Morgan Wagner, who currently lives and works in Watford City, ND, specializes in drawing, painting, illustration, and graphic design. She chooses to paint, rather than photograph, because while a photograph can do a good job of preserving a specific image and time, it can’t select for the most important details in a subject. In addition, it doesn’t allow for the time, careful scrutiny, and intention it takes to make a painting.

“I’ve heard love described as: ‘paying careful attention to,’ Wagner says. ‘If this is the case, when I practice painting, I am practicing love.’

Wagner’s work focuses on the essence of what makes my everyday subjects beautiful. She tries to create an impression of light and form, simplifying shapes and distilling the subject down to its most important parts.

The Walter Piehl Gallery is located in the Northwest Arts Center on the lower level of the Gordon B. Olson Library, with its own entrance on the south side of the library. It is open TWThF, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday 1-5 p.m. and by special arrangement. It is closed holidays.

This exhibition is sponsored by the North Dakota Art Gallery Association (NDAGA), a statewide service organization for non-profit museums & galleries, and supported in part by a grant from the North Dakota Council on the Arts, which receives funding from the state legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts.