Jim Zotalis combines life as priest, artist

Father Jim Zotalis’ day job is to serve as the priest at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Kasson. But that doesn’t keep him from finding time to engage in his other passion – painting watercolors.
Teaching art was actually Zoltalis’ first career.
A Mankato native, he majored in art in college and earned a master’s degree from Mankato State in regionalist watercolor. He taught art in Hastings for 12 years before he decided to become a priest and spent three years at seminary near Milwaukee.
He was chaplain at Shattuck-St. Marys in Faribault for two years before becoming priest of two congregations in North Dakota.
He said he had only been in the community for a week before the local community college called and said they were in need of an art instructor. With the bishop’s approval, he said, he began teaching once again. Over the next 12 years he taught a variety of classes including art history, painting and drawing while continuing to serve as a priest.
He spent another dozen years in Faribault as Dean of the Cathedral of Our Merciful Saviour. While in Faribault, Zoltalis said, he continued to do his watercolors but did not teach. Also while in Faribault, his wife, Paula, died leading him to take a year off from his ministry.
Seven years ago, he said, he remarried. After two years at a parish in Bismarck, N.D., Carol and Jim Zotalis returned to Minnesota as he began his duties as the priest at St. Peter’s, where he has been for five years.
Since coming to Kasson he said he has had an art show of his work every year. This year aa selection of his watercolors are on display at the Citizens State Bank in Mantorville. They will be at the bank through the end of March and Zotalis said he is planning to continue the display at a location in Kasson.
Zotalis describes his art as being a “regionalist.”
American Regionalism developed during the Great Depression as artists concentrated on works depicting specific regions, particularly of the American Midwest. Well-known regionalist artists include Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton and John Steuart Curry.
“I like to do things in my area,” Zotalis explained. As a result, he said, many of his watercolors include “all sorts of things in Mantorville.”
Among the works he has on display are watercolors of the Courthouse, the old school house, Post Office and the church that now houses the Dodge County Historical Society. He also has several works that of are scenes on Highway 57. He explained that he had entered a show where the subject was circles. That led him to do a watercolor showcasing the round hay bales that are often seen in area fields.
While most of his works are watercolors, he said, he does do some mixed media.
His painting of the Hubbell House uses watercolor and pen and ink. He explained that he puts the watercolor down first and then goes over that with the pen.
Watercolors, he said, are not particularly time consuming as he can do a watercolor in about three hours, five hours if he is adding ink to the work.
Anyone interested in purchasing one of his watercolors can contact him at the church.