Hi, I’m Randi Inez Eggum

I am studying at Augustana University as a BFA student with an emphasis in Drawing. I am a plein air artist, painter, and illustrator. I began my art journey on my travels as a child and this led me to always get in the habit of carrying drawing supplies with me and always trying to draw my surroundings. It sparked my love for painting, drawing, and the overall need to create. I particularly love working with watercolor and gouache. I also work in mixed media by blending my favorite paints with inks, colored pencils, and oil pastels. Many of my influences stem from childhood memories and all of the places that I have visited over the years. I am also greatly inspired by folk tales and folk art, as well as my own heritage. I have also begun to make plein air studies wherever I go in order to keep inspiration fresh in my mind. Overall my work tries to blend my surroundings and the memories that I carry to find the overlap of personal and universal experience. 

Artist Statement 

I am ever changing and so is the world. I was raised a nomad as my family and I explored many corners of the world. But with the freedom to wander, I inherited the same loneliness that all who roam carry. My art is my companion through all of life’s chapters as I search for my place in it all. I began to draw by carrying a small sketchbook with me wherever I went so that I would never truly be alone. A childhood like that never truly leaves you as I still crave to leave and keep running. My art is the embodiment of all that I love as my memories are riddled with my loved ones and those who made me who I am.

When I travel I draw what is in front of me in an effort to truly understand what I am witnessing. A moment in time that I might never relive but by sitting in the stillness I attempted to bottle that very memory that I can’t keep. I don’t want to always be constantly moving onto the next thing and the next, thereby forfeiting the beauty of living in the moment. For that reason, I carry with me my paints and inks—my studio is wherever my feet land. I also know the stillness of contemplating my inner self and all the things that have made me who I am. So whether it is a rolling landscape or my memories they all compile to create my work.