Local Art Seen: Sculpture Show @ the Tweed. Museum Director Ken Bloom Retires.

"Pair, Pear" by Isidro Blasco (detail)

The food was good. The music was good. The speakers were good. The afterparty was good. And the setting was great.

After 15 years, that fellow from Brooklyn, the one who some thought would never stay, seemed like he'd never leave. And actually, the big surprise might be that he isn't really leaving. That is, he's not leaving Duluth, he's only stepping down from his position as museum director.

For Ken Bloom it will be a new chapter, not the end of the story.

He's not the first East Coast or West Coast artist to have move here and fallen in love with the region. Bloom's passion is photography, and his aim will be to stay, with wife Danielle, and have Duluth his continued "base of operations."

When it comes to the economics of retirement, you can own 40 acres here or 40 square feet in Manhattan, so why go back? (For my fact checkers, this is hyperbole, but not by much.)

UMD catered the food, Blackwoods the bar, with short farewell remarks by Jim Klueg (an art prof at UMD's School of Fine Arts), Rick Smith (director of the American Indian Learning Resource Center), Annie Dugan, and Ken himself, the highlight being Ken's screeching mike. (Just kidding, again.) These were followed by musical performances by Soprano Alice Pierce and pianist Jacqueline Foley.

The talks began with Jim Klueg welcoming us, then introducing Rick Smith, who thanked Ken for being respectful of the sacred items in the collection including repatriated spirit bags and birchbark scrolls.

"Time Bomb" by Karess Pastore

Klueg then introduced Annie Dugan, former director of the Duluth Art Institute, among other roles here in the region. Annie was in school when he first learned of Ken Bloom's selection to be Tweed Director. The person who informed her said, "He's not going to last long at all. He's from Brooklyn and doesn't even try to hide it."

Dugan said that while she was at the DAI "Ken came to openings, but also came back to look at the work." This is what impressed her. He cared about the art and took time to engage it. She spoke briefly about the importance museums like the Tweed offer "in service to the art, the cultural context, people and the stories."

"Cubic Herd" by Leslie Bohnenkamp

Always eloquent, she spoke about the challenges art museums face today, citing a New York Times article "Can Museums Find A Way Forward?"

Ken Bloom was then introduced and he began by indicating that all he did was "under the watchful eye of George and Alice Tweed." He talked about the mission of the Tweed, that it was an elevating opportunity for the whole community. The Tweeds gave their collection the the University so that it would be shared.

Ken Bloom awaiting introduction. 

"This museum is unique," Bloom said. "It is about us, our collective history. All exhibition s and acquisitions are paid for by you, the community. UMD pays for overhead and staff, but this is your museum."

Though he's lived in New York, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Japan and elsewhere, he is retiring here "because the lake got me. And my wife Danielle got me,..."

He noted that this was his first real opportunity to craft a collection. And at this moment the current show of art by Minnesota's Native Americans provided a visual endorsement of his description of our region as "the Ojibwa Riviera."

He closed with this takeaway: "Art is our way of expressing our community and our time here on earth."

EdNote: Except for the photo of Ken above, all photos here are from the sculpture exhibit upstairs featuring works currently in the Tweed collection.

"Untitled" by Isidro Blasco

"Figure Fragment #AV" by Orazio Fumagalli

Related Links
Powerful Images & Native Stories Fill Main Hall at the Tweed
Museums Confront Their Crowded Basements

Meantime, art goes on al around you. Get into it.

Local Art Seen: Virago @ Kruk Gallery, UWS + A Reminder About North End Days

Sarah Riley

Last Thursday I visited the Virago exhibition in Kruk Gallery, UWS and Lizzard's opening reception for Murphy & Murphy. Virago, the title of the Kruk show, means, "a domineering, violent, or bad-tempered woman." Synonyms include harridan, shrew, dragon, termagant, vixen, fishwife, witch, hellcat, she-devil, tartar, martinet, spitfire and more. The archaic definition might be, "a woman of masculine strength or spirit, a female warrior." The trio of featured artists include Chelsey Rae, Jillian Dollars and Sarah Riley.

According to the accompanying handout, the word's Old English origin dates back to the Latin, "heroic woman, female warrior." The impression one gets is that it will be a show by women, featuring strength, fighters who refuse to be dominated, verified in Chelsey Rae's artist statement.

