SPOTLIGHT ON: SALLIE SONNTAG MALMSTROM

 by JoAnn Frekot

Sallie Malmstrom is a member of OT Artists studio.  

What was your childhood like when it came to art?

Butterfly by Sally Malmstrom

If you weren't an artist in my family, don't you dare be anything else! 

I come from a line of artists on both sides of my family.  My father was a daily artist at the Star Tribune in the 1950's and 60's. I have drawings he did at OT Artists studio. One of my earliest memories is of sitting in my dad's lap as he taught me how to draw Mickey Mouse. 

My parents met in New York City.  My mom, Marilyn Corwin, had graduated from what is now the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) and had the opportunity to go to New York.  My dad, Edwin Sonntag, was on leave from the Navy (WWII).  After they married, they worked together at Hanna Barbera in NYC,  painting background cells in animation.

When my sister Susann was born, my family moved back to Minnesota. After my father retired from the Minneapolis Star & Tribune, we moved up north to the Nisswa area.  I went to a K-12, one-room school building in Pillager.  However, I graduated from Brainerd High School because I needed more challenge in my senior year.   It was a one-hour bus ride either way.    

What did you do once you graduated from high school?

Plein Air Painting by Sally Sonntag Malmstrom

I studied advertising in St. Cloud State University.  In 1979, I won third place at DECA (Distributed Education Clubs of America), https://www.deca.org, a state-wide competition.  My project was on Apple Computers being used as a personal computer which everyone would have (which was a novel idea then).  I then left St. Cloud to study in Madison, Wisconsin, where I got free tuition for half a year.  

During that time, my sister Cindi was at MCAD, my mother was an alum and my father had taken classes there (before they found out they were pregnant with me, in 1959).  It seemed to make sense for me to finish my studies there.  

While at MCAD, I first went into film-making.  I'd always dreamed of going to New Zealand, and that summer (in 1980) I went to NZ for three months.  While there, I found out there were no women in film-making at all (according to the Wellington Commission).  The experience was pretty disheartening.  I returned home, broke.  I then decided to study architecture (my grandfather had  been a a famous  architect for Ellerbee's).  I graduated from MCAD in 1985.

What happened next?  

Going to the Art Museum with Sallie

I worked in the architectural field for five years. I figured, if I could draw something every day, I didn't care what I needed to draw.

I left the field when the bottom fell out of architecture in 1990.  A company called Central Engineering advertised an opening for a machine designer.  When the manager, DeWayne Pugh, saw my drawings, he assured me, "Oh, you can draw machines."  I worked at Central Engineering hand drawing machine designs on the 8' drawing board.  

I was introduced to AutoCAD by my employer at the time.  I was told, "You're the youngest one here.  Why don't you learn AutoCAD and put these drawings into it?" So I did.   

Now, I work in designing security systems for large scale companies and the Metropolitan Airport Commission.  

How have you kept your love of fine art nurtured? 

All through my career, I have attended art workshops.  I would take my sons Peter and Garrett (who is ten years younger) to bookmaking arts and cartooning class.  I created a comic book of Garrett when he was two and a half years old.  I will give that hand drawn comic book as a wedding present.  

What led you to painting en plein air?

Plein Air by Sallie Malmstromg

Around 2011, I ran into Greg Lecker (https://greglecker.com/); he was painting plein air at the time.  I asked him if he would help me learn plein air; he took me to the U of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.  I painted my first plein air painting the next  year in Bayfield, Wisconsin.  I also joined Outdoor Painters of Minnesota (OPM) https://www.outdoorpaintersofminnesota.org/ where I served as Board Secretary for awhile.

What media do you work in?

I primarily work in oil, but also work in watercolor and gouache.  (I paint little rocks and give them away to friends and random people).

How do you choose what to paint?

I don't have any firm favorites of subjects to paint.  I am inspired and motivated by challenge.   Poetry can inspire me, such as poems by Mary Oliver.

How did you find out about OT Artists?  

Through OPM.  I went to a Life Drawing class, and the feeling of the studio reminded me of MCAD student life - you have your own studio, there's a couch and a microwave, you talk to other artists.  I've brought my pets in (including my pet ferret).  I joined OT Artists in 2017.

What are you working on now?  

"Touch of Sallie"
at the Arboretum

I am painting dueling leopards with my husband, Harold Malmstrom.  I am also illustrating a children's book, dedicated to my newly-arrived first grandchild, Cornelius.  The book and illustrations are based ?on a poem written by Garrett, on the occasion of his nephew Cornelius' arrival. 

Any final thoughts?

I struggle with being called an artist because it is like being called a woman.  Isn't it obvious? 

And, my family is an Art Cocoon.  We figure out how to make money,  but we live to nurture each other.