Twin Ports Arts Scene: April Watchlist

Poetry and art on my brain this morning. Am reading a book about Rainer Maria Rilke in which I learned where his middle name came from. Maria sounds like a woman's name... because it is. The year before he was born his mother gave birth to a girl who died very early so that when Rainer was born she named him Rene Maria. She wanted a girl quite badly, and for his first years she grew his hair long and braided it, dressed him in dresses. Because he had been a premie (two months early) he was somewhat small and frail already and this plus the girl's name made him an easy target for bullies when he finally began attending school.

Alas. Bullying is nothing new. Rilke survived and his poetry is his legacy. When Herman Hesse won the Nobel Prize for literature, he was recognized not only as an artist but a poet, "the foremost German poet" since Rilke and George. Hesse and Rilke have been two of my lifetime companions, along with the poetry of our own Northland Nobel Prize winner.*

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And now, some Twin Ports arts happenings for April. 

Hot Shop Grand Opening at Lake Superior Art Glass' Second Location
Saturday, April 1, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 1325 London Road. They are planning to give away $1,000-worth of raffle prizes. It's in the former Perkins building next to the Armory. Live demos in the morning, free afternoon classes for the first 10 people who sign up. Glass blowing is mind-blowing and beautiful to watch. Stop by and check it out!

Thursday, April 6, 6-10 p.m., Erik Dubnicka Art Opening, Beaner's Central Concert Coffeehouse , 324 N. Central Avenue. Eric Dubnicka is a visual artist specializing in painting, drawing, photography, and sculpture. Five  years ago one of his pieces was selected as Best in Show at the Duluth Art Institute.

Thursday, April 6, 6 – 7:30 p.m., Great Room of the DAI Lincoln Center for Arts Education. POLLINATORS & POP-UP PICNIC: Anna Metcalfe + Dan Shutte (Details Below)

Saturday, April 8, 10 a.m.-3 p.m., Nice Girls of the North 2nd Saturday Marketplace. "Free coffee, cookies, and a friendly atmosphere await while you browse a collection of handcrafted clothing and bags, pottery, jewelry, stained glass, photography, personal care products, baby items and much more. One central checkout, most major credit cards accepted."

Sunday, April 9, 1:30-4 p.m., Rags to Riches Ragtime Concert, First Covenant Church, 2101 W. 2nd Street,  hosted by the Lake Superior Ragtime Society. This Free concert is a special tribute to ragtime music composer Scott Joplin. Afterglow to follow at Sir Benedict's Tavern. For more information call 218-724-7696.

Saturday, April 22, 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m., Douglas County WI HCE Craft Day, Mission Covenant Church, 5161 S. County Road P. I will be teaching Zentangle® Pattern Drawing during the morning session of this fair. Registration: $5 (includes lunch); Class Cost: $10 (supplies included).

Saturday, April 22, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Art for Earth Day 27th Annual Gallery Hop,
Tour local galleries, visit with artists and watch demonstrations at this fun event in honor of the 47th Anniversary of Earth Day. Look for a listing of participating locations, times and descriptions of classes, demos, and receptions. You can pick up a brochure with a map at any of the locations listed in the attached documents. For more information, call (218) 722-1451.

SPECIAL THANKS SHOUT OUT to Esther Piszczek for helping assemble much of the information that gets shared here.

Book & Film! Patterned Peace, by Esther Piszczek, CZT, published by Whole Person Associates, Duluth. Available on Amazon.com and The Bookstore at Fitgers. Original, hand-drawn artwork ready to color. Includes full pattern index.

Life & Art Entangled, a 17 minute art documentary created by Lola Visuals featuring Zentangle (R) inspired artwork on a piano created by fine-line pattern artist Esther Piszczek, CZT, and the improvisational jazz piano music of Peter Brown. Watch on YouTube.com.

Places to find Esther's art in the Twin Ports:
Art on the Planet, 1413 Tower Avenue, Superior
Duluth Fine Pianos, 405 E. Superior Street, Duluth
Master Framing Gallery, 1431 London Road, Duluth

Places to see some of my paintings:
Art on the Planet and Goin' Postal in Superior, and The Break Room, kitty-corner from Essentia/St Mary's on Positively Fourth Street and Fifth Avenue East in Duluth.

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POLLINATORS & POP-UP PICNIC: Anna Metcalfe + Dan Shutte
Minneapolis-based artist Anna Metcalfe will discuss the research and process behind her ceramic series exploring pollinators and their connections to our food. Metcalfe graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2009 with an MFA and currently works for Springboard for the Arts in St. Paul, MN. Interested in the junction of public art and craft, she makes work inspired by water, agriculture, food and community. As a teaching artist, Metcalfe loves to promote collaboration and interdisciplinary learning environments between the sciences and art-making. She is a recipient of a Jerome Foundation Emerging Artist’s Project Grant for Public Art in 2009, a MN State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant in 2013 and 2015, a Jerome Foundation Study and Travel Grant in 2013 and most recently an environmental artist fellowship at the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France. Metcalfe is interested in art as a vehicle for social change and her work strives to reframe our relationship to land and agriculture, and to create meaningful ways to connect with natural resources.

