Two Sisters. Two Media. One Perspective.

SALLY NYSTROM | TORI JENSEN

We two sisters have been working on similar subject matter in our still lives. Our still lifes have metaphysical themes. Life and death, the transience of time, spirituality, good and evil in this universe.

The contrast of our work is one of media choice. Tori does large charcoal drawings in a monochromatic display. Sally paints large canvases in oil with rich color and uses some similar universal icons in her work, such as crosses, buddhas, clocks, and skeletons.

The two sisters have great contrasts in their work. Although they often use the same objects, their work is dissimilar.

Sally Nystrom

Sally Nystrom is an artist and art teacher who has a private studio in the Casket Arts Building in Northeast Minneapolis. She graduated with a BA from St. Catherine’s College in 1991, and has continued her studies, focusing on her love of art history. In 1993, she began as a teaching protege with Sally Brown, a founding member of WARM (The Women’s Art Registry of Minnesota). Together they taught in Sally Brown’s studio school and for the University of Minnesota adjunct programs. They have developed curriculum for various art programs in Minnesota and Wisconsin. After Sally Brown’s retirement, Sally Nystrom continued with her own school of art for adults until she retired in 2016. Her latest body of work comprises modern still lifes with an unusual perspective.

Most recent shows:

2015: Vine Gallery in the Ivy Building

2013: Congregational Church

2012: Hopkins Art Center

2008: Minnesota Center for Books

Eves Dropping
24x36 Oil on Canvas. $400 Blue background, table with 5 objects, small white dog under table.

Intruder
24x36 Oil on Canvas. $400 Table with 2 drawers, plant with Rat sniffing it.

Mother’s Pearls
24x36 Oil on Canvas. $400 Jewelry Box with pearls, two dogs, on table with drawers.

Mother’s Portrait
24x36 Oil on Canvas. $400 Table with 2 drawers, plant, dog, and dragon dog.

Quan Yin 2
24x36 Oil on Canvas. $400 Plant, Quan Yin, Jewelry box on a small table.

Quan Yin 1
24x36 Oil on Canvas. $400 Jewelry Box, Quan Yin, Buddha, plant, Matisse in background.

Red Dog
24x36 Oil on Canvas. $400 Large Red Dog on a mostly red background.

Blue
36x48 Oil on Canvas. $700 Blue background, bust, Quan Yin, white dog and large lamp.

Homage to Frida
36x48 Oil on Canvas. $700 Cross with plants all around it.

My Atelier
36x48 Oil on Canvas. $700 Large blue vase with plant in it, blue chair, yellow lamp.

Patricia’s Screen
36x48 Oil on Canvas. $700 White bust, 3-panel screen, Terrier dog, purple wall.

Unbalanced
36x48 Oil on Canvas. $700 Jewelry box, large trunk on small table, plant, fishbowl.

Running Out of Time
30x40 Oil on Canvas NFS Tall table with clocks falling, a rug with red figures on it.

Tori Jensen

At the College of St. Catherine, Tori received a master’s in Education in 1998 and a media certification by 2000. After that, she worked in an elementary school, a middle school and two high schools.

After retiring from education in 2016, Tori joined her sister, Sally Nystrom, in her art studio and got into making art. Tori fell in love with charcoal and strictly worked with it for about two years.

Her still lifes are a combination of objects from around the studio and things from her home. Some of the objects are just pleasing to her, others have a deep connection to her life and her children.

She has just begun to oil paint and painted four pastiches in order to learn about painting with oil she has since used some copyright-free photographs to paint portraits of people that are interesting to her.

Minnesota State Fair Art Show. Juried. August 2020

Art-A-Whirl, Casket Arts Building. May 2019

Art-A-Whirl, Casket Arts Building, May 2018