Art as a Story Telling Medium: Hermantown High Student Show @ Beaners

Mya Austin raced to complete this piece in time.

When we were in school in the Sixties we may have been lacking in real-world life experience, but we were not devoid of thinking about some of the profound conundrums of our time. The issues of race relations, materialism, war and teenage angst were all real enough in the books we read and the music we listened to. Though I don't recall a single incidence of mass shootings in our schools, being in the midst of the Cold War and having practiced air raid drills while growing up taught us that the world was not an entirely safe place, and the worst could wipe us out in a flash even while loitering between classes.

These thoughts came to mind while taking in the current Hermantown High student show at Beaners, with artwork designed to make people think. In March I visited the art class to get a sneak preview of the show, and promised to do a follow up. If you get a chance, drop in and grab some Beaners coffee, say hello to Jason and Becca, or whomever is serving, and slip into the front area where various monthly art exhibitions are displayed.

Some of the work here was shared on my March blog post, but when I slipped in for the opening reception I quickly noticed plenty that was new. The theme is The Illusion of Control, and every piece has a story. What follows are a few of these stories, visualized.

If it looks like a man with a Rorschach test for a head, that's because it is.

When a person is slightly off kilter, that is, mentally ill, it's evident to everyone.

There are many kinds of addictions that can trip us up. This piece (above)
depicts power, vanity, beauty, alcoholism and drug abuse. 

Amanda's painting of Hera is a snapshot of the goddess after she kills Zeus, her husband.

This scene from the Garden of Eden...

... is followed by this picture featuring a serpent wrapped about
an arm tattooed with the words "Me Too" in Hebrew.

For excellent examples of art being used to portray stories, I recommend checking out the weekly cover art from The New Yorker. Always timely, every picture tells a story.

In the meantime, if you're in the vicinity of Spirit Valley/West Duluth, stop in and check it out. There's more than meets the eye.

Hermantown Art Students Prepare for April Beaners Exhibition, The Illusion of Control

This past Thursday I followed through on an invitation to visit with several students in Robb Quisling's Hermantown High School art class. The students were Haley Zierden, Mya Austin and Eiley Kuhlmey.

The students have titled their April show at Beaners Central  The Illusion of Control. The concepts the students have undertaken to express deal with societal, religious and governmental controls. At the opening on April 5, 6:00-8:00 p.m.,  there will also be a vocal performance by Sophie Peterson at 6:30.

Eiley Kuhlmey's interest in art began in ninth grade. She's found it life-changing. Mya Austin's interests have drawn her to costumes and 3-D design. Haley Zierden produced pieces for the show in several media, including a set of cyanotype photos of her visit to Havana. What impressed me, even more than their learning how to work in a variety of mediums and develop technical facility, was the grasp of conceptual thinking that real artists learn to internalize.

Zierden, who curated this show, shared the following comments on what it would be about. "I wanted to pick a theme that would be relatable to the student population as well as to the adult community. The theme I picked is The Illusion of Control. As budding teenagers, if there's anything we are familiar with, it's control--usually over our decisions and actions. High school is when you really start to feel the pressures of social control, through peer pressure and cultural modeling. This is also often when you start to question the controls and rules you grew up with, put in place by parents, teachers, and other authority figures. Other forms of control seen throughout life and represented in this exhibit are shown in religion, government, culture, and other forms of restrictions put in place by society. Therefore, this is a topic that can be seen throughout the world, across cultures, and in all age groups."

"Art is another form of intelligence, another way to look at the world," one of the other students said.

Mya Austin expressed a mild frustration artists can have when people view their work. "People don't realize that you are telling a story," she said. In other words, many people look at a painting or drawing and see a picture without understanding that it is also a form of communication.

The class instructor Robb Quisling shared how he encourages the students to combine form with ideas, to experiment with various approaches, to try and re-try things until the thought gets fully explored.

The three paintings by Ms. Kuhley aim to challenge an accepted notion in our culture that a woman's value is based on an ideal of beauty. "Girls are taught at an early age that beauty is pain. My art shows how ridiculous this is as an ideology."

The experience brought back to mind some of my own early drawings which were an attempt to express stories, or inner impressions as a reaction to accepted premises of the culture I saw around me.

As I found my way out of the high school afterwards I noticed that student art had been hung in various corridors, perhaps as a way to honor the creative expressions of the students. Most gratifying was knowing that in at least one school district the arts continued to have value as part of the overall curriculum.

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

Related Links
I first met Robb Quisling at a DAI show he was part of in 2016.
Last year I also wrote about about his exhibition Common Threads at the Washington Galleries.

Artist Asks: "What could you reclaim from removing your biggest distraction?"

Last night the Tweed Museum of Art held an opening reception for Robert Miniciello's Spontaneous Acts and Sharon Louden's Windows. In the student gallery, always a place of interest to me, Shane Pehrson had a stimulating exhibit titled Reclaim, a clever variation on an idea I once had for a book concept when I was in college called 100 Things To Do with a Television Set. (I dropped one off the Hocking River bridge in Athens as a start.) At the time I saw TVs as a time trap that keep people from other things. And this is Pehrson's premise, except today's time thief is smart phone.

At 25, Pehrson has grown up in this new era of instant communication and the ubiquitous, portable screen interface. He notes in his statement that he got his first flip phone at age 16, but now little children are walking around with $400 smart phones. Instead of human interaction, we see a new generation of people zoned out on their devices, ignoring everything around them.

