Local Art Seen: Amazing Grace Hosts An Opening and PRØVE Proves Itself Once Again

Esther Piszczek at Amazing Grace

A funny thing happened here. I just now discovered that Friday morning's blog post didn't "post" for some reason. As I tinkered with the code it suddenly went online as if it had been written this morning, which throws you a little when you get to the end and I encourage people to enjoy their Friday eve arts activities. If you didn't get out, here's some of what you might have seen.

The weather Friday evening was as good as it gets for a Friday night art walk. There's been a new addition to the mix. Amazing Grace provided a wonderful space for Esther Piszczek's opening reception. Like the artists featured in Friday's PRØVE show, Piszczek is herself a transplant to Duluth, having grown up in Lehigh Valley, Eastern Pennsylvania, and then practiced law in New England for 17 years. A dancer, writer, artist and wife, she maintains a blog called Eternal Possibility... and is a welcome addition to our Northland community.

Piszczek's work in this show was primarily comprised of detailed pen and ink drawingz which took zome of their inspiration from Zentangle. There is a playful quality in much of the work which is especially noteworthy for its detail. Piszczek takes the Zentangle concept to whole new dimensions, however, with a complexity that draws you in to each design. 

My only advice to Esther: keep it going! Thanks for sharing...

Co-Founder Nick Monson

The PRØVE once again offered up an excellent show, putting on display works by a number of artists who were unfamiliar to us before this show: Rob Adams, Ray Allard, Rodrigo Bello, Zach Gorr, Marcus Meldahl, and Aphtin Rapp. There were sculptured works, paintings, prints and some clever wordplay pieces in the mix. And some most unusual pizza toppings on the Pirate Pizzas delivered that evening, including apples and beets. Yumm?

The turnout was good, as usual, music by the Crunchy Bunch providing ambience. They also had a masseuse doing massages in the window. With a bit of a drive home I was reluctant to get too relaxed.

John Peyton's work has now been removed from the upper room at the Minnesota Wine Exchange. We'll be looking forward to seeing whose work will occupy this well lighted space next.

Don't forget this Thursday's opening at the Duluth Art Institute, 5-7 p.m.  And for those who have been following our poetry scene, on Wednesday PRØOF Magazine is presenting a poetry reading of Twin Ports Poets at the Red Star Lounge. What I like about these poetry events is that after the featured readers perform, the stage becomes an open mic for other local poets to present. This event will begin at 7.

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

Rodrigo Bello is newly arrived in Duluth from Chile.

Transplants at the PRØVE

Mother by Rodrigo Bello

More than four decades ago social observer and writer Vance Packard wrote an insightful book called A Nation of Strangers. His premise was that our easy mobility today has unforeseen consequences. In pre-industrial agrarian societies children usually remained in the village or town, were not traipsing all over the world or across the country. Before railroads the trip to California was a six month event fraught with risk. After the automobile it became easier to get around, but our national highway system is only a more recent post-WW2 development.

Packard noted that people have deeper roots the longer they remain in a community. People who move to follow after jobs or other dreams can suffer from the problem of not being deeply connected in their new communities. Rootless people often suffer from isolation and an increasing sense of anonymity.

All these thoughts rushed together in my mind as I read the invitation to tonight's art opening at the PRØVE Gallery titled Transpants. Though Packard highlighted both the positive and negative aspects of mobility, I seem to have been left only with an impression of the negatives since reading it back in the 70s. Tonight's opening at the PRØVE highlights the many positives.

In this modern life, we all move a lot. For work, for environment, and for many other reasons, we relocate in order to better ourselves and to seek new experiences. This fosters a mixing of ideas, of cultures, and of media, across time, disciplines, and upbringings. For 'Transplants," PRØVE has collected works from artists who have moved to Duluth for any reason. We are in a time of change in many ways, and would like to showcase this with an exhibition highlighting the rich variety that all of this intermixing can achieve.

