Art Posts

Selective Focus: Tommy Kronquist

Jan 17, 2020 1 Comment

Tommy Kronquist began his career as a graphic designer, and combined his minimal, classic aesthetic with a love of skate / snowboard culture and Lake Superior activities like hiking, biking kayaking and the occasional surf session. His company, The Medium Control is know for screenprinting and apparel with bold, clean graphics. He has a show at the Duluth Art Institute, and will be hosting an opening reception and artist talk Thursday, February 6, 5-8 PM.

TK: I grew up in the country on a hobby farm with horses in Annandale, MN (near st. cloud). Here my love and inspiration of nature was born. I lived outside exploring, creating and building with my brother and friends. My mom worked at Powder Ridge ski area, which somewhat became our daycare while starting skiing at age three. This is where my passion for snow sports thrived. I was heavily inspired and involved with the snowboard / skateboard culture; sports that respect and promote creativity and the individual. A strong innovative community was developed here mainly due to the fact that my friends ran the skate/snow shop in St. Cloud (Sticks / Youth Shelter Supply). My parents were very supportive in my creative outlets and allowed me to travel for snowboarding. Inspired by travel I would get up to Duluth / Spirit Mt. for snowboard competitions and for fun. Which led me to cast my college decision of UMD quite easy with Spirit Mt. being so close.

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Jessica Lange: Behind the Lens (in Duluth)

Jan 11, 2020 5 Comments

Posted after the read-more button because the video auto-plays on some devices: A CBS feature on Jessica Lang’s photography and her roots in Minnesota. She gives a tour of the area with emphasis on Highway 61, the title of her book of photography.

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Selective Focus: Duluth-area Film Festivals in 2020

Jan 10, 2020 No Comments

If you’re a fan of film or an aspiring filmmaker, here’s a quick list of festivals in the area you can get involved in by attending or submitting your work. Each has a different focus and flavor, but for those interested in the art of filmmaking, there are opportunities for involvement at many of levels beyond being an audience member.

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Selective Focus: Carly Jandl

Jan 03, 2020 No Comments

Carly Jandl is an artist still exploring all the options, currently working in painting and jewelry. She also helps others get their work in front of an audience by hosting pop-up events. This week in Selective Focus we get a close-up view of her small-scale artwork and bigger goals.

CJ: Northern Exposure Art is an ever-changing endeavor. My passion began with acrylic painting, and slowly continues to morph as I find other projects to satisfy my creative brain. I am currently focused on commissioned paintings, crafting rainbow earrings, and designing logos. I basically take whatever my creativity tells me to do and run with it.

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2019: The Year in Duluth Gig Posters

Dec 31, 2019 No Comments

Here it is, Perfect Duluth Day’s annual collection of things that were stapled to telephone polls, taped to lavatory walls, pinned to bulletin boards and uploaded to websites. As usual, by no means is this a comprehensive collection of local rock posters, nor is it a carefully curated archive of the best. It’s just a bunch of them we noticed and didn’t lose in 2019.

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Art, Events, Music

Snow-Fort City Build/Sledding Party

Dec 30, 2019 No Comments

WDIO covered the event which happened on the solstice, Dec. 21. Thanks to all. #snowfortcity has suffered from the recent rains etc but all great cities have been destroyed at least once.


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Acceptance Speech, Mayor of Snow-Fort City

Dec 14, 2019 No Comments

Thank you, distinguished citizens, for conferring upon me this office of Snow-Fort City Mayor. It is no small honor to assume my half-imaginary duties in this pop-up, collaborative, city-planning art fantasy at the edge of Lake Superior. “City” is an aspirational term for this arrangement of snow walls and monuments in Duluth’s Leif Erickson Park. Snow-Fort City’s true location lies somewhere within our skulls — like all cities. My Facebook post initiating construction was shared more than a hundred times in just a few hours, and it attracted the Duluth News-Tribune and KBJR-6/CBS-3, which tells me the vision of the snow-fort city is the real object. Almost none of the post-sharers, newspaper readers, or TV viewers made it down to the actual Snow-Fort City. They are content to view it with their eyes closed, in its most pure form: the Platonic one.

It literally came to me in a vision, like the origin of so many great cities. In a way, like Duluth itself. I remember the words of George Nettleton’s wife from 1856, when her husband’s mind swam with dreams of Duluth-as-future-city: “I thought he had a pretty long head to see that there was going to be a city here sometime when there was then nothing” (Duluth: An Illustrated History of the Zenith City by Glenn N. Sandvik).

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Snow-Fort City, Day 8

Dec 09, 2019 2 Comments


 

I am running for Mayor of #snowfortcity.

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Kip Praslowicz: “Photo Walk to Work”

Dec 09, 2019 No Comments

Photographer Kip Praslowicz documents his adventures walking to work on the Monday after the Thanksgiving weekend blizzard. When someone from out of town asks you “What was it like?” this just about covers it.

His photos are also on display at the UWS Kruk gallery until Dec. 18.


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Snow-Fort City, day 7

Dec 08, 2019 No Comments


 

#snowfortcity day 7. Leif Erikson Park. Best day yet and perhaps even the last. The weather’s turning subzero for a while but we had this one last great day of wet, buildable snow to top things off.

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Snow-Fort City, day 6

Dec 07, 2019 No Comments

#snowfortcity day 6. Leif Erikson Park. The fort of the tree people is the most durable and impressive structure so far. Albeit unfinished, the vision and craft of its architects (principally Morgan Pirsig) is impressive.

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Snow-Fort City, day 4

Dec 05, 2019 No Comments


 

#snowfortcity day 4. Come at me, bro. Found lots of damage this afternoon as I rolled up, so, much of the day was spent in repair mode.

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Snow-Fort City, Day 3

Dec 04, 2019 No Comments


 

#snowfortcity Day 3: it’s a thing now. There are 7 nodes of activity in various stages of completion, but we have successfully transformed Leif Erikson Park.

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Snow-Fort City, Day 2

Dec 03, 2019 No Comments

It was a great day to build a #snowfortcity with volunteers Stephen Bockhold, Sean MacManus, and others including an unnamed mom with two kids in tow who attested she was a #peoplesfreeskate participant last winter. One of the kids she was with, who I’ve never seen before, called me “Aquaman” unprompted on camera while KBJR-6/CBS-3 was filming: hope that makes the final cut.

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Snow-fort City, Day 1

Dec 02, 2019 No Comments

#snowfortcity

Day 1. Duluth’s Leif Erikson Park. Most of my time was taken up by Duluth News-Tribune reporters who showed up – oops got in the paper again. Otherwise slow going with cold powdery snow – spray bottles and water make the job easier so bring those. It’s sort of Day 2 since some folks built this formidable snow fort yesterday, and got the base of another one started. It’s sort of Day 3, since I built a proof-of-concept wall before the blizzard, but it blew down so I restarted it today. A huge help was Morgan Pirsig et al. who laid down a solid sled trail which helps define the space. It goes so fast we need to bank it by the stage now. Troy Rogers aka Robot Rickshaw showed up and we demonstrated proper wall-building technique for the media. A season-long project to turn the park into a citizen-led collective art installation and playground.


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