Chelsey Rae

"I knew that I wanted my body of work to focus on the idea of woman, of femininity, and of strength. I also knew that the two other Alumni that I exhibited with would have a similar theme in mind," Chelsey Rae states. "I came across the word virago in a search related to strong women. We never questioned the word and knew that it fit perfectly with our intentions of the exhibit."

Jillian Dollars pictures are about women who are courageous, powerful, resourceful, kind, smart, talented and funny as hell. "I want you to see these women," she states. "I want you to see their spirit and strength and vulnerability. I want you to see some of the many faces of this sisterhood... resilient and enduring women. I admire them and I am inspired by them, and you should be too."

Sarah Riley has found her inspiration in the human form and all its diversity and fascination. Her portraits consist of both people she's imagined and people whom she admires for their artistic endeavor and overall significance, in this life and in this world. Her aim is not simply to capture a likeness but also to capture something of the personality and demeanor of her subjects, a unique challenge every time. Rooted in the concept of "body positivity" it's her stated hope that the viewers of this series "feel empowered, validated and secure in their own unique beauty."

Jillian Dollars

The show was curated by Annie Dugan and will be on display through October 30. Kruk Gallery hours are one Google search away.

Jillian Dollars

Sarah Riley

Sarah Riley

Chelsey Rae

Chelsey Rae
See more: www.chelseymillerart.com

* * * *

THIS FRIDAY: SUPERIOR COMES ALIVE
ART, MUSIC SEVEN VENUES

MEANTIME ART GOES ON ALL AROUND YOU.GET INTO IT.

Free Range Film Festival's 2017 Playlist Announced

There will be no whales saved in Wrenshall this weekend. There will be no terrifying accidents on a giant roller coaster that shoots people through the air. There will be no ocean expeditions, nor crash landings by Martian explorers (we hope). Rather, there will be laughs and sighs and other surprises, because the 2017 Free Range Film Festival (FRFF) is back.

If you've never been the the Free Range Film Barn, then you might want to go just because of the nostalgic sense of going back in time that it gives. (I think here of Uncle Harry and Aunt Isabel's spread in West Virginia. They had a bull and we were told not to get too near. That's no bull.)

The Free Range Film Festival has developed something of a cult-like following since it began in 2003 in that Wrenshall barn. The FRFF will be screening 35 films from around the world this year. The event provides a forum for filmmakers, film lovers, as well as barn enthusiasts and country living aficionados.

“That overused phrase ‘there is something for everyone’ really does apply here” says organizer Annie Dugan. “We screen short films, documentaries, animated films, and fiction. I think we try and strike a balance between work that is going to capture as well as challenge our audiences. I think there is something about watching movies in a big old barn that give people permission to relax and try something new. If they don’t like something, they can look up at the rafters and daydream. Its just such a beautiful space.”

EdNote: It really is a cool space.

This year’s lineup features local treasures along with nationally recognized films. In fact, “Hello Stranger” was featured on the Tonight Show after it was secured for the festival. The diversity in directors and subject matter is also noteworthy this year. Dugan states that “One of the cool things that we realized after we programmed the festival is that almost half of the directors are women, something you don’t usually see in filmmaking.”


www.freerangefilm.com

Free Range Film Festival
909 County Road 4, Wrenshall, MN 55797
To get there, head South out of Carlton and take County 1 when you get to the fork.
That will bring you to an intersection with County Road 4. Make a right and you can't miss it.
If you get lost, call 218-310-4703