It is certainly true that America itself has been, and is being, enriched by the varieties of cultures tossed together here. Likewise, there is a fascinating variety of intersecting backgrounds here in the Northland. A slice of this will be on display tonight. Artists featured in the exhibition will be Rob Adams, Ray Allard, Rodrigo Bello, Zach Gorr, Marcus Meldahl, and Aphtin Rapp. The opening, with music by The Crunchy Bunch, will be from 7 - 11 p.m.

(The gallery is located just above the alley on Lake Avenue between Superior Street and First Street)

There's also some exceptional theater going on right now. Collected Stories is playing at the Playhouse Underground tonight and tomorrow, starry Julie Ahasey and Sarah Ruth Diener. And the hilarious, superbly performed Spamalot is in the Duluth Playhouse. Both shows have gotten exceptionally good reviews.

It's Friday. See and do something new... and share it with your friends.

Working Through: Art That Addresses the Problem of Domestic Violence

Domestic violence against women is a serious problem in our nation. For this reason, the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV) lobbied congress to create a national hotline for victims of abuse. To help bring increased awareness to the problem, October was declared Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

In conjunction with these efforts, the NACDV maintains a website where women who have been killed by the men with whom they were in an intimate relationship. The project is called Remember My Name. Much like the Viet Name War Memorial, the simple process of listing the names makes an impact, producing a deepened sense of the breadth of this tragic issue.

On a local level there are a number of groups working to bring awareness to the problem of domestic violence. Many of these groups intersect with the arts community.

In two weeks there will be an art opening for a new exhibition titled Working Through featuring new 2-D mixed media artworks by Gary Nelson of Maple, WI at the Superior Council for the Arts North End Arts Gallery. For the uninitiated, the gallery is located on the second floor of the Trade and Commerce Marketplace at the corner of Broadway and Hammond.

Nelson has spent 25 years working in the Douglas County Human Services department. In retirement he has returned to making art depicting aspects of the human experience and conditions utilizing pastels, pencil, and craypas. This show will display the new body of work to which he has focused his energies.

Here is what a friend of the artist wrote in conjunction with this show:

Working Through

I was asked to write about this exhibit—actually I volunteered and jumped at the opportunity—as someone who knows the artist and his work. Personally, I believe everything is a process—life, death, work, play, problem solving, celebrating joy and grieving loss, raising a family and sustaining relationships. This artist’s creativity is less about producing a product but very definitely more about working through the creative process. There is urgency to his creative process. It is as necessary as breathing, eating, moving and sleeping. The artist’s work is less about the message, more about working through the expression of that message. And since creative expression is sometimes an outlet for us as we work through our own personal struggles, certainly the artist as social worker also witnessed the struggles of individuals and families and the myriad situations that we can all find ourselves in as we work through our own life processes. The viewer will no doubt see themes of relationships, family systems and personal struggle in the artist’s work uniquely expressed in a style that often makes use of primitive, organic, elemental and spiritual motifs. The artist’s vivid use of color and abstract composition draws the viewer in and invites them to work through the images and find what is meaningful to them.

The opening will be September 27, 5-7 p.m., but will be available for viewing throughout the month of October. If you have never been to the North End Arts Gallery space, I do recommend making it a regular stop now and then. While there check out the latest works on display at The Red Mug downstairs and have a cup of soup... or a brew.

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

Local Art Seen: Possession and Canvas of Flesh at the Duluth Art Institute

To the members and regulars, a visit to the fourth floor of the Depot, where our Duluth Art Institute currently resides, is like going home. We're familiar with the layout of the various rooms, the Steffl Gallery out on the balcony, the Morrison Gallery to the west and that hallway space where the DAI offices are that has become yet another wing of the gallery, a creative way to leave no space wasted and offer yet more feasts for the eye and mind.

Monday I sauntered through Amanda Brunner's Canvas of Flesh hallway exhibit and circulated through the newly set up Possession show in the Morrison Gallery, snapping a few images to share here and whet your appetite for next Thursday's opening which will also feature Robin Murphy's New Work in the Steffl Gallery.

