Susie's Tree Spirit Masks on Display at Wussow's for the Month of March

This coming Thursday, March 6, Susie will be having an opening reception at Wussow's, 324 No. Central Avenue, for her show titled "We Wear the Mask." Susie began making masks back in the days when she did pottery. Though we no longer have a kiln, the mask theme has evolved and her work is quite remarkable. Here are a few examples, plus a bit of. backstory on the show.

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1. What prompted you to create your series of Tree Spirit masks?

 

Susie: I have lived in the country most of my life.  I have been making various kinds of masks for many years. The Tree Spirits came about more recently as an expression of my enjoyment of nature and a way to use various things I find outside in our woods and my garden such as moss, pinecones, seed pods, gourd pieces, and more.

2. You have made a variety of masks over the years. When did you start and What do you enjoy most about making masks?
 

Susie: Making masks as an artistic expression particularly resonates with me. I first began making ceramic masks almost 20 years ago. Around that time a widowed woman I knew died unexpectedly leaving her five children orphaned. I had been mentoring the youngest, a 6 year old girl, and I was shocked and heartbroken.

 

Faces can both hide or express many emotions. I began to include teardrops in one eye on my masks to express the universal sadness in life but I also include a small star in the opposite eye as an indication of hope.

 

I find enjoyment in the whole process, but giving them a name at the end is particularly fun.

 

3. Your masks are truly original. Where do you get your ideas from?

 

Susie: I don't necessarily start out with a specific idea. I begin making a face and it develops a life of its own as I go along. Sometimes I look at books of African or South American masks for ideas. Some masks may express my horror at world events, or personal angst. Others express joy that the earth and sunshine offer.

 

Wussow's is located next to Zenith Bookstore on Central Avenue, across the street from The West Theatre.

We Wear the Mask

A poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872-1906,

whose parents had been enslaved, has always been

a very compelling source of inspiration to me.

 

We wear the mask that grins and lies,

It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—

This debt we pay to human guile;

With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,

And mouth with myriad subtleties.

 

Why should the world be over-wise,

In counting all our tears and sighs?

Nay, let them only see us, while

We wear the mask.

 

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries

To thee from tortured souls arise.

We sing, but oh the clay is vile

Beneath our feet, and long the mile;

But let the world dream otherwise,

We wear the mask

Cloquet Art Crawl: Opening Receptions for Kris Nelson and Adam Swanson

Thursday evening... Two Cloquet Artist Receptions you should be aware of.

From 4-6 pm. Kris Nelson will be at the Pine Knot offices at 122 Avenue C.

If you're not familiar with Cloquet it is easy to find in that section

down by the river. Use your GPS or Google Maps. 

Next head over to Magnolia Cafe in Carlton where Adam Swanson 

is the featured artist. 

Learn more about Kris Nelson's work here. 

Follow Adam Swanson's career at https://www.adamswanson.com

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Friday May 17, come enjoy an evening with Alan Sparhawk at Sacred Heart

as an appetizer for the upcoming Duluth Dylan Fest. 

Good music for a good cause.

ALAN SPARHAWK

MUSIC RESOURCE CENTER BENEFIT CONCERT

MAY 17

TICKETS HERE

FULL DULUTH DYLAN FEST SCHEDULE HERE

http://bobdylanway.com/pdfs/DuluthDylanFest2019Line-up.pdf

Meantime, if you see me say hello...

Local Art Seen: Variegated is a Gallery 315 Variety Pack Art Show

"The Piano Teacher" by Kerry Everett

"After the Rain" by Kathryn Lenz

"Rooster at the Hen House" by Susan Krochalk

Friday evening I attended the opening reception for a show titled Variegated, which is an adjective with several shades of meaning, the third being "marked by variety." Certainly the show was this. There was a thread of continuity, however, that connected these various artists. Nearly all in the group has been painting together at the Duluth Art Institute since 2015 on a weekly basis. One immediately asks, "How many other creative things are happening right under our noses that we were unaware of?"

