Another Stellar Student/Instructor Exhibition at the Great Lakes Academy of Fine Art

This is a photo of the interior when it was first being
considered for purchase and renovation.

Last night I attended the Great Lakes Academy of Fine Art's 2021 Student/Instructor Exhibition and what a rewarding evening. The progress these young artists have made is impressive, and the lifting of Minnesota's "Mask Mandate" a couple days ago made it especially rewarding. It was great to see actual smiles rather than just twinkling eyes.

The art school is located at 810 West 3rd Street here in Duluth, a former Catholic church. What follows are some of the photos I took, though there was much, much more to see than you see here. The Open House will continue today so drop in if you are able.

Portraits by Kelly Schamberger

Painting of Jeffrey T Larson teaching painting.

Same painting, with last night's open house guests in foreground

Perseverance, by Patrick Glander. Oil on canvas.

Four paintings by Jake Tremble

Cherub by Nelia Harper

Coffee Plate by Patrick Glander

Vintage by Jeffrey T. Larson

Mastering basic skills.

Reproducing forms while learning to see color values.

Brutus Bargue Copy by Austin Jasurda

Green Plate by Patrick Glander

Kelly Schamberger, Self Portrait at 35

For more information about the Great Lakes Academy, visit 

www.greatlakesacademyoffineart.com

What's Left - Lives Touched By Suicide

"Strength Through Support" by Jim Zasoski

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Friday evening I attended a multimedia art exhibition titled What's Left - Lives Touched By Suicide. The art will be on display for the duration of the month, but Friday's opening reception was a powerful one evening event that touched all of us.

This travelling exhibition is curated by John Bauer in response to the loss of his teenage daughter to suicide a few years ago. The program began with Bauer talking briefly about some facts about suicide. In America the suicide rate on Native reservations is 3X the national average, and on some reservations it's 10X. These are alarming numbers. Across the country there are more than 41,000 suicides a year and our youth are hit especially hard. It is the second leading cause of death for teens 10-24. The problem is far more pervasive than these these numbers suggest, tragic as they are. For each successful suicide there are 25 attempts. That is a scary number.

(L to R) Jake Vainio, Dr. Arne Vainio and curator John Bauer [Photo: Ivy Vainio]

Photo courtesy Ivy Vainio

Mr. Bauer's plea is that we talk about it. "People don't discuss this. Why are we afraid to do this?" he asked.

Much of it is related to mental illness, another topic we don't know what to do with. "I wanted to use art to give the message. Lectures are OK but art touches people." And this exhibit really touches deep places.

"We talk about sex, drugs and alcohol in our schools. Why not teach about depression, mental illness and depression? We have to talk about this," he said.

After John Bauer spoke Dr. Arne Vainio, a physician to the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, was introduced. Dr. Vainio began by passing a basket of tobacco around the room and having people take some and hold it during the ritual he was about to perform. Then we would give it back to him and he would burn it, noting that tobacco is a gift of the Creator to use as a sacrament.

He shared a quote from Kurt Vonnegut's line from God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater: "Sons of suicides seldom do well." He added, "Non of us are comfortable when talking about suicide."

Dr. Vainio then performed a song in the Ojibwe style called Heartbreak. He then read a list of names of suicides that people in the room had submitted, tapping a drum each time he read a name from the long list while Jake Vainio channeled through a mournful guitar. Dr. Vainio called it a healing drum, and all were touched.

There was a handout with statements by the artists which should be read in conjunction with the show. I've included a few quotes below.

"Two Trails" by Adam Swanson

"The Empty Desk"

"The Empty Desk is intended to commemorate youth who have committed suicide in response to bullying. Definitions of bullying are inscribed in the arm of the desk and viewers are invited to sit in the chair to reflect on the many forms bullying can take. The desk is meant both as a memorial and a call to action; to recognize and interrupt bullying before it ends in tragic consequences."
~Christine Baeumler

I found this juxtaposition especially poignant.

"Strength Through Support" (detail)

"The emotional weight and magnitude of unfortunate life-changing events remain with us in memory throughout our lives." Jim Zasoski wrote about his piece "Strength Through Support."

"The strength to bear the emotional enormity of these remembrances and fid comfort in closure is obtained through the empathy and support of family, friends, community members, and others who may have experienced similar circumstances in their lives," he wrote.

He went on to affirm the importance of promoting conversation amongst community members with regard to this subject. By doing so we can reduce the stigma associated with these difficult events.

* * * *
Thank you to Jim Bauer for curating the exhibition, and to all associated with making this a thought provoking event. May it play a useful role in generating discussions that lead to ongoing healing for all of us who lives have been so touched. 

Catch a Snapshot of History with the Eastman Johnson Exhibit at the St. Louis County Historical Society

Ojibwe Wigwam in Grand Portage

He was a co-founder of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City with his name inscribed on the entrance. Though best known for his paintings of everyday life, he also had the privilege of painting such significant Americans as Abraham Lincoln, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne. In the 1850's he was known as The American Rembrandt. And this summer a collection of his drawings and paintings is featured in the Depot courtesy the St. Louis County Historical Society.