The opening reception will be next Thursday, the 19th, from 5-7 p.m.

Amanda Brunner is a photographer whose images here are of people who have undergone body modifications, primarily tattoos and piercings, but some other surgeries for self-expression purposes. The images are life-sized photos of people as they are. If you've ever seen an elaborate design emerging from a shirt sleeve or collar and wondered what the rest looked like, this is the place to find out. It's bold.

Childless Pieta

The Possession exhibit reveals the potentialities in clay like nothing you've ever seen. Clay has played a fundamental role in world probably since even before fire. No doubt early peoples, upon discovering the malleability of clay, used it for simple bowls, cups and platters. Drop in the invention of the wheel and it wasn't long before one of these bowl-makers said, "Aha! Turn it on its side and we can make more perfect bowls!" The first potter's wheel. Eventually, these early potters discovered that firing the clay would make it more sustainable. Over time kilns were so hot that the chemistry of glazing, when applied, made these items increasingly beautiful.

Artisans experimented and channeled their imaginations into increasing varieties of imagery. In our modern times all variety of expression is attempted utilizing this basic building block of earth and water.

The Possession show is a juried show assembled by the Minnesota Women Ceramic Artists that will undoubtedly impress you when you stop in over the next few months. It will be on display till mid-November, in the event you miss Thursday's opening reception.

Next weekend there also be slide presentations, workshops and panel discussions related to this celebration of all things clay. You can pick up details here at the Duluth Art Institute website.

There's a lot to see... and to do. Check it out. Here are a few more images to set the tone.

Wordless Wednesday: 9/11

Click

HERE 

and

HERE

Went To See The Gypsy -- Revisited

After near two weeks of listening to Bootleg Series #10: Another Self Portrait, I am finally ready to explain what I think is happening here. Like many things in life, it is often a challenge to really engage in a piece of music or art or scenery. It’s especially so when we have people enthusiastically standing over our shoulder eagerly panting, “Well, what do you think?” And with public art, movies or performances we can also have our expectations influenced or manipulated by things we read or hear other people say, which keeps us from having a real direct experience.

This is why I try to withhold my remarks on a new Dylan album until I’ve re-experienced it a minimum of six, eight or ten times or more. So… I’m ready to weigh in on Another Self-Portrait.

As some of you know... in addition to writing I also do some painting, including much of what is used here to add interest to these blog entries. While in my studio last Sunday night -- and listening once again to Another Self Portrait -- I understood what was happening here. A painter, like Picasso or Matisse or any student of the art, can create and re-create the image he is striving to capture. He or she may use a thin brush and later use a palette knife to get the desired effect. He or she can apply layers of oil, scape them off and re-apply them. Through trial and error the painter learns what works and doesn’t fully satisfy. I once saw a retrospective of Henri Matisse’s life works at a New York gallery many years ago and was struck by the first painting (of his wife) which he purportedly painted and re-painted more than 160 times in order to get it right.

How does a recording artist accomplish this? I know that many bar bands find their groove by direct response from their audiences. Certainly this was how Dylan’s talents emerged in the Village. He appeared on the scene, wrote new songs, performed them and heard direct reactions. But after the fame flame is ignited things change. The Beatles could no longer do the bar scene once pop culture’s laser lights fused in. After Dylan retreated to Woodstock it was a whole new game.

So here we have an album in which we discover an artist caught in the act of discovery. Another Self Portrait is a compilation of outttakes that reveals how a recording artist has to work. “Let’s see what happens when we do this song with horns. Let’s see what happens with piano. No, wait, let’s try it with guitar. Now let’s billow it out with a full backing ensemble.”

I’ve already noted elsewhere the special appreciation I have for "Went To See The Gypsy" which is the opening cut on this new collection of Dylan outtakes. 

