Meet the artist capturing Sioux Falls landmarks past and present

When Jason Folkerts was 14, able to see over the steering wheel of the family car, he was given permission to take friends to see a movie at the State Theatre. A “wicked fierce” storm blew through while the teenagers were inside, and they emerged into a changed world.

That memory came back to Folkerts recently when he sketched the historic downtown movie theater for a pen-and-ink series on Sioux Falls landmarks.

When he drew the Frosty Treat drive-in that once stood on 10th Street with its much-loved neon sign with a dancing hot dog, Folkerts remembered his friends who had worked there.

“I’d hang out there on a Saturday afternoon,” he said. “You kind of forget those things until you draw them, then it’s ‘I remember that.’”

Folkerts’ sketches of old and new Sioux Falls landmarks always spur memories for others when he posts them on Facebook sites such as You Know You’re From Sioux Falls/Brandon If …

“Thank you for sharing my hometown,” one person recently wrote in the comments. “I don’t get back there enough, and seeing it through your eyes was fun.”

“The first image that catches my eye was The Barrell Drive-In, so iconic for my youth,” a second person wrote. Added a third: “You brought back so many memories of my life there. I was in Sioux Falls most of the time from 1951 to 1987.”

Kevin Tupy, founder and managing partner of Cresten Capital Holdings, has purchased a series of Folkerts’ drawings and plans to display them in the Beach Pay Building on its first floor. His company’s corporate office is in that building, built in 1887 and now the oldest structure in downtown Sioux Falls.

Tupy owns what he calls a significant portfolio of Folkerts’ drawings. Supporting local artists validates them professionally and gives meaning to their aspirations, he said. Cresten Capital, an investment firm that specializes in real estate and consumer services businesses, owns Shriver Square. That downtown building houses Serendipity Studio, which has an art gallery on the mezzanine and displays work by local artists in the common areas.

Tupy admires Folkerts’ style. While cartoonish, it retains the historical significance of the buildings it displays and the nostalgia of yesterday, he said.

Folkerts’ drawings of former eateries the Hamburger Inn and Bob’s Cafe hold special memories for Tupy.

“Hamburger Inn pulls on my heartstrings. It’s where me and my mom used to eat all the time back in the ’80s and ’90s,” Tupy said. “The State Theatre, of course. I wish the Hollywood was still here, but we’ll take the State. It’s beautiful. And Shriver Square, of course. That is one of the most iconic buildings downtown, and we’ve renovated that greatly. And the Great Outdoor Store — I’ve always loved that building. I love the way he (Folkerts) combines the old nostalgia of our childhood to the new buildings that dot the skyline today, including Cherapa.”

Folkerts now watches the new buildings coming to Sioux Falls from a distance. He and his wife, Tracy, returned to the Twin Cities area about three years ago. He had lived there after graduating from what was then Sioux Falls College. In the 1990s, the couple also lived in Los Angeles. In the early 2000s, the Folkerts family, which by then included three children, returned to Sioux Falls.

Folkerts, also a graduate of Sioux Falls Seminary, views his career as an artist as a “side hustle.” In Sioux Falls, his career opportunities included serving as the Washington Pavilion’s director of museums. Now, he lives in Minnetonka, Minnesota, and is an associate pastor at Parkside Church in Waconia.

He was a student at Lincoln High School when he first drew political cartoons and feature-story illustrations for the Argus Leader. Since then, art has been part of his life.

“I never stopped doing artwork; it’s very relaxing for me to do it,” he said. “It was full time sometimes, sometimes very part time. But I’ve always done artwork.”

Folkerts has worked mostly in pen and ink although in recent years he has turned to painting in acrylics. He also has done live artwork for events such as the LifeLight music festival and corporate assignments. Folkerts also has painted more than 170 murals, mostly on school gym walls.

His work as an artist fills in the hours not taken up by pastoral work, and in recent months, it has helped supplement the family income. Last fall, Tracy Folkerts was diagnosed with cancer. As bills mounted up, Folkerts turned to his art. He posted some of his older landmark sketches on Facebook and quickly saw enthusiastic responses.

David Huber, whose father had owned the Frosty Treat, asked for a drawing of that building.

“He posted it, and that kind of opened up the floodgate of a lot more people wanting stuff,” Folkerts said. “I drew a gas station that his dad also owned. I did The Pomp Room. The B&G Milkyway blew up — people love that. I would get personal emails saying, ‘My grandparents used to take me there.’”

As a Sioux Falls native, Folkerts was familiar with some of the places he drew. For other locations, he would go online and look for old photographs. Dr. Rick Odland, a local chiropractor, sent Folkerts his books with historic images of Sioux Falls.

“People really get connected to places,” Folkerts said, although he has not followed through on a request to draw the South Dakota State Penitentiary.

Now, with several dozen Sioux Falls landmarks memorialized, Folkerts plans to spend more time drawing landmarks closer to home in Twin Cities suburbs such as Wayzata and Excelsior and western Minneapolis. His daughter, McKennan, also an artist, displays her work and his sketches on her website.

While Folkerts doubts that he will live in Sioux Falls again, he is glad he has the memories he does and the talent to share the city’s landmarks with others.

“I really love Sioux Falls; it’s a great city and so unique and wonderful,” he said. “Sioux Falls has its very rich history, and people have a wonderful respect for their history. I’ve been blessed. I’ve met so many amazing people in Sioux Falls through my art. Sioux Falls has always been very good to me.”