NxN Finishes Up with DuSu Film Fest IV

It hasn't been much of a month weather-wise but NxN, our regional month-long celebration of the arts, has provided us with an excellent basketful of activities to explore. Despite the late spring, there was plenty of music, art, theater and more. This week is the fourth annual Duluth-Superior Film Festival, which kicked off last night at the Clyde Iron Works with The Last Gladiators, and an opening night reception with numerous former NHL hockey players on hand.

For a full listing of films that will be featured this year visit this DuSu Film Fest page. Be sure to scroll all the way down... There is a lot to see.

McKenzie Astin as Iron Will

One highlight will be a special "Iron Will" Reunion Screening and Reception. In 1993, when Disney & company arrived in Duluth to film this winter saga of a legendary dogsled race the whole process made quite an impact on the local community. Hollywood does have a "power" that mesmerizes, and the production put thousands of us in contact with this power in various ways, from building sets to dressing up as extras. (Trivia: My friendship with John Heino began in the holding area for extras in the Ballroom Scene which was shot downtown, next door to where you can catch his vibe on the piano every Thursday evening accompanying the Maxi Childs Trio. That's tonight, fwiw.)

This will be a FREE community event, held at The Underground in the Historic Duluth Depot and Arts Center, 5:30 p.m. Sunday. McKenzie Astin, one of the film's stars, will be present. You may recall the pivotal role Kevin Spacey played in this film before emerging as an Oscar-winning superstar.

There's plenty more going on, but I have a day ahead of me and it's time to slip into my uniform. To see what else is happening, catch the Wave.

Oh, and if you still can't decide, there's an end of the season Roller Dames event at the DECC with our home town favorites in action, including Killah Cletah and Jilly Nilly. Go team!

Night Train / Red Dust @ The Underground

The Mission of The Underground is to serve as a community meeting place for culture and conversation, for arts and education, offering diverse programming to foster the artistic and intellectual life of Northern Minnesota.

This past fall the Twin Ports Arts Align held its monthly meeting in the space that formerly housed the Children's Museum at the Depot here in Duluth. The aim was more than to simply be a social hour. The organizers asked us to help name the new space. In the course of the evening we were to place a vote for one of several proposed names, or invent a name of our own which could be added to the list for consideration. When the dust cleared, the space had a new name: The Underground. As a multi-purpose event center, the space is well suited for a vibrant future.

The Underground is just one of many venues for theater, music, dance and poetry that is being shared during this month of highlighting the arts in our community. We have the Minnesota Ballet, Rubber Chicken Theater, Renegade Theater Company, Lyric Opera of the North, the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra, Wise Fool Shakespeare, the MN School of Fine Arts and the Zeitgeist Arts all eager to entertain, while exploring the heights and depths of human experience.

Tonight at 7:30 p.m., The Underground is presenting Night Train/Red Dust, a multi-media experience featuring new poetry by Sheila Packa accompanied by film and cello by Kathy McTavish.

The careful reader will discover that Packa's writing contains many rich veins of ore, accompanied by miscellaneous precious stones and shimmering flakes of gold.

"I claim my words from the broken
English, damaged roots
Finnish syntax, mineral rights lost

Eminent Domains
from small print, unreadable clauses
labor contracts and mine dumps
old factories and invisible contamination

my words, in the run off,
in open streams – oxidize
form like tree rings in industrial circles

heat in the smelters, pour like lava into steel
form these rails that carry the trains
these trains that carry this freight"

For myself, this theme is inextricably linked to Dylan's North Country Blues, another lament about this complicated part of our Northland.

"Come gather 'round friends and I'll tell you a tale
Of when the red iron pits ran empty
But the cardboard filled windows and old men on the benches
Tell you now that the whole town is empty."
~Bob Dylan, North Country Blues

During the past year I've been amazed by the degree to which musical accompaniment can bring poetry to a new level, though it shouldn't surprise any of us as this is what Dylan's lyricism has always produced. McTavish's more abstract accompaniments produce an almost unearthly exquisiteness that can transform the words and images and give them wings, as I attempted to express in my review of the Packa/McTavish performance of Holy Fool. Attend if you are able.