Now, through the courtesy of these producers we have snapshots of how many these songs reached their final destinations. One of the questions many painters are asked is “How do you know when it’s finished?” Well, that is one of the challenges of artists in every genre. The two versions of "Went To See The Gypsy" on the double CD show us how strong the song was at its inception, and yet Dylan continued to shape it, re-forming it into the version that satisfies so deeply on side one of New Morning.

Not only is the final version we heard on New Morning played with a different instrumentation, it also deviates in some of the words. The Bootleg 10 version that opens side one is played with a simple guitar, and the tone is reflective, wistful and almost melancholic. Both versions begin with the lyrics "Went to see the Gypsy/stayin' in a big hotel/he smiled when he saw me coming" but then comes the first variant. On the Bootleg version he sings, "and he wished me well."

I find this a subtle but interesting line because if it's Elvis, he's just being a friendly cat in the music business wishing Dylan well. But the final version goes like this: "And he said, "Well, well, well." Now that is more than a greeting. It could imply a, "Well, what have we got here? Well, well, well. So this is that fella who's headed for the limelight now. Doesn't look like much to me." 

The first stanza ends with another slight alteration. "How are you?" he asked of me and I asked the same of him.

In the second stanza the songwriter/storyteller goes down to the lobby to make a phone call out, but a pretty dancing girl bops down and hollers for him to "Go on back to see the Gypsy..."

In this earlier version of the song follows with "he can rid you of your fear. He did it in Las Vegas and he can do it here."

And this is where the New Morning version comes alive because the embellished lyrics take the song to a new place. Instead of ridding the young performer of his fear (in this imaginary encounter between the established icon and the up-and-comer) the final version exclaims, "he can move you from the rear, rid you of your fear, bring you through the mirror... he did it in Las Vegas and he can do it here." Dylan's playful ambiguity is at this point fully unclothed.

The extra line "bring you through the mirror" resonates with so many literary concepts. Who among us has never been fascinated by mirrors? I think here of George MacDonald's Lilith, a tale into other worlds beyond a mirror. In the late 19th century MacDonald was a friend of Lewis Carroll who famously penned Through the Looking-Glass.

The bridge stanza is wholly different in this version of the song, the 1970 release conveying a much stronger sense of the moment. In short, all along the way decisions were being made and the weakest portions of the picture painted by these lyrics were discarded, replaced with stronger images that enhance the power of the story.

On cut fifteen of disc two there is yet another version, this time vocals and piano. Dylan's chord structures are evolving and it is yet another fine version of the song. It's fascinating how many different ways one can serve such a great dish using different ingredients.

Throughout all the variations here, as well as from the previous sets from this Bootleg Series, there is indeed a rich sense of exploration, innovation and remarkably satisfying music to hunker down with, whatever your moods. Another Self Portrait is as good as anything Dylan has ever created. And I love how Side 2 ends... culminating in the exclamation of all artists everywhere.... "When I Paint My Masterpiece."

Thank you, Bob. And to all who helped pull this together.

An Interview with Arts Curator Amber-Dawn Bear Robe

Amber-Dawn Bear Robe

From September 10 through March of next year the Tweed Museum of Art is hosting a major exhibition titled Blood Memoirs: Exploring Individuality, Memory, and Culture through Portraiture. Amber-Dawn Bear Robe is the guest curator of this show which will include works of exceptional quality and range by Jamison
Charles (Chas) Banks, David Young-Wolff, Big Bear (of White Earth), Sue Johnson, Annie Leibovitz, Norval Morrisseau (Anishinaabe) and Clara Gardner Mairs. The opening reception for this exhibition will be held the evening of Tuesday, October 22, 2013 with a presentation that evening by Ms. Bear Robe followed by a performance by Adrian Stimson as Buffalo Boy.

