The bronze Leif Erikson statue in Duluth was placed in 1956. It was designed by John Carl Daniels and sponsored by the Norwegian-American League. Erikson was a Norse explorer from Iceland and is considered the first known European to discover continental North America.
Multimedia artist and digital art professor Joellyn Rock has been combining traditional graphic art techniques, classical imagery and storytelling, and video and digital technology to create animations, interactive installations and other experiments. Her art takes advantage of and blends quickly evolving technical opportunities, and her curiosity draws her into constant new challenges.
J.R.: My creative medium has shifted dramatically over the years, evolving from traditional art forms like painting, drawing and ceramics to digital media formats such as web narrative, experimental video and interactive installation. One thread of continuity: I seek new ways to tell old tales. I often borrow from fairy tales and mythology, choosing to update an old story with social commentary or a revisionist spin. For me, old tales provide an anchor when working in digital media, offering the viewer a cozy narrative, reinvented for the distress of our digital age. I use a visual vocabulary that harkens back to the storytelling on ancient pottery or vintage children’s books … graphic compositions, intense colors, set off by crisp silhouettes of characters in action. Those familiar forms get remixed, layered with historical references or contemporary ephemera, juxtaposing ancient story with modern dilemma, part comfortingly old-school, part shock of the new.
Photographer unknown, year unknown. This appears to have been shot from near the edge of the parking lot at the hilltop Central High School location.
Got any spooky, silly or stupid Halloween photos you’d like to share with the world? It’s time for our annual call for Halloween banners for the top of the page. Keep in mind, the photos get cropped to extreme horizontal proportions. If you want to crop ’em yourself and send them, that’s fantastic, or you can send them uncropped and I’ll do my best to make them fit.
Click here for complete submission guidelines, but the basics are: 1135 pixels wide by 197 pixels high, e-mail them to [email protected]. We’ll put them in rotation in the next few days.
A tweet this morning by Duluth’s C.J. Ham shows the bent upper rim of his face-mask after the Minnesota Vikings hard-hitting victory over the Baltimore Ravens. Fullback life indeed.
Thanks to the labeling we know this miniature farm was located at a Conrad Service Station in Duluth. But where specifically in Duluth? And when?
Who knows where this carving exists in Duluth? Bonus points: what is it depicting and why?
Five years before Duluth’s most famous flood came Duluth’s least famous flood. Ten years ago today — Oct. 18, 2007 — heavy rainfall caused Miller Creek to swell and parking lot runoff to form a pool on the outer edge of Duluth’s Miller Hill Target store property. One driver managed to land in a sink hole; two Perfect Duluth Day contributors snapped photos. (Top photo by yours truly Paul Lundgren; bottom photos by Barrett Chase.)
Photographer unknown; date unknown.
For the 163rd installment of Perfect Duluth Day’s ultra-thrilling photo-trivia sensation “Where in Duluth?” we present this closeup shot of a rock with a distinguishing etching. It is located so close to the city border it’s hard to definitively say whether it’s technically in Duluth or not.
Describe where this rock is in the comments to become internet champion of the day.
One minute, there are no “ladybugs” in Duluth. Then one sneaks up and nibbles your arm. Suddenly Asian lady beetles are swarming everywhere. And then it’s over. The 2017 invasion happened on the afternoon of Oct. 8.
Asian lady beetles tend to cluster and swarm when daylight hours shorten and a sudden warm spell occurs. They eat aphids while conditions allow, then they quickly disappear.
Just because this old photo was stored with a bunch of Duluth pictures doesn’t necessarily mean it was shot in Duluth or features Duluthians. Still, the odds are pretty good someone will recognize Jerry and/or Becky. They looked like pretty cool customers back in August 1970, that’s for sure.
Were they Duluthians? Are they still Duluthians? Who are these hot-rodding sweethearts? All the back of the photo indicates is their first names and the month it was shot.
Two years after U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt died in office, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt traveled to Duluth. While here she was made an Honorary Ambassador Extraordinary of the Dushy of Duluth — the ambassadors program of the Duluth Chamber of Commerce. The photo above shows her receiving the citation from Arthur C. Young, “Prince of the East.”
This old photo of someone’s hot rod seems to be from the early 1970s and the scene is very likely Commonwealth Avenue in Gary-New Duluth. But if this is showing Commonwealth Avenue, where specifically?
