Artist Spotlight: Dawn Menning

When Dawn Menning moved to Aberdeen, the local art scene welcomed her with open arms. 

“Everyone wants to inspire others in this town,” she said. When she set up a booth at one of her first local fairs, Nick and Nicole Fischer approached her and talked to her about her art. She started to find community while taking classes at the ARCC. The Art Group, a group that showcases the work of several Aberdeen artists, also showed her support. 

“They share it with other people. Seeing what they do and how they encourage other people, that’s what I feel like I got from this community. If you do an art and wine walk, or if you talk to other artists you know, or go to a gallery or show, everybody seems really friendly.” 

Now, Menning teaches her own art classes and is able to do her own part in the Aberdeen art scene. 

“I have a passion, and I want to share it with others,” she said. 

Before moving to Aberdeen in 1994, Menning grew up in North Dakota. She has been making art from a young age, as she grew up in an artsy family. 

“I lived on a farm, and you had to be creative,” she said. “If you told my mother you were bored, she’d find something for you to do.” 

In high school, she loaned her talents and helped make posters and decorations for school events, and during her senior year she was voted most likely to continue with her art in adulthood. 

She studied commercial art at Bismarck State College. 

“I liked art and wanted to find a career in it, but it wasn’t that easy,” Menning said. She did some photography work in Bismarck and had her own business creating signs. When she moved to Aberdeen, she worked at an adjustment training center and took classes at the ARCC to keep up with her artistic interests. That’s when her involvement in the Aberdeen art scene really took off. 

Today, Menning works as a licensed massage therapist at Healing Essential Therapeutic Massage. In her free time, she keeps up with her art and displays some of her pieces, as well as other art she has collected, in her office. 

Menning focuses on photography, drawing, mixed media projects, and also dabbles in poetry and writing. Her newest endeavor has been acrylic paint pouring. 

“I’m kind of a control freak, and pouring has been a unique lesson in learning to let go,” she said. “Picking colors is all you can control.” 

Some of Menning’s inspiration is drawn from nature and architecture, which are subjects she tends to depict in her photography. 

“Color and texture are kind of a big part of what draws me to things in photography,” she said. 

Menning’s artwork has been displayed twice in the Downtown Art Project. Her photography piece won third place, and her acrylic pour landscape painting won second place in 2024. 

One of Menning’s work. Photos courtesy of Dawn Menning.

Being able to share her art with others is one aspect that Menning enjoys, but the creation process is equally important. 

“It provides a lot of things,” Menning said. “Escape, sure, but it’s also creating your own space to be somewhere and just letting things flow. You get to step into a different zone rather than the everyday stuff.” 

Menning has sold her artwork, especially her jewelry, at various shows around the Aberdeen area. She has also had her work featured in galleries including the Artists of the Prairie exhibition at the Dacotah Prairie Museum. She also participated as an instructor in the Dakota Student Art Exhibition. 

“I was quite honored for that. The students taught me stuff and gave me great ideas of how to teach,” she said. 

Menning does the bulk of her teaching at the ARCC. She first started teaching classes about five years ago. 

“I took a class with Crystal Harper and Lois Beckner, and the three of us had four weeks of classes where we explored different stuff, and I wanted to try acrylic pouring, so we did, and I took off from there.” 

Menning has learned a lot through teaching, including techniques that she applies to her own art. She said that the art she creates while teaching differs from her personal art, since she focuses more on teaching techniques and creating pieces that show students the process. 

“When I ended up at the ARCC, it isn’t hard to keep your inner child,” she said. “I usually teach my classes by the Yapatorium, and sometimes there’s dog obedience classes too. So there’s dogs, and the energy from the kids down the hall, so it’s fun to teach over there.” //

 Menning’s art can be seen on her Facebook page, Dusk 2 Dawn Unlimited.