Duluth Library Book Sale, the Enger Tower Celebration and Anne Labovitz's Conversant Portraits

What did you think of that sky last night? So bright! At two a.m. here in the North Country it seemed as if the dawn were already about to break. I know that it has something to do with the tilt of the earth this time of year as we approach the summer solstice, but I had the feeling that the whole earth like a crowning infant bowed sunward so that the light was spilling over us all. Is the earth closer to the sun this year?

This week's activities are many but at the front of the line is our Friends of the Library Book Sale which begins today with a Members Only scavenger hunt. Oh, it's not really that but it is a closed session so that library members can riffle through the stacks. Just another example of how membership has its privileges.

The Duluth Library Book Sale runs through Friday the 13th. That last day is when I usually make an effort to explore as they have a Bag Sale. Inflation on used books has hit the bag sale though. It used to be a dollar for a bag of books and now it is four dollars. But then, have you seen the price of new books these days? Four buck is a great bargain as any reader well knows. And you can still find classics right up till the last. So make an effort to be there one day or another and you will be pleased. Ten a.m. in the Green Room, till seven tomorrow, till five Thursday and till three Friday. Enjoy!

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Anne Labovitz is at it again with another event involving faces. This show is called Conversant Portraits and is taking place at the Weisman Art Museum Plaza in Minneapolis. If you've never been to the Weisman, located on the U of MN campus, you owe it to yourself.

I personally get mesmerized by the expressiveness of faces that my art blog may is called The Many Faces of Ennyman, but I can see Anne Labovitz is equally enamored of this theme as this show/event is called Conversant Portraits. Indeed, faces are endlessly fascinating. Labovitz is taking this project to spaces even I have not considered. While you're being painted, she will also be interviewing you, much like carnival portrait painters, except in this case she'll be incorporating your words into the larger painting as abstract compositional elements. Your conversation will become part of many conversations, much like our singular lives become part of the larger river of human experience that flows through time.

Conversant Portraits is a pilot project in preparation for an international travelling exhibition in conjunction with the Tweed Museum here in Duluth. Can't be there in person? You can participate remotely by following @annelabovitz or #labovitz, or posting your own selfie on #nspkF17 on Twitter.

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On Father's Day, this coming Sunday, there will be a celebration in honor of Enger Tower's 75th anniversary. All kinds of activities are planned including a birthday cake in honor of Bert Enger's 150th birthday. How cool is that?

A couple years back the Rotary and the City took the lead on the restoration of the park in anticipation of a visit from the King and Queen of Norway who remembered stories from his dad who visited here when the tower was built.

For me it was especially fun painting a picture of the tower that year as part of the fund raising that went on. Crystal Taylor, who also helped spearhead the fund raising, asked John Heino to take photos that would become a calendar people could purchase. One photo was a picture of me painting the tower. That proved to be a fun photo shoot. People who bought the calendar were then eligible to win the painting, which ultimately went to a woman in Iowa.

Meantime, life goes on all around you. Embrace it.