The Artists You'll Find at POTENTIAL

Mary Catherine Solberg calls her paintings "Everyday Icons" — a swimmer mid-dive, a dog leaping for a ball, a kid wrestling with a decision that was never really theirs to make — and she paints them with the same reverence the Renaissance masters gave their saints. Gold leaf, plaster, oil, a little glitter when the piece calls for it. Her Catholic upbringing runs through all of it, whether she's honoring it or wrestling with it.

Before she was painting full-time, she was running her family's land surveying business, and then a tech company that didn't make it through the dot-com crash. It wasn't until most of that fell away that she came back to art for good, and you can feel that in the work. It's layered in a way that rewards actually spending time with it — you'll catch something new the third time you look at a piece that you missed the first two.

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Her paintings are inspired by her travels and her goal is to create a fun, bright feeling in a minimalistic style,

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Spending 5 transformative years abroad in Sweden, South Korea, The Republic of Georgia, and Poland deepened her sensitivity to the emotional undercurrents tied to specific places. Andrea earned a BFA in Graphic Design from the University of Minnesota Duluth in 2004 and graduated from the Milan Art Institute in December 2025, advancing her fine art practice. Growing up loving the magic of Disney animations and watching drawings come to life, from the age of 8, Andrea knew she wanted to be an artist. She sat at the kitchen table with a pencil and paper drawing Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, the spark that ignited her lifelong artistic journey.

Andrea’s works are composed of rich transparent layers, often times beginning freely and playfully with inks, textures, acrylics, charcoal, and refined in oils. They are guided by the marks of the layers below. Her work showcases life’s small moments and impressions focusing on mood and light. Andrea’s art is influenced by the seasons, and subtle variations within seasons. Each season evokes a different emotion, reflecting the inseparable connection to nature and the environment around us. Additionally, she draws on experiences of living in different parts of the world and how different environments can affect our moods, perceptions, and feelings.“I want my work to be quiet with a loud presence,” she says.

Andrea works in her sunlit Minneapolis studio 6 days a week often times enjoying the sound of the birds or wind outside her studio window. Her hobbies include the outdoors, backpacking and hiking, as well as playing the French Horn in a concert band which are constant sources of inspiration. Her future plans include incorporating more outdoor time and nature into her artistic practice, continuing an exploration of presence, place, and the unseen forces that connect them.

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Painting in watercolor since 1999, she is drawn to the medium’s balance of spontaneity and intention, embracing both its unpredictability and expressive power. Her background in leadership, communication, and relationship-building continues to inform her artistic practice, where human connection remains central.

Her recent “HumanSpirit” series reflects moments of joy, empowerment and growth that sustain wellbeing and deepen our sense of belonging. Through layered washes, expressive mark-making, and atmospheric light, her paintings invite viewers into narratives that are both personal and universal.

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