Art
Chris Monroe in Minneapolis Star Tribune
Artist with a tool belt
Cartoonist and author Chris Monroe found inspiration for her picture books while toiling in a hardware store. Now she’s working with Kevin Kling on a tale about sibling rivalry and love.
NASA Time Lapse
Seeing what makes the northern lights happen from space is pretty amazing. Time lapse photos shot from about 350 km above earth. (more…)
ARAC Career Development Grants
The Arrowhead Regional Arts Council recently approved grant applications totaling $21,195 to be awarded in ARAC Career Development Grants. These arts activities are made possible with funding provided by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage fund as appropriated by the Minnesota State Legislature with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008, and by The McKnight Foundation. The artists and activities funded are as follows:
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Ennyman on Surfacing
Ennyman’s Blog explains local artists Emily Herb and Tonya Borgeson, who will exhibit works in the category of “surfacing” this week at Pizza Luce. I learn about art every time I check this blog.
Duluthian interviews Fantasy Novelist
Duluthian Donny Krosch presents an interview with Margaret Weis, Author and Gaming Icon.
Margaret Weis is one of the best known and a frequent best seller author for her long list of wonderful novels. Some of the most popular include the Dragon Lance Chronicles, Death Gate Cycle, and her work on early products for Dungeons and Dragons. Margaret Weis Productions has also started to release a number of Role-Playing Products such as the Leverage RPG and a new game based on Marvel’s Comic Universe.
Photo Classes at Woodland School
David Kohne
Kate and I are taking introduction to outdoor photography at Woodland School through Duluth Community Education.
The class is a mix, about 2/3 of the class is older than our mid-thirties selves, while about 1/6 is younger, I’d bet. But we’re all young at heart and we are eager to learn. And we’re grateful for opportunities like this from Duluth Community Ed.
Yarn Bombing Incident in West Duluth
Loll and Epicurean got yarn bombed over the weekend and guess what, it didn’t even hurt, darn it.
Since operations were moved into headquarters in West Duluth there have been more than a few less courteous folks who have stopped by after hours and dumped icky garbage, worn out car tires, stolen wire they stripped for copper, and of course fast food wrappings; even fugitive dumpers have to eat!
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Legacy Arts Funding to Vikings Stadium?
I have three thoughts as I read the below.
1. Aargh to the idea that arts funds would go to this cause.
2. Aargh to the robohelp aspect of the way they want you to contact your legislator, even if you don’t know who they are.
3. Aargh, just in general.
How about you? –db (more…)
Choreographer Morgan Thorson and Low – “Heaven”
There’s a bunch of background in a previous post, “Low reaches for ‘Heaven’ with dance.”
Woot: “Pet Food” by Emily from Duluth
Duluth artist Emily Kuznia has another one of her quirky/cool designs in the Woot Shirt Derby for Oct. 20. That means you can order one of these puppies anytime today and they are only 10 bucks. If enough people order … here’s where I get foggy … Emily will win some kind of awesome prize or accolades. So Nettleton-Central-Hillsiders-Duluthians and anyone else who may have some tie to Emily please take a look and get yourself a shirt. Oh and if you don’t have a tie why not just do it to give a cool young artist a leg up?
Christmas is just around the corner and these will make great stocking stuffers for just ten bucks (free shipping).
Survival of the Funnest is another one of Emily’s Woot Shirt designs that I blogged about last December.
UPDATE: 11/4/11
Here’s another one, she’s on a roll, I guess. “I’m here to the Rescue .. uh … Never Trust a Princess”
"I'm here to the rescue .. uh ... never trust a princess"
Walking Dead
I went to the Zinema 2 last night to watch the Walking Dead.
Zombie Theology, July 2011
This event was sparked by the Comic Book Guy at DragonPort Games and Comics last year. As I understand it, he contacted the Zinema and co-promoted the event. The house was stuffed to the gills, SRO.
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Halloween banners
Who’s got groovy halloween photos? If you can crop them to ridiculously horizontal proportions and still see what’s going on in them, we want them!
We’re looking for Halloween banners to put at the top of PDD.
Some basic rules:
The image must be 960 pixels wide by 167 pixels high. The Perfect Duluth Day logo will be added by PDD’s art department.
The lower portion of banner photos serve as background to the navigation bar, so crop your image with that in mind. Make sure essential elements are not in the area that will be obscured.
If all of this is too much to wrap your head around, or you don’t have the right image editing software, just e-mail the uncropped photo, and we’ll do our best to crop it so it looks good.
Send them to [email protected].
ARAC Art Project Grants
The Arrowhead Regional Arts Council recently approved grant applications totaling $63,075 to be awarded in ARAC Art Project Grants. (more…)
Photographing the Duluth Skyline
A few weeks ago I posted a general guide to photographic locations in Duluth. It was well received so I wanted to write another similar guide. This guide is all about the Duluth skyline. There are maps and directions to seven different places to get a great look at Duluth. Some places may be familiar, others may not. Even if you don’t go to take pictures, these seven spots are amazing for their scenic vistas. With fall in peak color now is the perfect time to get out. Check them out here.