Funded by the Jerome Foundation & the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council.

Bridgett Riversmith’s Recycl-O-Scope

It's finally here. This week is the 2nd Annual Steampunk Spectacular, May 16 & 17 at the Depot. Steampunk art, steampunk fashion, a steampunk emporium and live entertainment all conspire to make this year's Duluth Art Institute Steampunk Show even more of a spectacle than last year's stunner. Day one of the event is being called a Steampunk Symposium. You may visit the Steampunk Art Show from 10:00 a.m. till 7:00 p.m. with a strong collection of local steampunk enthusiasts as well as some visiting artists from New Orleans and the Northwest.

Concurrent with the art show will be a Steampunk Marketplace from noon till closing as well. If you haven't created your costume yet for the Friday night train ride (Yes, you get to go back in time!) you may pick up a few embellishments for your costuming here.

And if you're not sure what all this steampunk fuss is about, you may attend a lecture on the subject in The Underground at 6:00 p.m., presented by UMD professor Dr. David Beard along with myself. David will present a framework for understanding Steampunk's roots and I will share the various ways in which steampunk culture has been manifesting itself in our local art scene.

For a complete rundown of Friday's scheduled events visit the dedicated DAI Event Schedule.

Bridget Riversmith's Recycl-O-Scope Returns
  

Bridget Riversmith

If you attended last year's Steampunk event here in Duluth I'm sure you were overwhelmed by the astonishing variety in the costumes, the wares and the context... going back in time to be with steam powered locomotives in the once great depot train museum. In the midst of all this there was an unusual device that utterly fascinated... Bridget Riversmith's Recycl-O-Scope. If I were a judge I'd have declared it Best of Show, and this was a show that already was over-the-top. So, it made me happy to get another chance to see it on display and in action.

What, pray tell, is a Recycl-O-Scope?

Well, if you go back in time, before film and film projectors, there were inventive people who strove to create a motion in pictures. When I was a kid my dad would make little flip-books with drawings that might show a boy kicking a ball, or some other little fun sequence. Bridget Riversmith is a teaching artist and animator who works with children with disabilities, and just so happens to fascinate them by having them not only creates flip books, but through a scanner and software converts them into short animations.

At Adeline's in April

Riversmith's fascination with animation led her to research the early development of motion picture techniques, which led her to the Steampunk era when the fervent spirit of invention was everywhere. When I spoke with her recently she took me on a little tour of these early developments. The first of these was the zoetrope,  "a device that produces the illusion of motion from a rapid succession of static pictures." (1)

According to Wikipedia, the zoetrope consists of a cylinder with slits cut vertically in the sides. On the inner surface of the cylinder is a band with images from a set of sequenced pictures. As the cylinder spins, the user looks through the slits at the pictures across. The scanning of the slits keeps the pictures from simply blurring together, and the user sees a rapid succession of images, producing the illusion of motion.

Earthworks and Skyscrapers, by Riversmith

Riversmith explained how in 1877 Charles-Émile Reynaud, a French inventor, designed a machine called a Praxinoscope and later the Theater Optique as an improvement on the zoetrope, turning it into a suitcase-sized theater to make it a three dimensional experience. In 1892 he projected the first animated film in public, but was later trumped by other forms of moving pictures. 

EN: What influenced you to make your Recycl-O-Scope?

BR: Biggest influence… My grandparents were farmers, the best mixed media artists in the universe, finding out what can be done with materials on hand. I’m a creature of necessity. Building zoetropes solved a problem.

I found something in Hungarian, but essentially did some elementary geometry and math. I used almost all bits of a (broken) dryer. I learned welding to accomplish this. I created handle for the drive wheel from a drill and other parts. I've been inspired by Dick Rosvall as well and I'm a big fan of Terry Gilliam’s films.