Friday, July 28th 7pm – 11pm
Saturday, July 29th, 2pm – 5:30pm and 7pm – 11pm

For more information contact Anne Dugan
annesdugan gmail.com

* * * *
THE SCHEDULE

FRIDAY EVENING 7pm
CATHERINE (12m)
Cat ownership can be difficult. Directed by Britt Raes.
*THE LEGEND OF CYRIL (3m)
Cat ownership can be beautiful. Directed by Beth Peloff.
SCIENCE TODAY: THE TRUMP PARTICLE (3m)
Trump stumped scientists… until now. Directed by John Akre.
*DEMOLITION DREAMING (52m)
The Minneapolis Gateway District according to the girl in the walls. Directed by John Akre.
HI STRANGER (3m)
Hi stranger. It’s been a while. I’ve missed you. Directed by Kirsten Lepore.
IT SHOULD BE EASY (2m)
Computer ownership can be dangerous. Directed by Ben Meinhardt.
*ON THE WALL, OFF THE CHAIN (7m)
Artist Adam Turman is also a gentleman cyclist. Directed by Greg Carlson
ALL THE PRESIDENTS’ HEADS (9m)
All of our presidents are cement heads. Directed by Adam Roffman.
PERFECTLY NORMAL (13m)
We are all normal in some way. Directed by Joris Debeij.
***** BREAK with music ****

FRIDAY EVENING 9:30pm

Balcony with a View

BIRDLIME (11m)
The exotic bird industry in heartbreaking stop-motion. Directed by Evan DeRushie.
FRY DAY (16m)
An adolescent girl comes of age thanks to Polaroid photography and the execution of Ted Bundy. Directed by Laura Moss.
LITTLE POTATO (14m)
Imagine growing up gay in the Soviet Union with limited television options. Directed by Wes Hurley.
TOUGH (5m)
Some cultural misunderstanding can only be understood with maturity. Directed by Jennifer Zheng.
ELECTION NIGHT (8m)
The 2016 election takes a turn for the worse at a London pub. Directed by Ryan Scafuro.
REFUGE (20m)
Captivating interviews with refugees arriving in Greece. Directed by Matthew Firpo.
SATURDAY AFTERNOON 2pm
CONDITIONER (5m)
Auditions for a conditioner TV spot get wonky. Directed by Shane Bream.
UNTAMED WORLD: DESERTS (4m)
An intimate look at desert fauna. Directed by Kelsey Juddo.
GUT HACK (13m)
This guy eats poop to feel better. Directed by Laura Heberton.
LINGUA ABSENTIA (10m)
This is difficult to watch because it involves animation of severed tongues. But it is worth it. Directed by Kate Raney & Jeremy Bessoff.
LIFE AT A SNAIL’S PACE (23m)
Snails are surprisingly fascinating creatures, and pretty too. Directed by Alexandra Gaulupeau
THE SEVENTH STAGE OF GRIEF (14m)
These guys think climate change is real! Directed by Jacob Rosdail.
*MANLIFE (94m)
The secret to a healthy life? Eat raw vegetables, abolish income tax, and go to airshows. Directed by Ryan Sarnowski.
SATURDAY EVENING 7pm
BLOOP’S BIRTHDAY (4m)
What did you get Bloop for her birthday? Directed by Julian Glander.
*WALK IN DREAMS (5m)
Edgar Allen Poe says “All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.” Directed by Jonathan Thunder.
BACK TO ABSTRACTION (10m)
Stacy Elaine Dacheux travels back to the future to explore abstraction. Directed by Matthew Quezada.
AMEN (10m)
Adam is 11 and he is a messenger from God. Directed by Marie-Helene Viens and Philippe Lupien.
PENELOPE (13m)
A couple rescues a chicken from an Orthodox Jewish ceremony in Brooklyn. Directed by Duncan Skiles.
IMAGINE KOLLE 37 (8m)
Two carefree young girls laugh in the face of danger. Directed by Michele Meek.
*IN THE SKIP DISTANCE (9m)
A young girl alone in the wilderness finds some analog technology. Directed by Emily McNeill
TOMMY AND DAVID (5m)
Michelangelo’s David does not feel inadequate. Directed by Sara Joe Wolansky.
THE COLLECTION (12m)
Two friends find the holy grail of movie memorabilia in the unlikeliest of places. Directed by Adam Roffman.
THE SCARLET WHALE (15m)
A whale hunter becomes what he hunts. Directed by Jimmy Cho.
ARKABUTLA (14m)
There are certain moments in our lives where we make memories for life. Directed by Katori Hall.
*** BREAK with music by Portrait of a Drowned Man ***

SATURDAY EVENING 9:30pm
OH WHAT A WONDERFUL FEELING (15m)
Stars, hide your fires; let not light see my black and deep desires. Nor any truck. Directed by Francois Jaros.
*WHAT CHILDREN DO (87m)
Two estranged sisters are forced to repair their feral relationship. Directed by Dean Peterson.

