This Weekend: Lake Superior Studio Art Tour -- Places To Go, Artists To See, And More

(Photo courtesy John Heino Photography)

There is nothing quite like Lake Superior's North Shore in the fall. The autumn colors get vibrant and some of the vistas take your breath away. That's why a number of lake-inspired artists have banded together to open their North Shore studios in unison on this special weekend. Here is a brief summary of places to go and studios to see.

Lake Superior 20/20 Studio Art Tour

The shorter of the two tours, Lake Superior 20/20 Studio Tour is now in its fourth year. The self-guided tour offers visitors the opportunity to see a wide range of local artistic expression while taking in the beauty here in our region. Glass, ceramics, watercolor, woodworking, oil and acrylic paintings, printmaking, jewelry, and photography, round out the work that will be for sale during the tour.

This is the second week of a two-weekend event. The list of participating artists can be found on this page and a link to the map is up on the masthead. The Husby studio (Bob and Cheryl) is among those listed. It should be a requirement for every home to own at least one of their pieces. (We have two.)

Lake Superior 20/20 artist studios are all located between Lakeside and Two Harbors.

Crossing Borders Studio Tour

More ambitious North Shore connoisseurs will want to consider The Crossing Borders Studio Tour. This is also a two weekend tour, beginning this weekend and finishing next. The art stops stretch from Duluth to Thunder Bay, and the vistas are spectacular in between. Stops along the way include studios near Lutsen, Grand Marais, Hovland and Portage. If you can find a hotel room up north, you might want to make a two-day affair of it.

The artists in this group do miracles in ceramic, glass, stone, printmaking and other media. If you're driving up Highway 61 this weekend, be sure to download a map and print it out before you leave. This is the 19th year of the Crossing Borders tour and the forecast is looking very good.

More Lake Superior Inspiration from Holy Cow! Press

Next Thursday, October 1, there will be readings from Amethyst and Agate: Poems of Lake Superior The event takes place at Peace Church, 1111 North 11th Avenue East, Duluth from 7 to 9 p.m.

Artists and tourists aren't the only ones inspired by our region's wonders. Poets and musicians have produced wonderful work under the Northland's spell. In addition to readings by twenty of the anthology poets, Peace Church congregant Wendy Durrwachter will share her original piano composition "Four Tone Poems: A Meditation on Lake Superior." There will be refreshments and books for sale. The event is free and open to the public. (For more information, please contact Holy Cow! Press, holycow@holycowpress.org, 218-724-1653.)

Amethyst and Agate: Poems of Lake Superior is edited by Jim Perlman, Deborah Cooper, Mara Hart, Pamela Mittlefehldt and includes 70 poems by contemporary poets such as Heid E. Erdrich, Kimberly Blaeser, James Armstrong, and Sara Thomsen, et al. who live near and/or have been inspired by Lake Superior. A gallery of full color images of Lake Superior adds to this unique presentation of culturally rich writings.

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Last night the thought crossed my mind that NASA should have included at least one poet amongst the astronauts whom they have shuttled into space. Maybe this oversight will be rectified on their upcoming adventure to Mars.

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

CALL FOR POETRY: 2015 Farm/Art DTour

Are you clever? Are you competitive? Do you like word play?

The Fermentation Fest has put out a call for Upper Midwest poets to contribute short poetry for the Farm/Art DTour. They're calling the event A Live Culture Convergence. If you're old enough to remember those Burma Shave signs we used to see on the way to grandma's house, you'll grasp the principle behind this competition.

Upper Midwest writers are invited to submit short poems relating to food, fermentation, agriculture, art or the land which can be turned into a set of Burma Shave-style signage on a 50-mile stretch of scenic farmland in Sauk County. Sounds like a fun, retro way to create some buzz for the Farm/Art DTour.

When I was a kid in the fifties and early sixties our family frequently took drives from Cleveland to my grandparents home in Warren, Ohio. I have a lot of memories from that one hour drive including parachute jumpers, sparrows caught in the grill of the car, fifties rock 'n roll that was playing on the radio, and yes, those Burma Shave signs.

I did a bit of quick research on this last night and discovered that the first Burma Shave roadsides were introduced here in Minnesota. I bet you didn't know that. 1925.

Follow this link for lots of images related to these Burma Shave signs.

What a great marketing concept. I don't know what the signs cost, but the brand was established by means of its ubiquity and the humorous manner in which it reached the general public.

Oh, so back to the contest! The objective will be for writers to submit short poems that can be displayed along the roadsides of the Farm/Art DTour route like Burma Shave signs. Submissions will be evaluated by Wisconsin poet laureate Max Garland. Winners will receive $100 for each poem selected. There will be six poems selected.

You can FIND COMPLETE DETAILS ABOUT THE CONTEST HERE.

DEADLIINE is July 31, so put your thinking caps on. Let the games begin!

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Find out more about the Fermentation Fest here.

Learn more about Burma Shave history here on Wikipedia.

Read a radically vast collection of Burma Shave jingles here.

If you want to skip all the links and just Submit Poems for the DTour email your entries to dtour.poetry@gmail.com

Have Fun
With Your Number One
Go Pickin'
Berries
In The Sun

Meantime, life goes on....

TIP OF THE DAY: The more birthdays you have, the longer you'll live.

PASS IT ON.

Wordless Wednesday: Dylan Fest Poetry Event at the Red Mug