EN: Why are people so atracted to Steampunk?

BR: People are attracted to what the Victorians were trying to do. They were self-made inventors, fearless. People didn’t draw an arbitrary line between the arts and sciences. It was all the same thing, resulting in amazing discoveries. Creating an arbitrary line between the two results in stagnation. People enjoy the projects. Isaac Asimov once said, “Any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic.”

People were rising above a society steeped in superstition. They weren’t exclusive. It was a period with an incredible range of creativity, a real inspiring time. It’s interesting to see, too, how a lot of visions of the future had rails and airships....

EdNote: I share all this today because if nothing else, when you get over to the Steampunk Spectacular this Thursday and/or Friday, I want to make sure you don't miss Bridget Riversmith's upgraded Recycl-O-Scope. Her husband won't have to spend the evening cranking it with manpower this year.


(1) Wikipedia

A Strong Finish For NXN Visual Arts Week

Inside the heart of radiopluto

If you were out and about last night, you saw an incredibly wide range of work by local and regional artists on display at at least a half dozen locations on both sides of the bridge. As I've repeated all too often, it would be nice to clone oneself sometimes, and last night here in the Twin Ports would have been one of those times.

The Stewardess Syndrome
During a recent Delta flight I made the observation that stewards and stewardesses on airplanes must have a tough challenge emotionally because they meet so many interesting people on a daily basis but their relationships with these people never have any depth because there is no time to really develop anything beyond the superficial. I asked a stewardess about this and she said yes, it is a serious problem. She works twelve hour days, and does not even work with the same people every day. It does take an emotional toll.

This thought hit me last night that there are absolutely so many interesting people in the arts community, and so much interesting work being done, but we're all so busy we can sometimes fail to engage the work or one another beyond the most superficial levels. It was especially apparent to me last night because I so wanted to see everything and everyone... and without exception every conversation was too short.

For myself the evening began at the 2013 Goin' Postal Spring Show. The "Gallery" displayed more works by more artists than ever and it was gratifying to see so many young and old, artists and non-artists and friends of artists there. Many hands were involved in making this event so warm and energetic, but a few should especially be cited including Andrew Perfetti, who has donated his business space to the arts in such a visible way, Carla Magnuson, who worked tirelessly to communicate with the artists and bring everything together. And then, kudos to all the artists who shared their passions here.

Wall of works by Becky Brandt

I'd like to give special recognition to Becky Brandt and Tara Stone whose new work shows a maturing development in their draft(wo)manship and craft(wo)manship. But in truth, everyone had some pieces I found noteworthy, and space does not permit a complete elaboration. Dusty Keliin was well represented with both ceramic works and paintings. I also had some new work there along with fifteen other artists and photographers. If you missed it, I'm fairly certain much of the art will remain in place during the weeks ahead. Even thought Tower Avenue is torn up you'll be able to find it easily by looking for the signs on Ogden near the tracks.

Raku piece by Hendershot

On the Duluth side of the bridge the shows were many and of a wide variety that was totally engrossing. I hopped up to the Mud Sisters opening at Washington Galley first, as it was an early eve event. Six women who work with "mud" demonstrated the range of things one can do with a little clay and a pinch of imagination. The show featured work by Beth Carpenter, Susan Schnetzler, Wendy Wright, Sue Damme and Joan Hendershot. There was a few bronze pieces by Carpenter, but the rest of the gallery featured stoneware, raku, porcelain and fire clay. I can't say enough about the vitality of our local ceramics scene, fostered by a number of established artisans like the Husbys, Dave Lynas and Tonya Borgeson.

The back of the Prove offered a collaborative blackboard, chalk provided.

Two blocks down the hill the Prove Gallery was in elite form last night, presenting two exhibitions... one in their own gallery space and a second across the street in the Gardner Hotel. I found both spaces exhilarating. This is where I regret the lack of a clone. I would have preferred staying much longer at the Radiopluto menagerie of moods, which had Kathy McTavish's fingerprints all over it, though I also so a reprise of other Prove Collective concepts as well. Inspiring, beautiful, even painful. Thanks for taking this on. Just being inside the space made you feel a part of it.

