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.

Ten Minutes with Kat Eldred, Part II

This is a continuation of yesterday's conversation with Kat Eldred, whose work in the community with regard to the arts has been well recognized.

Ennyman: Why are the arts important in communities like ours?

Kat Eldred: Someone who works in the arts is every bit as gainfully employed as someone who works in a hospital or at aircraft manufacturing plant. On top of that, arts create vibrancy and an energy that renders a community attractive. That attractiveness helps employers convince prospective employees that Duluth has a lot to offer culturally. It helps the Twin Ports attract new industry as well. The arts are an important part of the area's economy.
We all need to recognize that in today’s global and challenging economy, it’s the “creative mind” (think Steve Jobs) that will enable us to address today’s issues. Steve Jobs’ creativity was encouraged by his parents who championed for him; the schools found him challenging and difficult. How do we encourage (or discourage?) highly creative students in our school systems?

E: What are the strengths and weaknesses of our local arts community?

KE: Unfortunately, the arts in our schools are always first on the chopping block during budget cuts and seem to be so again. That mystifies me when so much research has been done regarding the benefit of the arts in developing young minds. The arts encourage students to be engaged in thinking and learning in an experiential and creative way, making an important cognitive connection. For many students the arts in middle and high school are their lifeline to completing school and moving into adulthood.

Fortunately the area attracts artists, supports ballet, symphony, theater and visual arts organizations and has a very active young artist vibe - a lot of students stay in the Twin Ports after attending college or return because they enjoy the arts scene here and want to be a part of it.

The established artists are also incredibly generous and involved in mentoring and organizing around the arts and should be credited for the foundation they create.

E: You're an artist, too. What is your favorite medium and what are you working on now?

KE: I am really excited to be at this point in my creative life. I have been exhibiting since 1986 and have exhibited in Vermont, Massachusetts, Georgia and Minnesota. Since moving to Minnesota in 2004, my art has taken a back seat to raising my two lovely daughters, my career and community activism (Red Mug, ArtWorks!, Zeitgeist and the Zeppa Foundation). All important things, but at this time, I really feel the need to be a little more selfish and focus on my art.

I am working on pieces for an October 2012 show at Red Mug. The working title for this show is “Inspiration.” I am very visual and have been described as a “colorist” although I eschew being pigeon-holed into categories. Color, shadow and light inspire me; landscape and form serve as a backdrop. I am really excited to see where this all leads and hope to give my “personal creative” voice, once more.

E: Where can people see more of your work?

KE: I don’t currently have gallery representation because I have not been creating at a rate that would support that. I did have a successful show at Red Mug Gallery in 2008 – 13 pieces that I developed during an “art retreat” to Martha’s Vineyard with one of my art mentors, Louise Minks.

Right now you can see some of my work at MNartists.org (search “Kat Eldred”), a fantastic resource for Minnesota artists created by The McKnight Foundation in partnership with the Walker Art Center's New Media Initiatives group.

E: Thanks for your time and insights. We'll look for you this fall at The Red Mug.

Ten Minutes with Kat Eldred, an Arts-Centered Life

In recent years the A.H. Zeppa Foundation has played a significant role in support of the arts in our community, from the Zeitgeist Building renovation to the manifold ways it has quietly influenced and lent support to individuals and organizations in our community. From 2007 till last fall Kat Eldred has been at the center of much of this activity, serving as director of communications and operations and later co-executive director. Simultaneously, she has been a managing member of The Red Mug since founding it in 2004. If you don't know Kat, then it's my privilege to make this introduction.

Ennyman: How did you come to take an interest in the arts? Who were your biggest influences?

Kat Eldred: I was "born this way" (Lady Gaga). Seriously, as a child, a blank sheet of paper was very exciting to me. I have always been compelled to create, to communicate through the visual arts. My mother studied art through community education offerings when I was young and that gave me my first exposure to paints and canvas. I remember my very first painting of African violets.

I was also an “art room junkie” during my high school years. You would find me there during lunch hours and study halls. I was really into photography initially (setting up my own darkroom in my parent’s house).

Painting (oils/acrylics) became my medium during my college years in Vermont. I found some mentors in the arts community there. Then as a young mother, I found a creative outlet on Sunday afternoons in Massachusetts when I left the babies at home with my husband and went to paint with Louise Minks in her studio at Millworks in Montague, MA. A slice of creative heaven. Louise has been my greatest mentor as we share a passion for color and plein aire painting around the New England countryside.

E: Your thesis in college focused on twentieth century German art, pre- and post-Hitler. This is a fascinating period. What in particular drew you to this subject matter and what did you learn from the experience?

KE: I spent a semester in Paris during my sophomore year of college and most of my senior year on an internship in London. During those years I had access to the world’s greatest museums and literally could “live” European art history. When I wasn’t in class, I would be walking the streets of Paris looking for connections to Picasso and Van Gogh among others (where they lived, worked and hung out).

I was as interested in their stories and the historical context in which they worked and lived as I was interested in what they created. During my senior year in London there was a fabulous exhibit German Art in the Twentieth Century at the Royal Academy, 11 October to 22 December 1985, the largest exhibition of German art in Britain since. 1938. Prior to experiencing that exhibit, I had discovered and been greatly impacted by German artist Kathe Kollwitz’s emotional drawings depicting her personal pain experienced throughout her life and particularly related to WWII.

My thesis grew out of my in-depth study of how desperate Hitler was to control the creative spirit, creating a list of “degenerate artists”; artists whose work was outlawed. It reminded me of “McCarthyism” in the US. Artists’ sensitivity to their surroundings and ability to communicate through their artwork makes them powerful foes for anyone wishing to crush or control the human spirit. The raw emotion of art created in Germany just post-Hitler, was most likely as cathartic as it was grotesque, much of it giving voice to unspeakable pain and suffering.

E: You were associated with the A. H. Zeppa Family Foundation in various capacities from 2007 to 2011. The Foundation has played a high profile role in the revitalization of the arts here in Duluth. Can you elaborate on the ways the Zeppa Foundation has been contributing in ways we often don't see?

KE: Yes, I was fortunate to meet Mr. Zeppa early in the formation of his family foundation. Besides the obvious Zeitgeist Arts complex in downtown Duluth, the Foundation has generously funded many arts-related efforts in the community. The Foundation was instrumental in funding ArtWorks! in 2008 – one of the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation’s Knight Creative Communities initiatives that I was fortunate enough to co-chair. That event sparked a community-wide dialog regarding how the arts contribute to a community’s economy and more specifically Duluth’s. People continue to reference ArtWorks! and the influence it has had.
Mr. Zeppa’s support for the Renegade Theater not only gained them a stage and home in the Teatro Zuccone, but his financial support helped attract the fantastic talent that now spearheads that operation. The Foundation has supported the arts at Marshall High School, the Duluth Art Institute, The Minnesota Ballet, and the Duluth Superior Symphony as well as small non-profit start ups like the Superior Council for the Arts in Superior, WI.

TO BE CONTINUED

Paintings here by Kat Eldred, After the Storm (top) and Italy.