Local Art Seen: Today's Forecast: More Art In Bayfront Park

Nigerian painter Rahmon Olugunna
currently resides in Chicago.

It's another weekend of art in the park, this time Bayfront Park. In addition to nearly 150 artist's displays there's also a car show featuring vintage cars of a wide variety. Best of all, the event is free, with ample numbers of food vendors, beer and wine to keep guests hovering in the neighborhood.

It was a near perfect day yesterday, warm sunshine splashing everywhere. Though you'll find some of our local artists present -- Ryan Tischer's photography, Cheryl Husby's ceramics -- the majority of artists here hail from elsewhere, many from the Twin Cities. In addition to photography and ceramics, the mediums represented include painting, fiber arts, glass, wood, sculpture, metal, drawing and digital designs. 

Yesterday's forecast for the coming three days looked threatening, but right now there are clear skies and the expectation is that it will be all good. In fact, the same for tomorrow's Eclipse-watchers. Yes, the weather forecast has changed, and nearly everyone in the States that had been expecting the worst can now get their gear ready because the skies seem to be clearing.

Many of the booths at Bayfront feature practical creativity, from rings and things to filet knives and canoe paddles. But there's also art for display and collectibles. If you're in need of a gift for a special occasion, it's very likely you can find something unique that is perfectly suited to the person you care about.

Here are some images from our tour of the waterfront yesterday.

Bring out your pet's true spirit at WildBarkingMoon.com

Kristi Abbott's pop iconography can be found at MadeByKristi.com

Read my 2015 interview with Kristi here. 

Meantime art goes on all around you. 

Especially if you visit Bayfront Park today, 11:00 a.m. till 5:00 p.m.

Local Art Seen: Lake Superior Art Festival @ Brighton Beach

What a beautiful day for the artists who shared their work on Brighton Beach yesterday, and for those who came to soak it in. You couldn't have asked for any better. The oceanside setting, I mean our Great Lake which one experiences on a scale comparable to an ocean front, produced a balm-like backdrop for the artists' temporary tent city just above the rocky shore. The lake seemed especially calm, in contrast to its turbulent demeanor a few days earlier.

The sponsors of yesterday's art festival included Republic Bank, Lizzards Art Gallery & Framing, and Paper Hog. Thank you.

44 regional artists participated, from Grand Marais to the Twin Cities, though most hailed from Duluth. Photography, watercolors, stained glass, jewelry, pottery, woodwork, fiber arts and painting were all represented.  What follows are some of my favorite images from a tour of the show.

A small painting from the Art Zoo, by Claudia Faith.

Steer me to the art section, please.

Aaron Kloss has opened a gallery in Lakeside where more of his paintings
can be found. 

I learned that Ryan Tischer will be opening a downtown gallery soon.

Sandra Haff is Steppin' Out with her mixed media assemblages with found objects.

The animalia cutouts were fun. 

Stoneware Pottery by Aaron and Jena Levandowski

One thing that has changed since the first years of the Park Point Art Fair is the advent of the Internet. Nowadays many artists and craftspersons have websites, a social media presence and an Etsy storefront from which they can do business year round. The art fairs provide them an opportunity to instant feedback on new directions and ideas they introduce. 

This particular event appears to have been a bi-product of Lake Superior Artrepreneurs. Perhaps as they grow they will have a website that links to all the individual artists' websites and Etsy stores.  

Next week is the Bayfront Park Art Fair down by the bay. If nothing else, you should go for the food trucks. Let's hope for nice weather. It's another beautiful setting for an art walk. 

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Meantime, art goes on all around you. Are you a collector? Next time, bring something home with you. :-)

Elliot Silberman Talks About 40 Years of Drawing Portraits and More

Elliot Silberman has many passions including fishing, making jug band music and Dylan. This interview focuses on his lifetime of drawing portraits at art fairs along with other related endeavors. Portions of this interview appeared in this week's Reader.

EN: When did you start drawing portraits?

Elliot Silberman: The early 70's, while working at Bethany Children’s Home. I had my own office with a piano, and started sketching the teens mostly, as they came in and out. That’s how I started. There were no Arts and Crafts shows then. Sidewalk sales, West Duluth Days celebration, the Folk Festival was really the only one. At some point then I approached the commander of Goldfine’s by the bridge, asking her if I could set up by the cafe upstairs and do 5 minute portrait sketches on weekends. Did that all summer, later trying the Canal Park area; I was hassled a bit by local police (“Got a permit, young man?”) Grandma's had a couple of barber chairs, and allowed me to sketch there for a spell.

EN: What kind of setup did you have?