Our week-long celebration of the visual arts here in the Northland will include events today at Pineapple Arts and the Northern Prints Gallery, along with an afternoon re-opening of Superior Depot for the Phantom Galleries Superior display there featuring Sarah Brokke's Shift and works by others.

Hope you've enjoyed the week. The lineup for dance, theater and music this coming week should be equally inspiring. Be part of it.

A Little Bit of Luke Holden, and a Lot More

Luke Holden, 2012

On an evening like this last spring I met Luke Holden, a young artist from the Bemidji area whose work was being displayed at the Ochre Ghost Gallery. The Ghost continues to be a nice little gallery for bringing people doing original and sometimes unconventional contemporary work to a wider public.

Tonight is the culmination of NXN visual arts week here and there will be a lot to see so plan your evening well in advance. In addition to the traditional trio of galleries doing the Second Friday Night Art Crawl (Washington, Ochre and Prove) there is also an opening in a new space across the street from the Prove. Be sure to check out Luminaries at the Prove Gallery and #RadioPluto at The Gardner Building across the way.

But don't stop there. There are happenings at the Duluth Photography Institute, Northern Prints Gallery, Pineapple Arts, and a gallery Skywalk Tour.

Over in Souptown is the Goin' Postal Spring Show featuring new work by Carla Magnuson, Jeredt Runions, Dustin Keliin, Becky Brandt, Anthony Sclavi, Andrew Perfetti, Lindsey Graskey, Justin Sinks, Matt Stengl, John Heino, Tal Lindblad, Colin Wiita, Big Andy, Chelsea Miller, Eric Horn, Tara Stone, Christian Dalbec, Sharon Rogers, Mike Trepanier and yours truly. I've  decided to auction off my John & Yoko tonight, so if you are one of the several people who've asked for pricing over the past year, you may want to get a bid in.

As I said, plan the evening well so you know where you want to end the later part of the evening. Prove is open till 11:00 p.m. and the Goin' Postal Show is throwing an afterparty at Bev's Jook Joint next door with several stellar local performers, The Tico Three, Five Pints of Rye, Next of Kin and Dennis.

But first, let's hear what Luke Holden has to say about making art.

EN: How and when did you come to take an interest in art? 
LH: My parents are artists and they've always encouraged me to paint and draw.

EN: Where did you study? 
LH: I studied visual art at Perpich Center for Arts Education, aka: "the arts hi" in Golden Valley MN. Most recently I am studying printmaking at Bemidji State University.

EN: Who are your favorite artists and why? 
LH: My favorite artists are my friends, because when you know the artist it makes the work more meaningful. It tells things about the person.

EN: Where do you live and what do you currently do for a living? 
LH: I live in Bemidji. I am a student worker in the screenprinting studio at BSU. I am also a personal care attendant for an adult with autism.

EN: You like to draw. Describe how that started and how you developed your style. 
LH: I travel alot and it’s easy to keep a sketchbook. Drawing is the foundation of alot of other processes and I probably will never master it. My style is sloppy, basically. I like drawing fast and not fussing with it much. I've noticed I draw best when I'm distracted, like on the telephone. Theres something about things coming out of my hands without alot of intention. I like that.

EN: Do you have a name for you style? 
LH: No, I don't have a name besides sloppy.

EN: Where can people see more of your work? 
LH: People can see more of my work in the basement of the Bemidji Community Art Center where my studio is. Also at random art shows in Northern Minnesota!