EN: How did you first become interested in art as a form of expression?
ADBR: I have been interested in creating and art for as long as I can remember, leading me to attend the Alberta College of Art & Design directly after high school. An exhibition that changed and rooted my direction to focus on the contemporary Native North American art scene was the exhibition Indigena, curated by Gerald McMaster and Lee-Ann Martin. I visited the exhibition at age 19, second year of college, at the Glenbow Museum, which is a museum that houses materials and photos of my direct family and relatives. Clifford Cranebear, from Siksika Nation (same reserve as me) was the museums’ cultural liaison at the time and gave us a tour of the exhibition (I saw the exhibition as a class outing with fellow students). He interpreted the story in such an informative, yet fascinating way that included storytelling, biographical information about the artists and history of Native North American. I am still moved when I remember the first time I saw that exhibition.

The path was set and I have never looked back.

EN: What kind of work do you do as an artist?
ADBR: I no longer consider myself an artist. Back in college days I majored in fiber arts/ mixed media. I am on the curatorial and arts administrative side now, and have been for a long time, getting my graduate degrees in Native Studies and Art History.

Yet I do consider curating and directing as a form of creativity and expression of my voice and vision.

EN: For this particular exhibition you are a guest curator at the Tweed Museum of Art. What are the responsibilities of a curator?

ADBR: Curator responsibilities are diverse and many depending on the organization one is curating for from the artist-run center to gallery, museum and community space. Basic tasks include: research, writing, studio visits, visiting the collections, organizing works of art, communication with arts organizations and artists, more research and more writing. That is just the tip of the iceberg. In-house curators have much more administrative responsibilities.

The most enjoyable component for me being guest curator is viewing collections I may not otherwise have visited, meeting new artists while working with familiar artists, interacting with museum/ gallery staff and the research and creation of an exhibition.

EN: What is the theme of this upcoming show and what will be the take-away for those who experience it?

ADBR: Blood Memoirs looks at the revealing story of self-portraits. The act of creation reveals something about the artist, social setting, and place in time and environment. Through the lens of the permanent collections of the Tweed Museum, the exhibition presents a contemporary vision of the North American Self. The artists in this exhibition chose how to represent themselves, environment and or significant others. We spotlighted a group of artist portraits, which leads to revealing artist identity and character, a form of archives of diverse memory and culture surfaces. Shared commonalities, as well as differences, extend beyond singularity to portray a segment collective portrait of North America. The illustrated self or family, in either fictional or representation scenes, creates a public diary of memories documenting personal lives, family, history and culture. The image of self and taking or presenting self through diverse mediums from Facebook, to Film, photography and visual art is a shared human practice creating an interesting platform of dialogue that has many trajectories.

I am hoping people will enjoy the exhibition and appreciate having a glimpse into the lives of different artists from various backgrounds. Also, to see similarities and differences between the artists as well as see themselves in relation to the show. A theme to Blood Memoirs is that there is no one reality, culture or experience that trumps or speaks for all. The artists in the exhibition are one tiny vignette with intent to be seen and absorbed as an inlet to more experiences.

EN: You were formerly Director/Curator of Urban Shaman: Contemporary Aboriginal Art located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. In what ways are the Native Arts similar and different in Winnipeg and Santa Fe?

Adrian Stimson

The art scene in general differs between the two countries. Funding in the arts, although far from perfect, is much better in Canada compared to the United States, federally and provincially. A better funding structure for the arts allows an artist to focus on arts for art’s sake rather than being so focused on the sales of an end product.

Indigenous art has its own unique history and scene particular to the region, city and genre, just as the Southwest Native arts has a distinct niche and expression. A big difference in the Winnipeg arts compared other cities I have worked in is the collaborative effort between arts organizations. Winnipeg is ranked one of the highest arts cities in Canada, beating Toronto. I believe a reason for this is based on the support Winnipeg arts organizations give to one another and their artists. There is a sharing of information, collaborative programming, and a community effort that I have never experienced elsewhere.

EN: What are some of the insights you have gained from your various experiences in Arizona, Alberta and British Columbia?
ADBR: Insights gained: Each arts community is unique and I am grateful for all the opportunities I have had, artist and curators I have met and the wealth of lifestyle being in the arts provides to me.
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