She will be joined by Dan Shutte, the District Manager for the Lake County Soil and Water Conservation District (Lake SWCD) and the owner of Shoreview Natives, a Two Harbors-based business that specializes in growing and installing native plants including wildflowers, grasses, sedges, shrubs, and trees. Their services support efforts to help declining populations of monarch butterflies, native bees, honeybees, and other pollinator species exhibiting major population crashes, and he is currently serving on the Governor’s Committee for Pollinator Protection. He will discuss local pollinators and how they impact our region, and will recommend simple ways that everyone can contribute toward healthy environments for pollinators. A pop-up picnic will be included in this session to demonstrate the connections between pollinators and our food system.

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Stay current with Duluth Art Institute activities here. Their Saturday a.m. Zeitgeist film series will continue through the month. (10 a.m. Saturday mornings.) Gezielt (Carla Hamilton) and Rooted Expression (Elizabeth Kuth) and still on display through April 9. Lest We Forget is coming soon, including a special event on April 24, Holocaust Remembrance Day.

And don't miss the Pop Evolution exhibit at the Tweed, if you have not already seen it. Really interesting.

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Meantime, Art Goes On All Around You. Engage it!

*Duluth Dylan Fest is just around the corner, kicking off with a concert at Karpeles on Saturday May 20. We've sent out a Call To Artists for Dylan-Themed or Dylan-Inspired art. There will also be a poetry event. Check out the full week's schedule here at the Bob Dylan Way website.

**Looking or something new or different to read. This author's not too bad. :-) Eds-Books.com

Local Art Seen: Pop Evolution Exhibit at the Tweed Is Worth Writing Home About

"Turning a Blind Eye" by Jerry Ott

"I am a deeply superficial person." --Andy Warhol

Sixties Pop had come of age when I was becoming an art student at Ohio University and, to be honest, I didn't like it. At the time I was immersed in the painterliness of the abstract expressionists and modern impressionists. Dada and surrealism captured my imagination, and Warhol's screen printed gaudiness did not. And I especially hated Lichtenstein's blown-up cartoon panels.

Despite my own feelings about the movement, which originated in New York with the likes of Andy Warhol (who I did feel was doing interesting things) and Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg and James Rosenquist, the movement was highly influential, opening up new terrain for young artists and altering the landscape significantly by once again forcing the question, "What is art?"

All this to say that there is an exciting new exhibit in the Special Exhibitions Gallery at the Tweed Museum of Art through the end of March. The show is titled Pop Evolution, with works curated from the Tweed's permanent collection.

"Truck" by Warhol

What's impressive about the Tweed show is that it shows how widespread the Pop Art influence became. The superstars of this movement may have been the ones with top billing in New York, but the streaming colorwheel of their influence flowed everywhere. The ubiquitous Andy Warhol may have been the ringleader, but he hardly acted alone. Artists like Jackson Pollock, Robert Rauschenberg and Larry Rivers may have helped pave the way by knocking down some of the fences, but art wanted to be free... free from constraints, and to a large extent free from the galleries. (Warhol's art today is hardly free, though. Van Gogh, Picasso and Warhol works are among the most expensive a billionaire collector can own.)

When one reads about Pop Art today, the art history books make reference to the subject matter being one of its hallmarks. That is, instead of being about important subjects, the lens of the artists' eye was focused on the mundane, the ordinary, and in the case of soup cans or Brillo boxes, commodities. This later led eventually to installation-type shows that the general public would have yet greater difficulty appreciating or understanding. At least Warhol's Marilyn was interesting, even if gaudy. But what does one make of a dozen railroad ties lying in the middle of a gallery space?

"Love Cross" by Robert Indiana

Two pieces by Mildred Howard on collaged found papers.

"Sitting Bull" by S. Patricia McMahon

The dada movement that preceded Pop was anti-art and anti-capitalist. Andy Warhol emerged from an ad agency background that had Capitalism written all over it. In some ways Madison Avenue and Warhol's Factory were two peas in a pod.

Pop Art was in many respects a mirror of what was happening in the broader culture as values of all kinds were being brought into question. Here are some links about Pop Art that you may find informative:
What Is Pop Art?
Pop Art -- The Art of Popular Culture
The Emergence and Evolution of the Pop Art Movement

Pop Evolution is just one reason to get up to the Tweed. There's plenty more to see in the museum's various galleries. If you have not been there in a while (on the UMD campus) then you owe it to yourself to find a way.

EdNote: Bill Shipley, who spent most of his career in the Big Apple art scene, will be giving a gallery talk about this exhibition on March 11, from 2-3 p.m.

Jerry Ott, "Turning a Blind Eye"

Art is exciting, and there's a lot of it happening here in the Twin Ports. This Thursday will be the closing reception to the Duluth Art Institute Member Show and opening for Carla Hamilton's Gezielt (Targeted) and Elizabeth Kuth's "Rooted Expression." Also on display will be the Emerging Photographers exhibit in the corridor gallery.

And this coming Saturday the DAI Art Film Series begins, eight art films with discussions afterwards. The first film is "Frida" with UMD's Jamie Ratliff leading the post-show discussion. The films begin at 10:00 a.m. at the Zinema. (Admission is $5)

Meantime, art goes on all around you. Engage it.