Here are a few additional pieces from last year's show.

r a d i ø p l u t ø

Here's one of the more interesting invitations to an art opening that I've ever received. This Friday night, at the Prøve Gallery, Downtown Duluth. By Kathy McTavish, who has prøven herself to be an excellent addition to the collective. It's certainly inviting to me.


r a d i ø p l u t ø

vacant spaces ... lost transmissions
the old gardner building
... the tremont hotel

(across lake avenue / from the prøve)

one night

artists:
rodrigo bello, julie gard, chris hagen, michelle matthees, don mctavish, kathy mctavish, erika mock, nickolas monson, marc neys, sheila packa, kathleen roberts, rocky makes room, jacob swanson, garrett tiedemann, tony zappa

radio pluto notes
(some initial sketches, fleeting thoughts ...)

a transmission
barely beating
static ... low hum
hidden codes
a signal or pulse
a faraway station
some long ago message
a memory
blue planet
last bird
telegraphed warnings
distant memory
stuttered thoughts
a paper a bottle a shore
broadcast from pluto
lonely planet
banished planet
cold planet

vacant building
there were voices
gray birds
there were ghosts
blue windows
cold coffee
cold hands
shadows
dusty salvation
red neon
black skies

antennas
short wave
receivers
theramin sirens / dream songs
a typewriter
late night manuscripts

manifestos & broken plates
cold coffee

blue boat
red caravan
sanctified nomads
wandering knapsacks
cinematic looms

wireless telegraphy
electrostatic coupling
lightning detectors
glass tubes & iron
filaments
an experiment

save the world
turn back the clock's
relentless grinding
moloch's pale teeth
iron gears &
scythe

first lighthouse
fire & mirror
first transmission
isle of wright
radio transistor

charcoal light wire wood steel celluloid
digits pigment graphite vellum canvas rope threads filaments
cloth reeds lines language

to pierce to etch to fold to weave to imprint
to scrawl to stain to speak

friction

a loose band of thieves
crows with broken suitcases
pickpocket orchestration

flea market galleries
dimly lit
hallways
a can of paint
an alley
a wall
night drawing


Take me to the radiopluto website . 

Spotlight on Painter Sarah Brokke

It's Visual Arts Week here in the the North Country, an extravaganza of arts-related events on both sides of the bridge including Phantom Galleries Superior's opening receptions Wednesday evening from 5 to 9 p.m. This is year three for the Phantom Galleries, and it's been thrilling to see the variety and caliber of our local talent. New venues have opened up for this month's show, both of them off-Tower, which is now torn up for reparations. The Habitat for Humanity has opened its doors at 1621 Broadway for a Rachel Nelson's "Pilgrimmage" exhibit and Patricia Davey's "Glass Exposed." And the Old Superior Antique Depot at 933 Oakes at the end of Broadway will have still more including the paintings by Sarah Brokke.

Brokke is a painter and from the first I was was drawn to her work, which has been displayed at the Zeitgeist and Duluth Art Institute, among other spaces in town. The exhibition has been described in these words: "Her large scale paintings for this installation explore the feelings of the fragile balance we all hold during this time..... to both be at peace and still be able to step into and care about the bigger picture of what is happening in our world often polarized. Sarah says ,"I am an Artist who seeks truth through the medium of paint. I am a woman, in truth, who seeks to actively define my roles as teacher, mother, daughter, wife, partner, sister. My work is a visual record of that journey'."

I've been impressed by her work, some of which I share here.

Cleansing Breath

EN: To what would you attribute your early attraction to painting?
Sarah Brokke: At age 8, I attended an exhibit of Impressionism at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. I remember being entranced with the luscious color of paint. Later I found the very tactile nature of building something out of that color extremely engaging.

EN: What life lessons did you bring back to the States after studying in England?
SB: My studies in England were early on in my Undergraduate education. Ultimately, my travels there informed my decision to go into the Arts, as it afforded me distance to see my future aspirations clearly. It also taught me that travel was an invaluable way to breathe.

Senzo Titolo (Nonostante)

EN: You also minored in modern dance. Does choreography cross over to influence your painting in any ways?
SB: I compose a painting much like I would choreograph a dance. The movement, layers, tones, and my utilization of the figure definitely have their origins in my study of choreography.

