"As practice makes perfect, I cannot but make progress; each drawing one makes, each study one paints, is a step forward."
Vincent van Gogh
Tonja Vojacek Sell was born in 1968, a Wisconsin native and daughter of glass artisans. Tonja attended the Milwaukee School of Art, where she studied fine arts, drawing and illustration.
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Tonja met her husband Matthew at M.I.A.D. After six years in Arizona, they returned to Northern WI to start a family and build their home, studio and gallery near Lake Superior. Tonja continued to develop her work while raising and home educating their four children.
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“I get lost in the works of Klimt and Degas, the romance of the Pre-Raphaelites, the figures Toulouse Lautrec and Egon Schiele. I am captivated by the human form, texture, layering and hidden images. Much of my work incorporates several media combined in unexpected ways. By working in mixed media I often build tactile surfaces that invite exploration. I want to pull you in, cause you to explore and move through my work.
I work in several different media including all paint and drawing media, printmaking, ceramic sculpture, blown glass and more. I love trying new things and learning through experimentation."
Tonja has been represented by galleries across the country and her work is in multiple private collections internationally. She has been featured in Incite 3 and Incite 4 Best of Mixed Media published by Northlight Books. Some of her public work includes murals for the Carnegie Foundation and the Minnesota Discovery Center. Her work has been featured in the prestigious Women Painting Woman Shows.
Tonja and Matthew also
lead International Art Tours where students
explore and paint with Tonja.
“Art is a collaboration between God and the artist,
and the less the artist does the better.”
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Andre Gide
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