There was an additional feature that connected most of the artists in this show, and though I am sure it was unintentional it certainly must have been apparent to some in the group at one point in time. All but one has a K as one of the initials in their names, and two -- the Kollodges -- have two, Ken and Kathy. Only Devon Wait was odd man out on that score. Nevertheless I'm sure that if you yourself have no K in you initials this group of painters and creators would welcome you with open arms. Just bring your brushes!

"Seventh Wave Love" by Susan Krochalk

The other seven artists in this show included two former art teachers, which I will draw attention to briefly in a moment. They are: Karolyn Carpenter, Karl Everett, Kathryn Lenz, Rita Krochalk, Susan Krolchalk, and Kris Nelson.

90-year-old Rita Krochalk, a former art teacher, showed
work in a variety of styles and media.

It was especially delightful to meet the two retired art teachers here. Rita Peabody Krochalk was the senior artist in the room. Her 90-years of creative life, and a cheerful spirit to boot, made her an inspiration to anyone who has met her. And then there was the other retired teacher, Kris Nelson, who you may know by her goal of painting 1000 chairs before she's 100. When I wrote about her in 2014 she was one-fifth of the way to her goal. When we spoke Friday I learned she is approaching half-way.

What makes this goal impressive is that she's not taking a short-cut approach by placing a few stripes and sponge blobs here and there on these chairs. The pieces are serious art, including several pieces with pointed political statements and philosophical meanderings. Her chair addressing the death penalty is quite evocative and provocative, worth a much more complete treatment.

Chairs by Kris Nelson were displayed around the gallery.

During her tenure as an art teacher in Wrenshall Kris Nelson had the opportunity to shape many young lives. Several of her former students continue to make art, including Carla Hamilton who was an artist in Germany for 17 years before returning here to the Northland. See more Chairs by Kris.

A pair of women by Kerry Everett

The show was well attended, the gallery buzzing with chatter by friends of the artists. If you missed the opening, 315 Gallery will have its doors open for you from 1:00 to 4:00 Saturday and Sunday through the end of January for this show. 315 Gallery is located on Lake Avenue in the former Washington School building on the Central Hillside here in Duluth.

Meantime, art goes on all around you. See it, share it, cherish it.

Local Art Seen: Snapshot of Last Saturday's Opening @ Karin Kraemer's Duluth Pottery

Two new galleries opened in Duluth last Saturday, the Joseph Nease Gallery and Karin Kraemer's much anticipated Duluth Pottery. If I have my facts straight, Kraemer's cramped studio had been located adjacent to the Red Mug Coffeehouse in Superior for the past two decades. The opportunity to expand and other factors enabled the ever industrious and cheerful Kraemer took advantage of the opportunity.

The renovation of the former P&J Paints space was a major undertaking but what they've done here is turned the building into a real Duluth asset. When you look at the other businesses that have appeared on this block recently -- OCM Smokehouse, Bent Paddle, Frost River, the Duluth Folk School, etc. -- one senses that the Lincoln District has moved another step closer to the community upgrade that began when the abandoned Clyde Iron Works became the object of investment and given a second life.

To learn more, check out Samantha Church's story in Perfect Duluth Day, Duluth Pottery Is Back In Duluth. What follows are photos from the opening reception and works by many of the artists represented here on the 1900 block in Duluth's West End, which is now being called the Lincoln Park Craft District.

Kraemer's pottery designs are the "bees knees."

Inside looking out...

...and outside looking in.

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

When I Paint My Masterpiece: DAI Presents "Public Doman" & "Land of Wonder"

"Someday, everything is gonna be diff’rent when I paint my masterpiece."

One privilege of youth is that you can throw caution to the wind and liberally pursue your passions, no strings to tie you down. The whole experience is made richer by the recklessness of your abandon. Even when you get too close to the sun because you tried to kiss the sky and the the heat melts the wax off your feathers, you can later remember with fondness how it felt... assuming you have a place to make a soft landing.