Meantime, life outside goes on all around you. Get into it.

Free Range Film Festival Celebrates 13th Season This Weekend

When Richard Hansen brought the DuSu Film Festival to the the Twin Ports several years back he wasn't the first game in town for alternative film. The Free Range Film Festival is now in its 13th year out there in the Wrenshall boondocks. "The Barn" is turning 100 this year so it will be an extra special time to show your face, settle in and enjoy out of the mainstream programming.

Nearly all of us have grown up on cinema and a large percentage of us will admit privately that more often than not the films Hollywood has been producing are all too often less than satisfying. For this reason Indie films and off-the-beaten-path film festivals have become so popular among film buffs.

This particular film festival has been dubbed “a farm fresh alternative to stale cinema” since it started screening films in 2003. To celebrate the barn’s important anniversary the festival has expanded the number of films it is screening to almost 40 as well as presenting a live improvised score with the Band “Portrait of a Drowned Man”. (I'm not sure what that means, but it sounds interesting.)

Annie Dugan, director of the Duluth Art Institute, is also the force behind this event, its chief organizer and advocate. “This year’s crop of films is particularly peculiar and delightful” says Dugan. “We have such a mix with lots of shorts so there's always going to be something that will capture as well as challenge our audiences. I feel like that is what watching movies together should be about.” This year’s lineup features a mix of animated shorts, narrative shorts and plenty of documentaries including a 10 minute short about a 90-year-old woman who tries bacon for the first time.

One thing that has happened after a baker's dozen festivals is that the event has gained a reputation as being fun and quirky. As a result, Dugan notes, they have been able to leverage this to acquire some really amazing work. “This year we were able to secure a film that made a big splash at Sundance called ‘Nuts!’ It tells the story of John Brinkley who tried to cure impotence with goat testicle implants and ended up inventing modern radio along the way. And a lot of it is done in animation!”

The festival features local filmmakers alongside national headliners. Brian Barber is returning to screen work that he and Paul Lundgreen from Perfect Duluth Day directed together: “Honeycomb Hideout” interviews Duluthian Rob Berry whose collection of cereal boxes is truly tremendous.

Showtimes
Friday, July 29th 7pm – 11pm
Saturday, July 30th, 2pm – 5:30pm and 7pm – 11pm

The two-day event is held in the barn at 909 County Road 4 just outside of Wrenshall, MN. You'll find the full schedule, driving directions and more at the Free Range Film festival website:
www.freerangefilm.com

Design Duluth #2 Is Rich With Insights from Local Designers

Thursday evening HTK Marketing hosted the second of six Design Duluth events, with Cody Paulson, Matt Olin, Joe Gunderson and Tommy Kronquist as this edition's guest presenters. It was another stellar turnout with muchos kudos to the Duluth Art Institute staff for conceiving this series of events.

As with the first event held at Cirrus Design, Annie Dugan played the role of MC and moderator, introducing speakers and leading us through the evening's activities, which included a creative team exercise at the end. But to start the evening off Annie read from Barton Sutter's Cold Comfort: Life at the Top of the Map.

Bridges are to Duluth what skyscrapers are to New York. They define the place. We've got the Bong. We've got the Blatnik. We've got trestles and docks and piers. We've even got a road called Seven Bridges. But the queen of them all, without doubt, is called the Aerial Lift Bridge. Neither the longest nor the highest bridge in town, the Lift is merely the oldest and the loveliest.

The four speakers were each assigned fifteen minutes to present, the first being Joe Gunderson, Director of Visual Identity at HTK, one of the older and major ad agencies in the Twin Ports.

Gunderson began by stating that there are three kinds of identity: Corporate Identity, Cultural Identity and Sensory Identity. After showing examples of corporate indentity, he addressed cultural identity which includes the beliefs, customs, arts, history, architecture and geography of a city or region. Sensory identity consists of textures, touch, sound, taste, smell and emotions. He shared, as an example, the feeling one experiences when they drive over Thompson Hill and see the city spread out before them.

