Local Art Seen: Wendy Rouse's "What Goes Around" at Lizzard's

Yesterday I mentioned visiting Studio 101 during the Earth Day Gallery Hop here in the Twin Ports. Another gallery that participated in the gallery hop was Lizzard's Gallery on Superior Street, a 30 second walk from the Tischer Gallery, which also had its doors open.

Thursday evening Lizzard's hosted an opening reception for Wendy Rouse, whose work I have long admired. I was grateful for the opportunity to finally meet the artist, and to share a bit of her story here.

EN: There is a fairy tale quality to much of your work. Where does this influence come from?

Wendy Rouse: A fairy tale quality. Hmm. I have thought more about myths than fairy tales.

I like to tell stories with my paintings and I do find inspiration in fairy tales, nursery rhymes and myths. What fascinates me is the way fairy tales are impossible/ improbable yet we choose to believe them, this suspension of disbelief is what I want the viewer to have when looking at my paintings.

I prefer to paint from life, using toys and objects set on a table top or mirror. The objects are small and that smallness may contribute to the story book quality. For example the polar bear is a little toy and the iceberg is a piece of styrofoam. I use realism to convince the viewer that a little boy could sail into the arctic to check on a polar bear.

EN: Have you been doing art full time since UMD or did you have a career in between UMD and NYAA?

WR: Art full time? No My husband and I met in the restaurant business 40 years ago. We have worked in many restaurants and owned and operated two. The first was Lake Avenue Cafe in Canal Park and the second was Farm Table in San Francisco. Restaurant work cut into my painting time and energy but it paid the bills and was a nice break from being in the studio which can get lonely. After I earned my masters degree I did quite a bit of art teaching, community ed art classes, private lessons and a few art classes at St. Scholastica.

EN: I see a couple of paintings that have ties to the story of Narcissus. Can you say a little bit about these?

WR: The Greek and Roman myths have often been a backstory for my paintings. I think of myths as fairy tales for adults. Ancient societies use myths to explain the big things; love, life, death, nature and mankind's place as part of nature. These issues are just as relevant today. My paintings may look sweet and decorative but I paint slowly and have lots of time to think about serious issues that hide under the surface.

Narcissus was a beautiful young man who fell so in love with his image he fell into a pool and drowned and the beautiful nymph that loved him was heartbroken after Narcissus drowned and all that was left of her was an echo... the Greeks way of explaining where echos came from and warning about narcissism. I did some unintentional gender bending in my version; Narcissus female and Echo male -- maybe the result of living 3 years in San Francisco? Sometimes these paintings take on a life of their own.

EN: What did you learn from being a student of Chee that has stuck with you to this day?

WR: Chee stressed the importance of designing a painting. No matter what your subject or style, underlying design holds it all together. He was one of those instructors who truly shared his passion. Also, interested adults from the community often took Chee's classes, subsequently his classes had a different atmosphere than my other art classes at UMD.

EN: How did NYAA advance your skills, career as an artist?

WR: When I attended UMD in the early 80's it was all about creativity and expression. The fundamentals of drawing, anatomy, perspective, color were not taught, I guess that was out of style. I wanted to be able to draw and paint realistically and learn about oil painting. Thats what I got at NYAA and much more. They have a great Thursday night lecture series with a different artist from New York or beyond every week. A rigorous academic training but relating it to what was happening in the New York art scene. Plus spending two years in New York with access to museums and galleries was ideal.
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Receptions are always a nice way to meet the artist.
Thank you, Wendy, for sharing your work with us.

A very nice turnout for "What Goes Around" Thursday @ Lizzard's

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Next Friday, April 27

Three More Great Art Events

Here's the Lineup

The Inimitable Leah Yellowbird

SAME EVENING

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

Local Art Seen: Thursday Eve at Lizzard's and Zeitgeist

Shelley Target by Wendy Rouse

Thursday evening I planned to slip in to Lizzard's Gallery on Superior Street to see an exhibition of paintings by Wendy Rouse that had been donated to raise money for the Spirit of the Lake Community School. I can't recall when I first learned of the school and how different its approach was to education. I do know that if public education was working, we would not have all these alternative schools and teaching methods, and the homeschool movement would probably not have become so pervasive. Spirit of the Lake School has adopted the Waldorf Method of education, which I learned about from one of its instructors last fall.

