunch of projects in the works, so here’s the next couple! I’ve got a few paintings up at Lanesboro Arts from June 7th-August 9th in a show called “Our Bright Unfolding” – https://lanesboroarts.org/calendar/our-bright-unfolding/. Plus, my theatre company Commutator Collective is throwing one of our classic experimental dance/theatre parties on June 28th, this time on the theme of Unwrapped/the Food Network…learn more at https://commutatorcollective.org/

Photo Courtesy of Marge Buckley