FFA Nation

Wisconsin Artist Finds Inspiration in Ag, Farming

05/10/2010 |

Wisconsin FFA alumna Amanda Bulger proves you can take the girl out of the farm, but you can't take the farm out of the girl.

The 21-year-old from Pulaski, Wisconsin, is an accomplished artist who graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in drawing in May, but her roots run deep on her family's dairy farm.

"I always knew I didn't want to farm when I grew up," Amanda recalls. "But as I got older, I realized farming and agriculture have shaped who I have become – and who I always will be."

Amanda grew up milking cows, pushing around feed, and cleaning the milk house on the 500-acre dairy farm her parents own.

"I was always working on the farm. They would find jobs for us to do even when we were little," she says, referring to herself and her eight siblings. "We always felt important."

In elementary school, Amanda began drawing pictures of typical farm scenes – cows and chickens, plants and flowers. But it wasn't until middle school that she realized she was a lot better at art than her classmates.

"I began entering my drawings in the fair through 4-H, and people started noticing my work," she says. "I also used my talents to help promote 4-H and FFA by working on banners and parade floats, and I helped make decorations for the dairy and beef barn stalls for my 4-H and FFA clubs."

In high school, Amanda converted an unused barn on her parents' property into an art studio that she used during her high school years.

"Cleaning the barn was the hardest part, but I just made a space for myself," she says. "I fixed windows to keep the birds and rain out. I put in some insulation and hung an old barn fan to keep it cool. I ended up using it as my studio for four years."

Amanda doesn't draw many cows or chickens these days, but her farming background is still evident in her art.

"I can still see a lot of that influence in my work," she says. "In my old drawing books, you see cow after cow, and a few pigs and chickens here and there."

One of her more recent projects is a 5-foot by 3-foot collage that focuses on "the changing and disappearing farmer."

"I took several photos and news clippings of my grandpa's life that showed the farms he lived on as he grew, and it looks like one large barn with an image of him fighting a bull in the sky overlooking it all," Amanda explains. "He fought the bulls in Spain, and that was a proud moment in his life."

In 2008, Amanda sketched portraits of 23 residents at a nursing home in Bloomer, Wis., and staff members made them into memory books for the residents and their families at Christmas. The memory books also included family stories and decades of photos.

The nursing home project helped Amanda fulfill a graduation requirement of 30 hours of community service. But it also served another purpose.

"The residents felt so important because most of the time when someone draws a portrait, it's for a president or elected official," Amanda says. "They felt really blessed."

Eventually, Amanda hopes to move to Chicago or New York to show and sell her work in art galleries. But in the meantime, she's holding down jobs both on and off her family's farm and keeping designated studio hours to work on her drawings. She plans to go back to school for her Master of Fine Arts degree in a couple of years, and she has added sculpting to her repertoire.

"People tell me, 'That's a lot of work,' " she says of the many hats she wears. "But they forget I grew up on a farm."

Amanda says her FFA experience "absolutely" helped her get where she is today.

"FFA taught me about leadership and gave me great confidence in public speaking. I used to be incredibly shy, but FFA contests and leadership positions helped me grow as a person," she says. "My advice to FFA members is to take advantage of every opportunity. The things you don't even think are teaching you anything end up teaching you the most."