Dylan Days 2010

As I have already noted, May is a busy month for a lot of folk, with Cinco de Mayo, Mother's Day, Memorial Day, graduations and weddings. In this neck of the woods it is also Dylan Days, a week of festivities celebrating the Northland's most celebrated musician, Hibbing's own, Bob Zimmerman.

I do not believe it an accident that Dylan Days always falls on our near the birth date of Mr. Dylan. Monday he will turn 69, if you want to know. Though some of the fanfare occurs in Duluth here (where he was born in 1941 and lived till he was six) most of the action is in Hibbing.

Though Dylan's legacy is the centerpiece of all this hoopla, the broader aim is to support the arts in general, so there are music events, creative writing competitions, poetry readings and an art show. A big highlight is the Singer/Songwriter contest. This year it is my aim to enter one or more of my Dylan portraits into the show, which takes place at Zimmy's

The broader purpose behind Dylan Days is to encourage a greater appreciation for the arts, whether music, writing or pictorial. In whatever form it takes, let your creative spirit rise up and fly.

If you are a Dylan fan, and you are anywhere in the neighborhood (that is, north of Twin Cities) you owe it toyourself to check it out sometime. For more info about this annual celebration of a native son, visit http://www.dylandays.com/

The Dylan portrait top right is available as a signed, limited edition giclee print from the DiscoveredArtists online gallery. It looks quite awesome framed.