The Infamous Dr. Thunder paints a mural in Indianapolis that MSNBC dubs a “must see”
Superior native Erik Pearson spent part of this past summer working on a mural in Indianapolis, which made MSNBC’s list of “America’s must-see murals.”
You can see Erik’s murals in Superior at Red Mug Coffeehouse and along some back-alley spots, as mentioned in the PDD post “The Infamous Dr. Thunder paints a mural on the back door of Who’s Bar in Superior.”
Art Break
Mondays can be hard, but the Duluth Art Institute is making the start of the work week a little more bearable this October. The organization has teamed up with Zinema 2 theater to offer free lunchtime screenings and discussions on contemporary art. We’ll watch excerpts from the series “Art 21” and guest experts and local artists will be on hand to spice up the dialogue. Don’t miss this great opportunity to inject a little culture into the daily grind! Sessions start at noon and last only one hour so you can make your lunch break your ‘art’ break. For more information, please contact Anne Dugan at 733-7562 or adugan @ duluthartinstitute.org or duluthartinstitute.org.
This Monday (October 10) the theme is ‘Memory’ and will include discussion on featured artist Hiroshi Sugimoto. He makes work that will blow your mind – like this photo he made of the Orinda Movie theater. He opened the exposure for the entire film so the viewer can ‘watch’ a film in a photo. Let’s discuss!
Digital Art Workshop for Youth
The Digital Methods in Art Education class and professor Betsy Hunt are gearing up for the third year of the Digital Art Workshop for youth ages 11-14! This workshop focuses on animation techniques including Photoshop animation and stop motion animation using clay, sand, collage, and various other materials. Students will also work with digital cameras, edit video, and add original music tracks to their films.
We are now registering new students for the workshop. If you or anyone else you know is interested you can find more information including the registration form, dates, and cost here.
For more information: Betsy Hunt — bjhunt @ d.umn.edu
Lions & Creators – “Growing”
Lions&Creators just released their album in Duluth on Saturday and now the whole thing is up to stream on our Bandcamp, which is here. You can buy it there for only $5! (and it comes with a few extra surprises too). Physical copies will be available at The Electric Fetus soon. All hand made, designed by the band.
Fair Trade vendors in the Twin Ports area?
I’ll be organizing the Neighbor-Made “glocal” art & gift fair Dec. 10 to be held at St. Michael’s Church. The local artists part is about filled but there are spots for Fair Trade vendors. Anyone/any groups seeking to do fundraising for other countries in need — Japan relief help, Central America, South America, other humanitarian global efforts? Reply in an email.
Also, just a reminder to check the PDD calendar. There is a new local art and gift fair this Saturday at the Peace Church – Fall for the Northland and Get to the Point next weekend at Lafayette Building, Park Point. Organized by WendyUpNorth.com.
A Photographic Guide to Duluth: 10 favorite landscape locations
Duluth has so many photographic opportunities it can be overwhelming. These 10 locations are a sure bet for beautiful images.
Read the full guide here for ideas and inspiration on photographic sites in the city of Duluth.
[This post originally contained a link to a site that no longer exists.]
Wanted: Brom Bones
Glensheen Living Literature is preparing to present “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” at the end of October and is looking to fill the role of the deliciously villainous Brom Bones.
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The Aerial Lift Bridge
Hey Duluthers. I’m in college in Idaho and I lived in Wisconsin, but I’ve spent many good times at my grandparents’ on Jefferson Street in Duluth (when will the city repave it?). So I thought I’d share this poem with y’all. It was for a class last year. (c) Moses Bratrud 2011, mos_bratrud @ yahoo.com.
The Aerial Lift Bridge
At the terminus of plains and lakes,
Where the Rust Belt is buckled,
There is a bridge that shinnies up to let ships under.
Linking twisty sandbars
In this zephyr city of the unsalted seas.
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Pochahontas performance stirs controversy
There appears to be some controversy about Pohahontas, an original opera to be performed this Thursday evening at 7:30 pm Marshall School Fregeau Auditorium.
The Duluth News Tribune wrote a front page (above the fold) story on Monday about one woman’s complaint concerning the opera and today’s newspaper shows a guest column and two letters to the editor in support of the opera and it’s authenticity. While the woman who is the focus of Monday’s front page DNT story purports that efforts were not supportive of the local Native American culture, others from the local Native American community claim otherwise.
The opera performance is sponsored by the local Duluth Festival Opera and is an original music drama written by a regional woman about the true story of a Native American woman caught between two worlds. It is a very moving music drama that has been successfully debuted in the state of Virginia. Thursday’s performance will be Minnesota’s debut of the music drama. A discussion will be held following the opera performance.
Help keep the arts alive and come and see this unique and lovely new music drama and judge for yourself … and weigh in on the discussion.