Gunderson had us play a game called "Name That City" in which we were to identify various places, except with their identifying icons removed. What is Paris without the Eiffel Tower? This put things in perspective for our own town, for the Duluth Aerial Lift Bridge is the most photographed icon in the Northland.  But there are other things that define us including landmarks, heritage, history, people, businesses, events, outdoors and our potential. We were encouraged to take a moment to consider Duluth through a new lens.

Tommy Konquest, founder of The Medium Kontrol, made the second presentation. Konquist presented two videos, the being about how he met his wife Kristi and their move to Duluth from St. Paul. Komquist, a designer and screen printer, showed some of the cool logos he has created. The highlight was a logo he created for his son Holden Kevin and the process he went through to get there.

Annie Dugan then introduced Cody Paulson, Senior Design Director at Swim Creative who had a show at the DAI earlier this year. "I love seeing the way Cody engages with this post-industrial landscape that we have here," she said. The result was his Port City Supply Co. brand.

Paulson's discussion revolved around identity and brand design. He also has a small business called Jambox Shred Gear which he briefly shared. After outlining the five elements of a great brand --
Honest, Compelling, Substantial, Engaging and Authentic -- he presented some thoughts about how to create a brand by sharing what went into the development of the logo for the Park Point Art Fair.

UMD Professor of Graphic Design Matthew Olin made the fourth presentation. In a humorous vein he presented logos from the dozens of local companies that incorporate the aerial lift bridge into their logos.  (See examples here on Instagram.)

Teamwork.

Whereas Duluth does have a keen affinity for "Old Lifty" Olin noted that at least one local company that abandoned this local symbol was happy to have done so when their market expanded to national reach.

The evening's theme was "Iconoclast: Breaking the Lift Bridge Icon-Hold" and what a beautiful setting for this event with the lift bridge directly across from us on the 8th floor of the Dewitt-Seitz offices of HTK. We ended the evening by breaking up into groups for four or five in order to design a new logo for our region using toothpicks and marshmallows. Many designs were quite inventive.

The next event will be January 9, with the suitable theme of "How Do We Embrace the Cold?" It all begins at 5:30 p.m., a form of business after hours. The location for this January event will be Bent Paddle Brewery on Michigan Street in West End. Hope to see you there.

Matthew Olin 

Artist Interviews: Best of 2012 (Part I)

Before coming to Duluth in 1986 I had been a publishing freelance writer for several years in the Twin Cities. A natural-born extrovert, I enjoyed the whole process of listening to and capturing people's stories, then writing about them. Some of these early pieces included a photographer who wondered if he'd captured a photo of the Loch Ness monster and a couple who met and married in their late eighties. It's been a real privilege to meet so many interesting people and hear so many interesting stories.

Gary Swanson

In recent years I began interviewing artists whom I met through social media. My motivations were several. First, to show the variety of ways in which creativity can be expressed. Second, as a mechanism for sharing their art with others. Third, to see what makes them tick.

Eventually, this led me to focus on the local arts scene here in the Twin Ports. I still reach out to artists abroad but I've taken a keen interest in nurturing our local arts community.

There's an experimental quality to all this. When I was a young idealist I wanted to change the world. It didn't take long for that to become disillusioning. Thirty years later I've decided to roll up my sleeves and see if in some small way I can make a difference here locally. I'm testing the idea that a strong arts community can be a catalyst for the betterment of the larger community, a theory I first heard proposed by the Art Works coalition that brought Richard Florida's ideas here a half dozen years ago.

Here are most of the interviews from January thru April. Enjoy.

Ten Minutes with Cellist/Artist Kathy McTavish

Ten Minutes with Artist/Cartoonist Simon Gray

The Modern Primitive

Ten Minutes with Gary Swanson, The Modern Primitive

Seven Minutes with Painter Melanie Sternberg

Ten Minutes with Annie Dugan, Curator at the DAI

Ten Minutes with Veteran Artist Martin DeWitt

Ten Minutes with Kat Eldred, an Arts-Centered Life

Ten Minutes with Kat Eldred, Part II

Five Minutes With Sandra Cragin

Five Minutes with Colin Wiita

Eight Minutes with Prøve Gallery Director and Co-founder Steven Read

Spotlight on Artist / Writer Jeffrey Woolverton


Thank you to each and all for sharing yourselves here.