It's actually an unusual and even remarkable collection of pieces, and how it came about is equally fascinating. New England-born in 1824 Eastman Johnson was the youngest of eight children. When he grew up his interest in art was cultivated through an apprenticeship with a lithographer. At age twenty he supported himself in Washington, D.C. by means of making drawings, two of his subjects being Dolly Madison and John Quincy Adams. In his twenties he went to Europe and studied painting in Düsseldorf, Germany. This interest was furthered by studying at The Hague in the Netherlands where he studied the Dutch Masters.

Notin E Garbo Wik

Eastman's skills were quite quite advanced upon his return to the States, and his interests greatly expanded. In 1856 he made a trip to our region in order to visit his sister in Superior, Wisconsin. This was before the land grants that brought trainloads of people to this then-remote region of the country. He obtained a mixed-race guide named Stephen Bonga, who was Ojibwe and African-American, and visited the native Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) peoples here in the Northland. Throughout 1857 Johnson painted at Grand Portage, the Apostle Islands, and Isle Royale.

It is a collection of paintings from this period which you will find on display here at the Depot. His draftsmanship skills are immediately evident, but of special interest is are the beautiful surfaces on the paintings. The exquisite subtlety is most likely missed by the casual observer, but the beautiful manner in which he almost stains the canvas with color is worth a closer look, especially by fellow painters.

In addition to the paintings by Johnson there's a full-sized birchbark canoe in the gallery space matching one that appears in a painting here. There's also another Ojibwe artifact with an estimated 40,000 beads in it's designs.

The local Masonic Temple has been a conservator of the collection and it is a very special gift to the community for these works to be shared here.

Highly recommended; visit the Plein Air exhibition in the John Steffl Gallery and then take time to take in the Eastman Johnson works on display here. Take the elevator to the fourth floor, turn right and walk through the door toward the stairs. The entrance to this space will be on your left.

Ojibwe Women

Grand Portage

Ojibwe Girl

Camp Scene

Some of the information for this blog post came from the Wikipedia story on Eastman Johnson.

The official title of the show is "Eastman Johnson: Paintings and Drawings of the Lake Superior Ojibwe." The works have been made available courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society, in association with the St. Louis County Historical Society.

Local Art Seen: Sarah Brokke at the Kruk

Ask Alice

During the Friday noon hour I made my way over to the Univeristy of Wisconsin Superior campus to take in the opening reception for Sarah Brokke Erickson's retrospective at the Kruk Gallery there in the Holden Fine Arts Center. If you've never been it's a nice little space, a great space for encountering art.

There were several intriguing features of the show, titled (r)evolve. First, I can't seem to recall ever attending an opening reception at noon before. Turns out, this proved an excellent way to bring the school's art students and faculty together, to experience another artist's midlife overview. What struck me though is that Brokke Erickson is on the faculty of St. Scholastica, teaching modern art history, painting and drawing there, not here. Her undergrad work took place at UMD with MFAs from Bowling Green and Studio Arts Centers International in Florence, Italy.

Sarah Brokke is a painter's painter. By that I mean the work clearly show her love of placing paint on canvas surfaces, along with the fluid brushstrokes of one who care about the manner in which the images are formed, shaped, framed, fleshed out. The title of the show proved apt as one could see the evolution in her work while there were recurring features and themes as well.

The Eye of Married

detail

Two recurring trends that I especially noticed were had to do with the manner in which she assembled subject matter. In pieces like Ask Alice and The Miscarriage of You one sees complex compositions with a variety of symbols and images. In many of her other pieces such as The Eye of Married we see a primary focal point, the essence of the story, filling a large space on a large canvas. She frequently assumes a role in these pieces

For example, the show included three images from her graduate thesis in which she portrays herself in an overly rotund manner. "I was painting myself as I felt... you know how our inside and our outside doesn't necessarily align.... I was definitely wrestling a lot with that interior-exterior disconnect." What did the process of producing these works teach her" "I learned that I have more questions than answers, and that's a very good thing."

Of The Eye of Married she explains, "I was engaged to be married. I was looking at the concept of sarcaphaguses... I took the imagery from Egyptian concept of sarcophaguses... spirit transfers.... and the concept of being tied together. Marriage is forever." They were engaged at time of this painting, and now he is husband.

The Miscarriage of You. I saw pain here. "That was my intent," she said.

The Miscarriage of You is not about a physical miscarriage, but rather a portrayal of loss after a relationship, the loss of a person of importance and its debilitating consequences. The piece successfully conveys the emotional pain associated with such a deep and difficult experience.

Sarah Brokke Erickson's paintings have shown up in quite a few public spaces in recent years. Her work has appeared at the Duluth Art Institute, where she also teaches painting, as well as a number of galleries.

The Kruk has irregular hours, so I recommend calling first or visiting their website before you visit. There are some free twenty-minute parking spaces out front which are frequently available. Take advantage of it.

The artist.

Students discussing one of the pieces.

A friend from Chicago shared that an acquaintance of hers said, "There is nothing happening in Duluth." She replied that if this person were a reader of this blog they would not have that opinion. 

Let's keep it going.