Later in life you have too many responsibilities to be so carefree. If you have assets you have to think about them. If you have children, a job, a mortgage... you cannot -- unless you're a one-percenter -- just set out like a message in a bottle leaving your destination to the wind and currents.

I mention all this because tonight Ken Bloom's photography exhibit "Public Doman" goes on display at the Duluth Art Institute. In his youth, Bloom followed his bliss and bought a one way ticket to Japan, accompanied by his Leica camera. "Public Domain" is a fulfilling backward look at this experience.

Bloom is Director of the Tweed Museum of Art located on the campus of UMD. Tonight is the opening reception for this show in the Morrison Gallery along with Shawna Gilmore's exhibition of new work. Both galleries are on the fourth floor of the Duluth Depot.

You will find “Land of Wonder: New Paintings by Shawna Gilmore” in the John Steffl Gallery. Gilmore, who paints in acrylic, is a storyteller whose imagery crosses generations. On March 9 she will be giving a family-friendly Artist Talk that will include youth activities, but her work isn't all kid's stuff. As Picasso famously quipped, "It takes a lifetime to learn how to paint like a child." In this case, it is learning to paint with the eyes of a child, to see something fresh in the world we move through and often take for granted. A special feature of this exhibit is a cell phone audio tour stop, where you can listen to the artist talk about her work.

When Jim Morrison of The Doors sang, "This is the strangest life I've ever known" he conveyed it with an ominous texture. Gilmore's world may also be a rendering of strange imagery, but her stories reflect whimsy and delight. You can get a feel for her approach by reading about her show at the Kruk Gallery at UWS last fall.

Also on display during tonight's event is the annual Members Exhibition in the Depot's Great Hall, comprised of work by DAI members created during the past year. If you missed that reception in January, here's a second chance.

For more, visit the Facebook page for this event.

Meantime, art goes on all around you. Check it out. It's free.

DAI Member Show Is Tonight. So Is The Reader Best of the Northland Party

The Depot will be a busy place tonight. First, it's the annual Duluth Art Institute Member Show opening. Simultaneously there's a reception fo Emerging Photographers, and as if that were not enough, the closing for Sarah Brokke's portraits project is happening. Meanwhile, The Reader is hosting a party of its own to celebrate The Best of the Northland 2015. Where? Right downstairs in the Depot's Train Museum. If you go to the art opening, you won't have to get in your car or go find parking for The Reader's party. You'll be all square.

A Member Meeting will precede the opening, at 5:00 p.m. with an overview of the annual report and an opportunity to vote on the 2016 board of directors. The Great Hall will then officially open, with musical accompaniment by Mary Bue.

If you do not know where the Depot is, maybe because you're new to Duluth, you've been remiss in not discovering it sooner. It's located at 506 W Michigan Street, across from the Duluth Public Library. Looking East, you can see Bob Dylan Way is fairly well marked, and when the weather is nice again you can take a stroll the eighteen or twenty blocks to the Armory.

The exhibition reception begins at 5:30 p.m. with about 175 contributions this year. A requirement is that member can show something new that was created this past year. After strolling about and hobnobbing with friends, be sure to take the elevator upstairs to check out the galleries there.

The DAI is also highlighting a year of local artist books with readings and signings by Sarah Brokke, Elizabeth Lapensee & Jonathon Thunder, Catherine Meier, John Pastor, Robert and Diane S. Petoletti, and Tim White. Guests can also vote on the People's Choice Award.

The Reader party starts at 6:00 p.m. with awards being distributed beginning at 7:00. The $10 cover charge includes a pair of drinks and Bob Boone does his best to give away plenty of swag make it worth your while.

So.... all this is just a reminder that there's plenty happening tonight. Maybe we'll see you there.

EdNote: Yes, I will have another Dylan painting there again this year, though not the one you see here at the top of the page. 

Terry Millikan's "Surprised By Joy" Opening at Lizzards

Kinetic Sculpture Park

I've been a fan of Lizzard's Gallery as long as I can remember. For years it claimed our attention on the lake side of Superior Street before moving to mid-block between Lake Avenue and First Avenue West. The gallery features quite a number of high caliber local artists and first rate shows such as the upcoming opening for Terry Millikan's "Surprised By Joy."