Lizzard's always puts on a nice event and this was no different. Wendy Rouse was not present, but the presence of her work in the gallery has been something one could always count on. Her stunning oil paintings have become well known. In this show her familiarity with watercolor and other media were displayed. The works varied in size, but all showed her to be adept.

When Adam Swanson and a friend arrived I learned that the Zeitgeist was also hosting an event featuring something like 11 artists. Though I'd intended to be home for supper it seemed impossible to bypass this as we were only two blocks away. To my surprise this was no small affair. The artwork not only filled wove its way around the Atrium, it sprawled into the hallway and back into the Zuccone Theater.

There were many familiar faces, both artists and friends of the arts, talking in clusters or sifting through he crowd. Karin Kraemer's ceramic works were shelved to the left of the entrance where a handful of people were talking animatedly. Adam Swanson's work hung in the center of the Atrium wall across the room. Eric Dubnicka had a wall of small pieces in the region before the theater and Ryan Tischer created an interesting space by shrouding a section of theater seats and amplifying his vibrant outdoors photography.

But it was David Bowen's acrylic sculpture's on a pedestal that stopped me. It wasn't clear what I was looking at but the work was indeed fascinating. I located the artist and learned that the pieces were created using a drone to fly over Lake Superior and take 3-D scans of the same location. These scans were converted to the 3-D blocks of acrylic using new technology and chemistry. Five hundred years ago this would have been called Magic.

Here are a few of shots of Bowen's pedestal.

Adam Swanson paintings will be displayed at Pizza Luce again this year.

Thursday evening there were also two poetry events, one at Beaners and one at the Red Herring. Sometimes you wish you could clone yourself, but then that is what makes us who we are. We have to make choices and decisions about how we use our time. 

Meantime, art goes on all around you. Notice, and engage it.

Twin Ports Happenings: Art, Poetry, The Beatles and More

“Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.” ― Leonardo da Vinci

One of the values that newspapers bring to a region is their documentation of history. If you've got a hankering for what happened back in time around here, the first place to dig would have been the public library. Today we can Google a lot of things, and sites like Zenith City Online bring us endless riches from our oft-forgotten past.

What's a little more difficult to unearth are the grass roots activities going on. I see so much happening in the local arts scene that is not being covered in the papers at all. And if at some point in time there be a major emergence that occurs, drawing national attention to the Midwest as an arts center, it might not be the newspapers that lead the way in documenting what happened. It may be The Playlist and blogs like Perfect Duluth Day or this one that people cull to see what happened.

Maybe. Or maybe it doesn't matter all that much whether the outside world notices. We've got something good going on, and here are few more glimmers from that treasure of local arts activities.

TONIGHT

Duluth Art Institute
Artists Ryuta Naka Jima & Aya Kawaguchi Gallery Talk
5:30 p.m.
Artistic Director Anne Dugan will lead the conversation, and the three will discuss artistic practice and inspiration.

Lizzard's

Painting by Wendy Rouse

An Evening with Wendy Rouse's Paintings
5:00 p.m.

Beaners
Spoken Word Open Mic
7:00 - 9:00 p.m.

Red Herring
Poetry Motel Thursday Night Slam
8:00 - 10:00 p.m.

SATURDAY

Benchmark Tattoo
Aqueous Volume Eight Release Party
6:00 p.m.

Teatro Zuccone
The Revolution 5 Presents: "The Beatles' #1 Hits"
7:00 p.m.

SUNDAY

Studio 15
Kids Art: Eruptive Art
2:00 p.m.

RT Quinlans
Benefit for Eric Swanson and his Family
2:00 p.m. till Midnight

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Because I don't cover the music scene here, you will want to make sure you follow the Reader and the Transistor. The Trib shines a spotlight in a few places each week as well, including this week's bluegrass festival in Canal Park. Also there's a car show at the DECC this weekend, Motorhead Madness. Cars can be works of art, too. At one time, automakers produced cars with real style, and many of those lost gems can be found this weekend in the DECC.