ES: I don’t recall having much of a display back then. Just two chairs, and a small easel with one framed sample on it. I charged $1 back then, happy to get it. Never did make more than $30 a day at Canal Park. It never did turn on for me, don’t know why. Even the past few years, I tried the Lakewalk during the day when families were there, tried evenings when couples came out. Tried over by the blue bridge… never did a one. Over the years I tried the tourist boat, the tourist train. I would buy the local paper, and go thru it, looking for crowds. I hit a couple of realty companies twice a week, asking for apartment painting jobs, floor refinishing, house painting, stuff like that. During raising a family, with 3 kids, I taught some adult education classes, too. Guitar picking, water color painting. We had been living in a renovated, add-on cabin, with no overhead. I remember the first art show in Canal Park, I made $50 a day for two days. I said to my wife, "Honey, if I can make $300 a month, I think we can make it. Life insurance, health insurance, car insurance, what was that? We had a garden, too, and a retired nurse down the road who we could bounce health-related questions off of, explaining the symptoms from the kids being sick.

EN: How has the art show scene changed since those early days?

ES: Now, art shows have changed el mucho. The first 20 years were very exciting. Most are average people who wouldn't go to galleries to view art. They loved shopping in grassy parks. I was charging $2 or $3 a sketch at that time. I never would have ventured into public sketching if I would have started charging $5 or more per sketch. That way if I screwed up, which I did, I would give it 3 shots. If I didn’t get a sketch that had a resemblance, "See ya. No charge!" I took the hit.

It was hard not knowing what to expect from myself. Soon every mall had two arts and crafts shows. The two biggest malls in Minneapolis-St. Paul charged $15 for a four-day show. This was very new then, and brought lots of people into the malls. I did very well. Slept on a friend’s couch. I would sketch for hours, people lined up behind me. It was great. And I was improving all the time. At this time caricaturists started showing up everywhere. It became hard to compete with them... I’m still trying to outrun them as they venture out, like I was doing. I knew two caricature artists who started training others in their trade, sending them out by fives to high school parties, which I was doing. I found what I enjoyed most is casual portraits. That is, no fake smiles, no pressure.

About this time I got into the Minnesota Renaissance Festival as a peddler. Everything in a pack, on the hoof. It was embarrassing to wear tights, but I survived. November thru April, I did malls, and I did well. From Rice Lake, Wisconsin and thru the Midwest. I got spoiled.

EN: When did things begin to change?

ES: The art show was one of the greatest ideas brought forth. It gave the average person a chance to market their work, and the average person to buy art and crafts, especially functional pottery. The second 20 years was different. Some of us could see the writing on the wall, as more businesses threw in arts ‘n crafts into their sales as part of their marketing idea.

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PART TWO of this interview will be posted tomorrow. 

You can learn more about Elliot's music and art at his Icehouse Studio website. 

41st Annual Park Point Art Fair

This weekend was the 41st Annual Park Point Art Fair here in Duluth. The beautiful setting alone makes this art fair worth visiting. To make it a real event, naturally, there were 120 artists' works on display. Add the ongoing live music by Michael Monroe, food, free parking and free admission, and you have a "can't miss" experience if the weather is right. And this weekend the weather was very right.

The artists and artisans present represented a range of mediums, from ceramics, glass and fiber arts to painters, photographers and woodworking, plus a fair number of jewelers so you can wear something home afterwards if you see something you like.

Times have certainly changed since we first came to this fair more than two decades ago. Most of the artists have professional displays, EZ-Ups and websites, so even if you don't buy today you can still keep in touch and make your purchase a mile down the road.

Many of the artists represented here have been attending for years, if not decades. Elliot Silberman or Duluth, has probably been drawing portraits here since the beginning. And you can always count on the Husbys to have their wonderful ceramic work here, though now I see they're branching off into glass again.

Though some of the artists are from the Twin Ports region, the majority are from all across Minnesota and Wisconsin, Park Point being one stop on a busy summer circuit.

Another new thing that seems to have become popular now is printing photographs on canvas. My first impression was "Wow!" when I saw some fabulous images by Rolf Hagberg of Two Harbors. But the technique has become so widely employed I think the bloom is off the rose.

The combination of photography and Photoshop is another relatively new phenomenon. I myself have been exploring the uses of technology in conjunction with art, and see that this is especially pervasive now. Perhaps it compares to what the electric guitar did to folk music.... maybe.

If you missed this one, be sure not to miss the art fair in your own region. It's a form of aesthetic stimulation that everyone can benefit from. And a nice way to spend an afternoon with someone you love.

Have a good one.

Photos: Stitchery art by Julie Crabtree, Bratach Sith Studio. The two images with women's faces were by a woman doing fascinating creative mixed media works. She is a member of the Oulu Glass Collaborative. You can also follow her on Facebook at Eclectica.