In the midst of the Omicron-variant surge the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center has published an “Insider’s Guide to COVID Testing.” Best walk-in hours? From 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Parking? Free in the DECC lot if you tell the attendant that’s what you’re there for.
From the Iron Range city of Palo, Steve Solkela sings about … you know … what it’s all about.
With vaccines on the brink of being rolled out it is conceivable that we can have a post-COVID summer next year, but we need to try to avoid spreading the virus in the meantime. A new Mayo Clinic Study shows that two unmasked people have a 100 percent chance of exposure at 1 foot apart, 17 percent exposure at 3 feet apart, and 3 percent exposure at 6 feet apart. With both people masked there’s a 0.5 percent exposure risk even at just 1 foot apart. Even if you yourself are feeling bulletproof, this is about protecting others.
The pandemic gave Adam Swanson time to complete 14 paintings of endangered animals. But it also gave him time to think. In this short documentary by filmmaker Mike Scholtz, Adam wrestles with the importance of art, and art openings, in our lives.
When the pandemic started, painter Aaron Kloss decided to create a new painting every day and post it on his Facebook page. Six months later, he’s still going strong. In this short documentary by filmmaker Mike Scholtz, Aaron talks about why he paints and shows off some of his work.
Lyz Jaakola is a musician and teacher from Cloquet, Minnesota. In this video by documentary filmmaker Mike Scholtz, Lyz talks about how her family responded to the pandemic with music.
Karen Savage-Blue is one of the artists featured in the Tweed Museum of Art’s upcoming exhibition, “Creating Apart: Local Artists Respond to a Global Pandemic.” In this video by documentary filmmaker Mike Scholtz, Karen talks about a painting she created as a direct response to the pandemic.
Joe Klander is one of the artists featured in the Tweed Museum of Art’s upcoming exhibition, “Creating Apart: Local Artists Respond to a Global Pandemic.” He’s an artist and ophthalmology tech at St. Luke’s Hospital. In this video by documentary filmmaker Mike Scholtz, Joe talks about how the pandemic gave him time to work on one of his dream projects.
Moira Villiard is one of the artists featured in the Tweed Museum of Art’s upcoming exhibition, “Creating Apart: Local Artists Respond to a Global Pandemic.” She loves to organize community-wide mural projects. In this video by documentary filmmaker Mike Scholtz, Moira talks about the future of painting with large crowds of people.
Sarah Brokke is one of the artists featured in the Tweed Museum of Art’s upcoming exhibition, “Creating Apart: Local Artists Respond to a Global Pandemic.” She’s a painter and an associate professor at the College of St. Scholastica. In this video by documentary filmmaker Mike Scholtz, Sarah talks about her work and how the pandemic is like an expanding bubble that’s pushing longstanding issues to the surface in our society.
Ivy Vainio is one of the artists featured in the Tweed Museum of Art’s upcoming exhibition, “Creating Apart: Local Artists Respond to a Global Pandemic.” She’s a digital photographer who works at the American Indian Community Housing Organization. In this video by documentary filmmaker Mike Scholtz, Ivy talks about her artistic struggles during the pandemic.
The Tweed Museum of Art will be hosting an exhibition, “Creating Apart: Local Artists Respond to a Global Pandemic” with work by Ivy Vainio, Moira Villiard, Sarah Brokke Erickson, Karen Savage-Blue, Joe Klander and Brian Barber. Annie Dugan curated the exhibition and worked with local documentary filmmaker Mike Scholtz to create a series of short films about each of the artists involved.
The exhibition was originally scheduled to open on Aug. 31 in the Court Gallery of the Tweed. Shifting plans for colleges and gatherings have already affected the actual schedule. In the meantime, the Tweed has released the brief teaser above featuring the artists who were interviewed. Profiles of each artist will be released on a regular schedule in the coming days and weeks, and we will be posting them here on Perfect Duluth Day as they are available.
My name used to be Anna. Now it’s Mamahoney. You can call me Mama, or Honey, or Mamahoney (but not Honeymama: Honeymama was my mother’s name). Honestly, I’ll probably respond to any combination of these sobriquets because the sooner I do the faster I can get back to this Jim Butcher wizard mystery I’m reading. And I really want to get back to it because it takes place in another city, which is not anywhere in my house. In fact, not one part of this fantastic story about how a handsome, middle-aged wizard solves supernatural crimes whilst single-parenting a daughter and negotiating the perilous political landscape of the supernatural world’s equivalent of the United States Senate (if it were diverse and cared about anyone) — not one single page — takes place in my house. Amazing!
I, like many of you (or a couple of you if you’re college-aged and reading this in Texas or Florida), have not been out much in the past five months. For nigh half a year, I, my partner, and our loin fruit have confined ourselves nearly entirely to our house. Our house, in case you’re curious, is 1,000 square feet of space, with two bedrooms, one bathroom, and very nice original woodwork. It’s decorated just how we want it, and doesn’t resemble an oubliette in any way, save one — the fact that we cannot leave it. This has made us all a little barmy. And not in the cute, eccentrically quirky way, like we’ll take up painting with dark chocolate or bat guano or something. More in a Grey-Gardens-meets-Biosphere kind of way.
Duluth artist Carolyn Olson has been inspired by essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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.
