Art
A Few Northern Minnesota Books for Your Pandemic Pleasure
Spring in Duluth is a perfect time for reading. It’s that awkward period between ice fishing and regular fishing when outdoor options are limited because trails are too muddy. Add into the mix the lack of events during the COVID-19 pandemic and it seems like books should have a real moment right now. (more…)
Duluth You & Me: Aerial Lift Bridge
Use the link below for a printable PDF for your drawing and coloring pleasure.
Duluth You & Me: Aerial Lift Bridge
Follow the Duluth You & Me subject tag to see additional pages. For background on the book see the original post on the topic.
Duluth You & Me: Lake Superior Maze
Use the link below for a printable PDF for your maze-solving and coloring pleasure.
Duluth You & Me: Lake Superior Maze
Follow the Duluth You & Me subject tag to see additional pages. For background on the book see the original post on the topic.
Duluth You & Me: Park Point Beach
Use the link below for a printable PDF for your drawing and coloring pleasure.
Duluth You & Me: Park Point Beach
Follow the Duluth You & Me subject tag to see additional pages. For background on the book see the original post on the topic.
Duluth You & Me: Wild Flowers
Use the link below for a printable PDF for your coloring pleasure.
Duluth You & Me: Wild Flowers
Follow the Duluth You & Me subject tag to see additional pages. For background on the book see the original post on the topic.
Duluth You & Me: Canal Park
Use the link below for a printable PDF for your coloring pleasure.
Duluth You & Me: Canal Park
Follow the Duluth You & Me subject tag to see additional pages. For background on the book see the original post on the topic.
Duluth You & Me: North Shore Streams
Use the link below for a printable PDF for your drawing and coloring pleasure.
Duluth You & Me: North Shore Streams
Follow the Duluth You & Me subject tag to see additional pages. For background on the book see the original post on the topic.
Selective Focus: Lend a Paw Virtual Exhibit
UMD’s Senior Design Studio II class has created a virtual gallery to show their work, and is using the opportunity to raise money for the Douglas County Humane Society. The exhibit, online store and Go Fund Me page will be active until May 5. Each piece in the exhibition is inspired by the story of a rescue pet. Visitors can move around the inside and outside of the gallery space to look at the art, read the stories and interact with the objects in the display. The class is led by UMD Department of Art & Design Assistant Professor David Short, and one of the organizers, Jack Schneewind, fills us in on how the exhibit came together, and what the class hoped to achieve with the project. (more…)
Duluth You & Me: A Souvenir Activity/Coloring Book
Right in the middle of a shelter-in-place order, when a Duluth coloring and activity book is most needed, Perfect Duluth Day pulls this 1993 relic out of the basement library. (more…)
Selective Focus: St. Louis River Alliance Virtual Art Show
The St. Louis River Alliance is posting photos, poems, illustrations or other art inspired by the St. Louis River and Lake Superior to its Facebook page. The organization will have a virtual art show on its website on April 21.
Artists and writers can submit creations until Wednesday, April 15. Send submissions to [email protected]. Include the image, along with your name, title of the piece, location of the piece and any further details you want shared.
Links:
Facebook page with more info
St. Louis River Alliance website
Carolyn Olson on Essential Workers
Carolyn Olson on Essential Workers
Duluth artist Carolyn Olson has completed two works in a series on “Essential Workers.” Visit her site at carolynolson.net. (more…)
Richardson Bros. Ghost Story “The Haunted Groom”
“The Haunted Groom” is a supernatural adventure story set largely in the Duluth bar scene. It explores PTSD, addiction, abusive relationships, and the coronavirus lockdown. Full story below.
Part 1: I Married a Ghost. Part 2: Trapdoor to Hell. Part 3: The Demonizer.
Selective Focus: Kari Halker-Saathoff
Scheduled to open at the Duluth Art Institute, but postponed to a date to be determined later, is the work of Kari Halker-Saathoff. She combines methods such as ceramics and graphite drawings to reinterpret stories from the point of view of lesser-known characters. In the DAI show, she explores Penelope, Odysseus’ wife, her situation in The Odyssey, and connections to modern-day events.
KHS: I am a multidisciplinary artist and educator. My teaching role requires me to be well versed in all of the core artistic mediums so I will often combine drawing with ceramics, drawing with sculpture, metalwork with ceramics and so forth.