Inside the small gallery space one encounters animated movies portraying the manner in which smart phones consume time. One is a humorous guy on a toilet, from the point of view of the guy, his smart phone central. Another features a guy walking, oblivious to all around him as he strolls along looking down at the screen in his hand.  On shelves we see smart phones smashed by rocks, spilling their electronic guts.

My concept of smashing televisions gets derided by people who remind me that there is a lot of good stuff on television. I can accept that, and yet I hear defenders of smart phones saying the same thing today to young Shane.

What does your gut tell you? Have you become a slave to your devices? Or as Shane asks, what could you reclaim by removing your biggest distraction?  

Meantime, life goes on all around you. Reclaim it.

Local Art Seen: Support at the PRØVE

Vision Chair

It's been just over three years since the PRØVE Gallery's inaugural exhibition. A lot has changed since those first shows by the PRØVE Collective, but one thing has remained constant. Their original mission was "to become a conduit of powerful ideas and diverse viewpoints as well as fostering a greater appreciation of the modern arts, expanding community and providing cultural exchange. The gallery’s ambitious aims include presenting monthly shows, collaborating with like-minded arts organizations and create networking opportunities that benefit the arts retail environment." The gallery has remained a central place to see compelling art that goes off the edge of ordinariness.

Last night I was able to attend an opening reception for Support, a show curated by graduating students of UMD Professor Jen Dietrich's senior seminar course. The students have spent the semester working hands on with PRØVE to develop concepts, learn about the daily operations of running the gallery, and the process of developing an art exhibition in a professional setting. 

Assembling this show, Support, included putting out a call for entries from the UMD campus and selecting pieces for exhibition. As a collective, they have curated and decided to give back to a known mentor of students, Brian Hendrickson.

Hendrickson has been a long-time support for multitudes of students at UMD. He helps build frames for large canvas paintings, solves problems related to building foundations for projects and aids in installations. He's a helping hand when needed, and his unheralded service has been greatly appreciated. Now, he's in need of support in his battle with cancer.

The work, all by students, reflected a wide range of styles and attitudes. Some of the pieces were visual essays, and all deserved more engagement. A jazz ensemble provided atmosphere with a good crowd showing their support for this labor of love by the students.

Floating City by Yinghui Meng

* * * *

A Few Endnotes
Less than two weeks till Christmas. There are several events today where you can buy local and support the arts. There is a Duluth Armory Celebration at the Armory Annex (former Perkins) on London Road is having an event featuring arts, crafts and pottery workshops, along with live music. 5::00 till 8:00 p.m.

Noon till 2:00 Chris Monroe is doing a signing copies of her new children's book Bug on a Bike at the Fitgers Book Store.

2:00 till 4:00 p.m. there is a book signing for my new children's book A Remarkable Tale from the Land of Podd at The Red Mug Coffeehouse in Superior. My illustrator Ian Welshons drove up from Stillwater and will be signing copies of the book as well.

Trepanier Hall is hosting Biiboon Bimaadizimin: Winter Good Life, with artists and artisans selling a variety of cool things, also with music and more.

And Nice Girls of the North has merged with the Second Saturday Marketplace. They will be open in Laeside from 10:00 a.m. till 3:00 today.

It's a really warm one today. Can it be spring already? Make the most of your day.

Local Art Seen: Student Art Shines in Art for Earth Day Gallery Hop

Kailyn Sieler's Mermaid

“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” – Henry David Thoreau

I was able to explore at least half of the participating Twin Ports galleries in this year’s Gallery Hop, and repeatedly rewarded. The other day I shared pictures from the Duluth Art Institute's First Spark student show and thought it might create a nice echo to share a few more pictures of student art that I saw Saturday in Superior and at UMD.

Black and white and wonderful.

The Phantom Galleries – Superior exhibit is titled Seeding the Next Generation, assembled from Superior High School Students by Jeredt Runions, a real connector in the grass roots sector of our arts community. This show is in the New York Building on the 1400 block of Tower Avenue.

Art plays a variety of roles in our lives and in our communities, from therapeutic to social to aesthetic. It’s always exciting to me when I see young people exploring new ways to express all that nebulous “stuff’ of adolescence that is whirling about inside. I am certain that with Runions’ guidance many of young people will have developed new ways of seeing, both themselves and the world around them.

Across the bridge and atop the hill the doors and halls were opened wide for visiting the studio spaces and UMD arts facilities. From painting and drawing to digital and beyond I saw much that was thoroughly engaging. I saw playfulness and seriousness, unpredictability and plenty of material demonstrating that deeper thought was taking place.

The art of print making.

Having immersed myself in the arts program at Ohio University, I experienced some nostalgic moments, especially when I explored the printmaking room with its litho stones, intaglio and the presses.

Learning how to express oneself is a critical part of growing up. Getting exposed to the wide variety of tools for expression is a useful experience. Making art is one channel through which many leaders once traversed, whether it be visual, musical or literary.

“Be yourself, because those who matter don’t mind, and those who mind don’t matter.” – Dr. Suess

There was also a juried student show on display in the Tweed Museum along with a whole raft of other activities to mark the day. Here are some other things I saw in the corridors of the U and in the museum gallery. I got a kick out of the pantone colors served as cookies.

I still have more to share about the other work I saw Friday and Saturday, but for now here are a few snapshots from the students' shows, a worthy excursion.

“Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.” – Steve Jobs

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