Books as Wall Art? Here's a Novel Idea...

Yesterday from 11 a.m. till 4 p.m. Bayfront Park hosted its annual Taste of Duluth festival, which features music in the park and all variety of vendors, from food and drink to miscellaneous crafts, jewelry, hot sauces, mixes, wall art, etc. The Republican and Democratic parties each had a tent on the west end of the walkway, with an aisle in between. Two of the featured bands were Laura Velvet & the Bookhouse Boys, and the Centerville All Stars. The music was great but the heat was stifling, and I'm guessing that half "the crowd that might have been" was sitting on a beach somewhere. Or swimming.

One of the vendors was The Pink Hammer Shop, an Etsy entrepreneur who makes mixed media signs and wall art featuring upcycled maps and books. As you likely know, I love books. Here are some images from Jennika Nevala's display interspersed with quotes about books, along with a link to her Etsy store at the end. Enjoy!

Show me the books he loves and I shall know the man far better than through mortal friends. ~ Dawn Adams

Of all the diversions of life, there is none so proper to fill up its empty spaces as the reading of useful and entertaining authors. ~ Joseph Addison

Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life. ~ Mortimer J. Adler

You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them. ~ Ray Bradbury

There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them. ~ Joseph Brodsky

A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counselor, a multitude of counselors. ~ Henry Ward Beecher

The pleasure of reading is doubled when one lives with another who shares the same books. ~ Katherine Mansfield

Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures. ~ Jessamyn West

Books had instant replay long before televised sports. ~ Bert Williams

To feel most beautifully alive means to be reading something beautiful, ready always to apprehend in the flow of language the sudden flash of poetry. ~ Gaston Bachelard

He that loves a book will never want a faithful friend, a wholesome counselor, a cheerful companion, an effectual comforter. By study, by reading, by thinking, one may innocently divert and pleasantly entertain himself, as in all weathers, as in all fortunes. ~ Barrow

Reading is not a duty, and has consequently no business to be made disagreeable. ~ Augustine Birrell

The mere brute pleasure of reading --the sort of pleasure a cow must have in grazing. ~ G.K. Chesterton

A room without books is like a body without a soul. ~ Marcus T. Cicero

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Related Links
The Pink Hammer Shop @ Etsy
For REAL books visit Zenith Bookstore in West Duluth

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Do you have a favorite quote about books? I'd like to hear it.

Almost Wordless Wednesday: A Posterized Living Room In Superior

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A wee glimpse of the Twin Ports music and arts scene.

Mark your calendar for the 2017 Goin' Postal Spring Art Show, April 21.

From Tatts to Wall Art: Spotlight on EJ Arnold

When I was in school, because I was a compulsive doodler (OK, so some things never change) and a good friend of mine would say, "You should do tattoos." As I followed my career, he followed his passion and became a hard-core biker. We remained in touch and each time we saw each other he would say, "You shoulda been a tattoo artist, man."

I thought of Tom when I met EJ Arnold at Washington Galleries in January. Arnold was a contributor to a four-person show the second Friday of that month. His story is as interesting as his work.

EN: How did you come to take an interest in art?
EJA: Art was something that i always did-even as a kid. It was one thing that just came easy to me, but the content always was very dream-like images that sometimes even though they could be seen in mind, sometimes were alittle more difficult to achieve on paper. Had alot of support from my family growing up, too!

EN: How old were you when you moved from Tennessee to Georgia?
EJA: I think I was 8 or something like that. Possibly in 2nd or 3rd grade.

EN: What was your life path from Georgia to tattoo artist in Duluth?
EJA: I began a career in the body piercing and tattoo industry in 1992 in Philadelphia. I always worked in tattoo shops and began tattooing in a shop that I was already working in and started tattooing after I was apprenticed under an artist from Austria. After that I traveled all over the US doing guest appearances at different shops west coast and east coast. Always kept trying to create pieces that are in private collections. I had never been to Duluth, and soon learned it is for sure an artist town. That's what I like about Duluth!

EN: What gave you the feeling that Duluth was an Artist's Town? How did you hear about Duluth?
EJA: I'm use to bigger cities and you can see a lot of creativity in Duluth. A lot of creative people here. And I haven't. even seen the Minneapolis scene yet. I can't wait to go and visit soon.

EN: You've been here four years? Where is your tattoo shop?
EJA: I have semi-retired from the tattoo shop scene. I get asked to do guest appearances at shops on the east coast and there are plans in the works for South Florida again but I want to wait. I'm trying to focus more on the art for now. Some of my clients have traveled from California for a few days to get tattoos and then go back til the next time.

EN: What kind of pen did you use for your Pinto Bean drawings? Do you work in other media besides pen and ink?
EJA: PITT artist pens-India ink are the ones i prefer to use. I've used others, but less the mess the better. Manual ink pens are probably the ones i keep at the bottom of the list of pens to use. I've used them in the past, but prefer the PITT artist pens.

EN: Where do your ideas come from?
EJA: Most of the ideas come from my mind. . . They could be just random thoughts that just appear and then I visualize them on paper and sketch them out in pencil and then slightly erase them and then the inking process begins, so each piece is actually created twice.