I’m very inspired by stories, although reading was always a struggle for me. I have dyslexia that went undiagnosed until I was in college. After being diagnosed, the literary world opened up to me. Stories became my drug and — as an artist — my mind went wild illustrating the stories in my head. I soon discovered that the heroes of narratives were not always the most interesting characters and that I was more interested in “minor” characters — often female ones. Those were the characters who spoke to me and to my struggles.
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Selective Focus: Virtual Cinema from the Zinema
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnTRcRtlML8
Tired of the choices on Netflix and Amazon? Zeitgeist and Zinema and doing some innovative programming; you can buy a pass and they will email you a link to see a streaming movie. View it with or without the chat comments of other viewers. They streamed one of the absolute worst movies I’ve ever seen on Wednesday, Love on a Leash. I won’t go into it, but it was bad. But the experience was fun, and organizer Matt Dressel was modeling it after a Midnight Movies event where the expectation is that the movie sucks, the entertainment is crowd reactions. As terrible as the movie was, the virtual event was a hit. The programming also includes movies that aren’t terrible.
Zinema’s April 3 feature is a film by a local director, Gravedigger Dave’s Halfway House. Filmmaker Keith Hopkins will also be doing a Q&A. (more…)
The 2005 Duluth Art Institute Riot
Academic and Critical Excerpts, collated and footnoted by the Richardson brothers (Jim and Allen Richardson) (more…)
Selective Focus: The Big Coloring Book of First Avenue
You or your kids who are stuck at home can color your own versions of Minnesota musicians including Lizzo, Babes in Toyland, the Replacements, Hüsker Dü, Har Mar Superstar, Trampled by Turtles, and of course, Prince.
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Selective Focus: Sue Rauschenfels
Painter Sue Rauschenfels uses bold shapes and rich, colorful textures to define the people and objects in her watercolor and acrylic work. She has a show scheduled for April – July at the Duluth Art Institute Corridor Gallery. This week in Selective Focus, she gives a preview of the show and talks about the ideas that go into her work.
SR: I began painting fulltime in my home studio after retiring from the University of Minnesota Duluth Continuing Education department in 2009. My studies in Sociology, Criminology and Psychology influence my subject matter as does my love of nature and the outdoors.
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Selective Focus: Virtual Duluth
Started on Facebook by Matt Dressel, Virtual Duluth is people posting live, streaming arts and music happenings.
The Slice: The Embassy
For those who missed the Church Bazaar last weekend, here’s a quick look inside the former Holy Trinity Lutheran Church where a Duluth artist collective called the Embassy is envisioning a new space for collaboration and artistic expression.
In its series The Slice, WDSE-TV presents short “slices of life” that capture the events and experiences that bring people together and speak to what it means to live up north.
Selective Focus: Twin Ports Terror
If you’re into spooky stuff, horror, or Halloween, you may be interested in a new project, Twin Ports Terror: A Haunted Duluth publication. It may seem a bit out of season as Spring approaches, but organizer Brooke Zarn fills in the details, and explains that they’re hoping to gather written and visual material before Halloween.
What is it?
Twin Ports Terror is an effort by the curators of the Haunted Duluth website (Matt Rasmussen, Sean Zarn and Brooke Zarn) to provide a platform for local writers and artists to share their stories, poems, artwork and photography within the horror genre. These items will be published on the Haunted Duluth website starting on Half-Halloween (the end of April), and continuing on as the Halloween season approaches. We’ll also look to host some story-telling events and perhaps publish a printed zine if there’s enough interest.
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My Partner is Starting a Cult
There’s a church revival going on in Lincoln Park, but it’s inspired by art, not God. My partner of nearly 25 years is one of the instigators of a self-proclaimed “cult.”
I guess you could say I drank the Kool-Aid a long time ago because I can’t say I was shocked when he announced his plans.
Life with Troy Rogers, aka Robot Rickshaw, is never dull. He builds musical robots so that he can cart them around Canal Park and the Lakewalk for pop-up performances while wearing a hazmat suit and gas mask with a teddy bear strapped to his chest.
“What have you been up to lately?” Troy’s aunt asked recently, trying to make conversation at a family event. “I’m starting a cult,” he deadpanned.
There were no follow up questions or small talk. Just a perplexed expression from the pious Catholic and an uncharacteristically quick end to the conversation as she escaped to the next room. (more…)
Split Rock Review, Spring 2020
The new issue of Split Rock Review, formerly edited from Duluth, now finding its home in northwest Wisconsin, is now available.