EN: You also lived and studied in Italy for a spell. What were the highs and lows of that experience?
SB: The most wonderful part: Being surrounded by Art and Artists on a daily, hourly basis. The least wonderful part: Living in the city of the Renaissance, Florence, eventually created a voracious hunger in me for 'other' Art. I clearly remember going to visit a collection of the work of Alberto Burri and finding it the equivalent of a cool compress.

EN: In what ways does living here at the edge of Lake Superior inspire and influence you?
SB: The color. The air. The people. I find it hard not to be inspired by where we live. It is as if we live at the edge of an ever-changing Rothko painting.

Clasp

EN: How do you find the balance between making art and teaching art? How does each inform the other?
SB: I consider myself quite lucky to be passionate about both. To be honest, when my work in the studio is going well, my personal excitement about art making helps to influence my teaching. When my studio work is not going as well as I might hope, seeing my students exploring their own paths is unbelievably inspiring. I am thankful every day to have such complementary focal points in my professional life.

EN: Where can people see more of your work?
SB: Upcoming exhibitions at the Zeitgeist Atrium, opening May 6th, and The Phantom Gallery on Broadway in Superior, WI: Opening May 8th. I will have work displayed at the Duluth Art Institute‘s Water Works Exhibition starting June of 2013.

# # # #

This week is year one of the North x North Experience here in the Twin Ports, a celebration of arts and music. While you're in Superior Wednesday be sure to visit the North End Arts Gallery and the Red Mug at the corner of Broadway & Hammond, for art, poetry and an accordion rap. All exhibits are free, and the appetizers scrumptious.

For a full listing of Visual Arts Week Events across the Twin Ports visit the DAI's dedicated page of current activities You can also follow all the North x North Music and Arts Experience events on their dedicated Facebook page. 

NXN Visual Arts Week Is Here

It's here. NXN Visual Arts Week has arrived in the Northland. Along with the art, it's also supposed to warm up and pretend to be spring.

The idea of devoting a week to the celebration of visual arts is neither unique nor new. Ottawa, for example has been celebrating the arts with a week of gallery openings and shows from April 25 thru May 4 this spring. NOW HEAR THIS: This week it's our turn. So even if on one level this is nothing unique, on another level it feels remarkably new.

This is Year One of North x North, the Music and Arts Experience. To make it happen has been a monumental effort by a whole lot of volunteers. Some artists and events didn't get listed in the press packets. Some galleries may not have been included in the calendars. But from where I sit, even with a few fumbles and blocked kicks, the game is on and the local arts scene is moving the ball down the field.

For a quick overview of some of the events lined up this coming week, check out the DAI Visual Arts Week page. You'll see times and places for events at Lake Superior College, Pineapple Arts, Tweed Museum, Phantom Galleries Superior, Lake Superior Glass, the Duluth Art Institute, Prøve Gallery, Washington Gallery, Ochre Ghost, Northern Prints Gallery Goin' Postal, and more. And more.

The schedule shows happenings nearly every day at Pineapple Arts. (I have had a few pieces there) If you can only make it to a few, try dropping in Tuesday for their exhibition, Faces of Earth: Art by Children and Youth. It's is a celebration of K-12 student work assembled by six UMD art ed alumni art teachers, an experimental exhibition in this experimental space. There's plenty more in that space the rest of the week in an effort to support art in the schools.

A quick plug for the 2013 Goin' Postal Spring Art Show. It's Friday the 10th. There will be as many as 20 artists' works displayed, including many of my usual pieces plus some new things. My John & Yoko painting will be auctioned off along with some other pieces by other artists. There will be an afterparty at Bev's Jook Joint next door with live music and more.

I mention this in part to note that Tower Avenue is torn up and to find the gallery/event you'll want to enter through the alley from Ogden. Undoubtedly there will be signs. Just follow the yellow brick road.

Study for John & Yoko

Early version of John & Yoko, mixed pigments on panel, 36"x 24"