3 questions for ... Mitch Blessing, 3D artist
Q: You are an accomplished sculptor with a MFA from a fine graduate school and you are doing 2D art, why?
A: My friend Randy Syverson and I are both 1992 graduates of Bemidji High School and Bemidji State University. I graduated with a BFA, and he with a degree in Information Technology. Neither of us could find a job, so we hired ourselves. We started Design Angler in a small office over the Irvine Street Bridge. We moved into town and hired three employees in the past 18 months, so we're doing our part in creating jobs.
Q: How has the switch from 3D to 2D art affected you professionally?
A: I wanted to be a sculptor and here I am doing 2D art every day on the computer. The days fly by. If you are learning and being challenged, there's never enough time in the day. We are a regionally known advertising agency, next nationally and hopefully internationally in the future.
Q: How do you see your future?
A: I want be fulfilled. I want to be happy, and that's where I am. To have a healthy family (wife artist Alice Blessing), and our beautiful daughter; to contribute to a healthy community and to become more well rounded as an artist and also as an arts citizen. I am on two committees: president of the Bemidji Sculpture Walk and a member of the Chief Bemidji Committee.
I'm going to be working hard my whole life, so I'd better be doing what I love. I come by it honestly; my parents are both hard workers.
3 questions is a Q&A?feature by Patt Rall that will be published one Sunday each month to give readers a chance to meet artists from the Bemidji area. Feedback is welcomed via email at prall@bemidjipioneer.com.