For a number of years Millikan has maintained studio in the 1890's Trade and Commerce Building (a.k. Old City Hall) in Superior, but sometimes she prefers to move off the grid to a getaway in the vicinity of Knife River. Perhaps this latter is what triggered the look of her new work, which while still featuring vibrant colors re-shapes them into more distinct forms.

Terry Millikan grew up in Rochester Minnesota in a creative family. An accomplished colorist with a snazzy sense of design, she captures vitality with color and pattern. Magically she creates rhythm and movement. Much like Millikan’s fresh sense of existence, her work is never static, but lively, energetic and engaging. Influences have included living in Oaxaca, Mexico; her time spent at Joshua Tree, California, and life along the northshore in Northern Minnesota. Her connection to nature is evident in her use of rich ochres, warm reds, deep purples, quinacridone golds, and the colors of the earth, sky, and water.

She's been affiliated with Lizzard's for many years and it's nice to see her featured in this upcoming show a week from Thursday.

EN: When did you first become serious about being an artist and how did that come about?

TM: My mother provided me with a creative environment because she was a painter. When I was a kid she showed me things that sparked my interest in art. I recall receiving positive reinforcement for my drawings all through school and determined to go for a BFA at University of Minnesota, which actually prepared me for nothing, though it did strengthen my resolve to continue painting no matter what the circumstances.

EN: How long were you in Mexico and what were your takeaways from that experience?

TM: In the nineties, I moved with a French Algerian painter to Oaxaca, Mexico for the purpose of making art. There, under the influence sun drenched plazas, the lush gardens of the Xochimilco studio, the notable Oaxaca painters, Toledo, Tamayo, and Morales, colorful weavings from Atitlan and wildly inventive Mexican folk art in general. Eventually, I abandoned my use of local color in favor of more vibrant saturated colors, while making the leap from representational subject matter into abstraction. The four years I spent in Oaxaca profoundly changed my artistic direction.

EN: I saw that you had many wonderful art volumes in your studio. Who have been your biggest influences?

Mood Indigo

TM: Oh. Yes. The art books. I’ve always read voraciously about art and artist. Over my long career I’ve deliberately copied paintings by disparate masters from Giotto and Duccio to Van Gogh, Bonnard, Matisse, and Cezanne in order to better grasp their technique; their compositions, and more deeply appreciate their unique vision. Looking through art books has always fed me. For many years I was chiefly inspired by abstract expressionism, especially the more gestural work by Gorky, early visceral Pollacks, and Frankenthaler’s stains on canvas. As I’ve gotten older my interests are gravitated towards the early modernists, which I see as a group emanating, more or less, from the obdurate old curmudgeon Cezanne. I am revisiting the “isms” under the rubric of Modernism and I am drawn to Braque’s cubism. Malevich’s constructivism, Leger’s “Synthesism”. My approach to painting seems to have a taken a more intellectual bent in my 70’s. Perhaps my physical energy for spontaneous, gestural, and explosive painting is on the wane. I arrive at my painterly decisions through cognition and deliberation.

EN: Cool. Your work has always had such a kinetic feel. Where did this energy come from?

TM: It comes from my background. There was a push and pull between one atheistic parent and one staunch fundamentalist Christian parent. Confused and lonely I turned to nature as my solace. I would say I am a pantheist, rejuvinated and inspired by the vitality of growth and change. I try to tap into the essence of living things, which is the source of the energy in my work.

The force that through the green fuse drives the flower…. Dylan Thomas

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Thursday September 24 has two openings to keep mark on your calendar. If you're in the Twin Cities, try to catch Mark Zapchenk's Mediterranean Melodies 4:30 - 7:00 p.m. at Luther College. And if you're in the Twin Ports, Terry Millikan's "Surprised By Joy" is opening at Lizzard's Art Gallery & Framing in Downtown Duluth.

Meantime, art goes on all around you. Check it out.