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

Spotlight on Painter Wendy Rouse

Love of beauty is taste. The creation of beauty is art. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

You don’t have to be an artist to appreciate art. So if you’re ever looking for a form of cheap entertainment that will reward you for as long as you live, I recommend strolling through some of the local art galleries from time to time. There are a number of places in Canal Park and Downtown that are easily accessible. See what's new. See what strikes your fancy.

I first noticed Wendy Rouse’s work at Lizzard’s Gallery and Framing on Superior Street, one of the galleries I frequent, perhaps in part due to its convenience and also its wide range of artists represened. Whenever I see things I like, I ask, “Who did that?” Rouse’s paintings are not only beautifully executed, they sparkle with imagination. Her recent show "Layered Transparencies" with Kate Whittaker at the Duluth Art Institute has undoubtedly brought her new fans.

EN: What can you tell us about your formal training?
WR: I graduated from UMD in 1982 with a Bachelors of Fine Art. My education there was great for developing my individuality and creative thinking but woefully short on any practical academic training. After UMD I worked as a watercolor artist, owned and operated a restaurant and had a family (a wonderful life). 20 years later I went back to school for the academic training I always wished I had. The whole family and I moved to New York City where I earned my MFA in painting from the New York Academy of Art. Which is where I learned to paint and draw in the realistic way I work now.

EN: Where do you live and where is your studio? 
WR: My current home is 15 miles north of Duluth, out in the woods, close to Fish Lake. My studio is in Duluth on the East Hillside, a little upstairs apartment. One room is for drawing and watercolor and the other for oil painting. It is important for me to separate home from work/art. When I try to have my studio at home the art takes over, I love to paint and once I start it is really hard for me to stop.

EN: How did you become interested in art? 

WR: In high school I had an excellent art teacher, Mel Kumsha. He introduced me to watercolor painting and I never looked back. It was perfect timing since I was headed in some wrong directions during my teen years. Art gave me something healthy to do with my energy. Art is a powerful positive force for the world. If people were encouraged to explore their artistic side, I am convinced there would far fewer problems.

EN: Where does you inspiration come from for the images you create? 
WR: The things and ideas I paint are very autobiographical. The boreal forest, my daughter, toys, private jokes, objects with personal connections and my love and reverence for the natural world are all things I paint with great detail as a way to understand them and my connection to them. For several years now I have been assembling still lifes on a mirror so I have the added subject of reflections. Reflections represent the still water of inland lakes. So you could say I am inspired by the things around me that are important to me.

EN: Any special favorite paintings and why? 
WR: The paintings that feel resolved are my favorites, when I have a clear idea of what the story should be and how to paint it. My favorite painting right now is one I have at home, it shows my husband , daughter and our dog in our New York apartment and they are all patiently waiting for me to finish painting. It was the first time I painted a fairly large interior with multiple figures so it was a technical accomplishment, but more importantly somehow captures my feeling about a specific time and place. Usually my favorite is the one I am about to start, when the possibilities seem endless

EN: Tell us about your influences. 
WR: The painters of the renaissance have been a big influence for me. Especially the northern painters who painted still life. The instructors at the New York Academy of Art were also a big influence, encouraging and pushing me to find my own unique approach to painting and to paint about the really big things in life, family, love and death.

EN: Currently working on…? 
WR: Currently I am consumed with relocating to San Francisco. My husband and I have purchased a small cafe there and I am excited to be taking on another project with him. After we are settled there I am sure I will start painting again perhaps with more of an emphasis on the human figure. I find my art training has served me well in life, giving me an ability to find creative solutions to problems.

EN: Where can people see your work? 
WR: I plan to continue showing paintings at Lizzards in Duluth. I also have paintings at Stricoff Fine Art in NYC. Right now, interested people can see a lot of my paintings at mnartists.org which is a wonderful website for Minnesota artists. Unfortunately I will have to discontinue that when I move to California this summer. I also plan to show my paintings at our new cafe Farm:Table at 754 Post Street in San Francisco.

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This interview originally appeared this past month in The Reader.