At the 63rd Midwestern at the Rourke Museum & Gallery 2022

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"My images are metaphors for everyday life experiences," artist Gretchen Bederman explains. "I combine memories of actual places with a mixture of reality, myth and dream." Gretchen works in multiple media, focusing primarily on painting, sculpting, printmaking, and drawing. She likens her art to poetry. "I weave my images with representation and abstraction," she explains. "As poetry releases our imagination from limitation and reaches for our emotional essence, I am exploring the possibilities of joining the outer world with inner experiences. My search is for images that resonate with the viewer on the unspoken landscape."

Bederman's life began in Houston, Texas. As a young artist, she moved around frequently, spending time in Austin, Santa Fe, Chicago and San Francisco, and studying abroad in Florence and Milan. But in 1980, Bederman would take a trip that would change her life. That year, she visited North Dakota, fell in love with the place and has lived here ever since. That is until she moved to Montana in 2006 where she  taught art at Dawson Community College in Glendive. Gretchen returned to North Dakota in 2017.
She currently exhibits and sells her artwork at Bismarck Downtown Artists Coop.