EN: Do you always work in series? What did your previous series consist of?
EJA: Most of the other pieces that were done in the past were just random individual pieces, no real order or anything. They were more Dali-ish like pieces. Images that at first were numerous pictures of fried eggs with images and females melting with eggshells, and zippers and kickstands of matchsticks.

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I suspect we'll see more of his work sometime in the future. Meantime, tonight there are a wide range of events happening from the World of Wheels Car Show at the DECC (if you like "style" the history of automobiles is full of it) to the Landscapes of Northern Minnesota art show at Trepanier Hall (AICHO) from 5-7. And then there's everything in between. 

Local Art Seen: Waters Edge Animal Hospital

"Things are not difficult to make; what is difficult is putting ourselves in the state of mind to make them." ~Constantin Brancusi  

I recently visited the Waters Edge Animal Hospital and was so impressed by the art there that I asked for a small tour. The clinic, run by Dr. Tirzah Pop, features paintings by several artists as well as ceramic works, including pieces by her husband artist Silviu Pop of Romania.

The tour made me think how drab and ordinary this space would be without art. Instead, the art here transformed the clinic into a welcoming space. This was no longer a vet clinic or a box shaped brick building on a busy commercial road.

Once again I was affirmed of the need for artists to make our living spaces more inviting, but also the variety of other spaces we inhabit. They are an essential part of our lives in often quiet ways that we take for granted.

This is why we cannot cut the arts out of our schools or defund the arts in our communities. Who will make the paintings or design the interiors of our children's homes and businesses? It certainly won't be the engineers.

All this to say it was refreshing to see the cat room, the dog room, the bear room and the rest as I dropped off one of my own pieces, a print of my painting Dogs of War.

Coincidentally, today marks the birthday of Romanian-born sculptor Constantin Brancusi in 1876. Silviu Pop is himself from Romania. As an artist he has been a welcome addition to our Northland arts community. Both Tirzah and Silviu have big hearts, the kind of people who give back.

Check out their space. 332 East Central Entrance in Duluth, accessible from the highway as well as the frontage road behind. Pick up a business card while you're there. And if you need services for your dog, cat, goat or whatever... this is a good place to get to know.

Dogs of War

At my Many Faces of Ennyman art blog you can read the background on this piece, Dogs of War. A limited number of 18"x 18" giclee reproductions of this work are available for $200 each. Smaller sizes of the print may be purchased on request. 

Renaissance Art

This past week I was in a store that sells used computers and related paraphernalia. A couple of the walls were decorated with motherboards. I have frequently thought all these broken computers would make interesting wall art, so it was a nice surprise to see my idea fleshed out, so to speak.

The name of the store is Computer Renaissance, hence the title of this column, Renaissance Art.

By the way, isn't paraphernalia the weirdest word? Nowadays it most commonly refers to equipment or apparatus or junk associated with a certain activity, but the original meaning of the word, according to Webster, is, "the separate real or personal property of a married woman that she can dispose of by will and sometimes according to common law during her life." It's origin is a Greek word that means, "beyond the dowry."

The word renaissance is also interesting. The origin of the word is a combine of two words, "ri" which means "again" and "nascere" which is "to be born." So Renaissance means to be born again, and was probably coined in reference to the flowering of culture that was occurring at that time in the arts, philosophy and culture from the 14th to 17th centuries.

So in a sense, a broken circuit board that ends up as wall art might be said to truly have been "born again." Can this be what happens to a broken life as well when it is taken from the trash heap and turned into a work of art?

It's a thought. Have a nice weekend.

Wall Art

Nearly everyone who lives in a home has at one time or another had to decide what to do with their walls. That is, what color or colors to paint them, and what kinds of pictures to hang on them. When you were a kid you might have put a lot of posters on your walls. I ringed the top of my bedroom with pennants from baseball games. Other kids had pictures of cars or whatever else they were passionate about.

Some people like their walls sparse. Some like filling every space with pictures and knick knacks, a mosaic of images and objects. We ourselves like things on our walls, with some rooms more dressed than others. Somehow there can be a restfulness in a room sparsely decorated with a few select paintings or pictures.

Many people collect art to hang on their wall spaces. And businesses, too. The first showing of my paintings was at a showcase in the Bernardsville Theater (NJ) back in the early Seventies. I took it for granted at the time and didn't realize (a) that many businesses support the arts this way and (b) that is was such a privilege to be so displayed.

A lot of businesses have relationships with local galleries which provide art for their halls and office walls. Many businesses even have a curator to insure that the walls of their environments are suitably decorated. The Venue @ Mohaupt Block in Duluth's Lincoln Park region has artists on a monthly rotation, in part to support local artists but also to keep the walls and halls interesting for the businesses that reside there. Banks, theaters, restaurants and coffee shops all have walls that can be enriched by local artists' works.

Assignment: Over the next week pay attention to how many walls you see art on, and how many walls could be improved by having something a little more interesting there.

Photos here: Top right, a bathroom wall being remodeled, after the tiles were removed. The wall seemed to me a work of art.

Bottom right, the back wall of my garage/studio is a mural as well as a space to hang some of my framed pieces. (Click to enlarge)