Art
Selective Focus: John Keefover
John Keefover poses with the Northern Terminus sign after completing his thru-hike of the Superior Hiking Trail.
John Keefover is the Duluth-based nature photographer behind the photography business Keefography. This June, Keefover thru-hiked the Superior Hiking Trail, sharing photos, videos and journal entries along the way. Keefover used this adventure as an opportunity to raise funds for the Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center. (more…)
Creating Duluth-Themed Art with AI
A Van Gogh style painting of a 1920s cargo train traveling on a winter night though an evergreen forest next to a huge blue lake with the aurora borealis in the night sky.
DALL-E is an online tool that uses machine learning to generate digital images from plain English text descriptions. You type a description of something real or imaginary and the program does its best to create a unique image based on that description. After some time on a waitlist, I recently received an invite that allows me to create and download a limited number of artificial intelligence generated images per month. This came at a good time, as I recently found a watercolor print of the Duluth hillside in a Lincoln Park shop that I liked quite a bit but could not afford. I decided to use some of my AI image credits to see if I could get the automated system to produce Duluth art of at least somewhat comparable quality. In the examples that follow, I describe this process, showing what worked and what did not. The captions of each picture show the text query that generated the image. (more…)
Selective Focus: Burdock Ceramics
Burdock Ceramics is the pottery duo of Duluth artists Rita Morris and Barry Sands. Their pieces are hand thrown and painted, creating functional and elegant pottery inspired by the northwoods. (more…)
Canal Park souvenir invites tourists to envision a lift bridge over the Mississippi
Some years ago, I had a Duluth nameplate hanging from the back of my bicycle, which I suppose is why I impulsively bought another when I saw it recently in a Canal Park souvenir shop. I vaguely remember the one I had purchased in my younger years having a generic cityscape and not actually showing Duluth.
This one seemed no different, and might even be the same design, but this time I noticed that the building on the far left had a rather specific architecture. Checking with a group of skyscraper-obsessed friends led me to a conclusion that I should have reached myself: this Duluth souvenir depicts the skyline of St. Paul. (more…)
Selective Focus: Dirtbike Boyfriend
Photo by Gary Walton
Bret Holland, or “Dirtbike Boyfriend,” is a multimedia artist based in Duluth. His art — encompassing doodles, denim painted clothing, music and more — explores themes both personal and political. And yes, he does ride dirt bikes. (more…)
Selective Focus: Noihsaf Bazaar
Noihsaf Bazaar is a community-based resale marketplace focusing on independent designers and small labels. Founded in Duluth by Kate Lindello, Noihsaf has recently launched its own online platform to better provide a more curated experience for its unique community. (more…)
Avant-Garde Women: Emmy Hennings, “Shining Star of the Voltaire”
The Greatest Cabaret in the History of the World
It is criminal that Emmy Hennings’s books have not been translated from German to English after more than 100 years. She was arguably the founder of Dadaism in 1916, the most important art movement of the 20th century. To the press, she was unquestionably Dada’s tentpole performer. Dada — anarchic, nihilistic, and self-consciously weird — continues to inspire. All Hennings’s male contemporaries have translated books available, so what is the holdup? I’ll buy a German-English dictionary and do it myself if I have to. Her books run hundreds of pages so it will take me the rest of my life. But it’s not fair that German readers hog her work to themselves, especially with modern interest in the female Dadaists. The delay is perhaps explained by continual critical confusion over her true role. [UPDATE: A translation of her novel “Branded” has been released; here is my review.]
Hennings was a political radical and anti-war activist. She faced prison, morphine addiction, mental health issues, and homelessness. Before Dada, “grinding poverty” drove her into sex work to feed herself. Among the literally starving artists in Europe circa World War I, Dada’s mama had to eat. Then, as artillery shells fell in the distance, she started the greatest cabaret in the history of the world. (more…)
The “Sorry” Bowl
Following up on my project to communicate with the far future using stone or metal, I have produced the first piece: The “Sorry” Bowl. This was a collaboration with Sean MacManus/MacManus Stoneworks. Thinking of likely futures, I chose the word “sorry” because it’s what I really wanted to say. The rest of the story:
I love you Homegrown but I can’t do this anymore!
I played my first Homegrown when I was seventeen. My high school band opened for Coyote at Teatro Zuccone. It was the first sold out show of my music career. I got to share a green room with THE Jerree Small. I got an artist pass on a cool lanyard that let me into any all-ages show (and a few 21+ shows too). I felt like I was on the edge of something. I felt grown up and I felt seen. At the time, it seemed like that feeling was coming from my artist pass, free T-shirt, and (maybe) $50 cheque. Looking back, I understand that what I actually experienced was membership and pride in a community of practice for the first time in my young life. Homegrown gave me an invaluable jumping off point as an artist in this city. It made me proud to be from Duluth and proud of my peers and mentors for choosing to make music here. It opened Duluth to me and deepened my relationship to community and to music. That experience kept me coming back through the years and and through my development as an artist. I’m grateful for it and I always will be, but like many artists in this town my relationship to the festival has become a bit complicated. (more…)
Selective Focus: Joya by Hand
Photo by Menique Koos (@meniquekoosphoto)
Mari Doffin is a polymer clay artist from Duluth who loves to play with shapes, colors and themes. She primarily creates earrings, which are sold online and at a number of local boutiques. (more…)
Selective Focus: Emily Koch
Left: Photograph of Emily Koch. Right: “Self Portrait” 20×28. Oil on wood panel.
Emily Koch is a surrealist painter from Duluth. She studied fine art at the University of Wisconsin-Superior, graduating in 2020 and has worked as a freelance artist since then. She is drawn to all things queer, feminine and counterculture. (more…)
Selective Focus: Aaron Kloss
Aaron Kloss is a Duluth-based landscape painter with a distinctive, contemporary style. He draws inspiration from the natural world, particularly North Shore forests and wildlife. (more…)
The Slice: Carl Gawboy
Carl Gawboy’s exhibit “New Paintings, Old Stories” is on view at the American Indian Community Housing Organization’s Dr. Robert Powless Cultural Center on Fridays from 4 to 6 p.m. until May 27. (more…)
ARAC seeking new executive director
The Arrowhead Regional Arts Council is accepting applications for the position of executive director. This position shapes arts and culture in Duluth and the Arrowhead, so they should want the best possible pool of applicants. (more…)
Harbor View, 1973
Artwork by Patsy Reed High titled “Harbor View,” dated 1973.
The Slice: Ellen Sandbeck
Ellen Sandbeck is a paper cut artist in Duluth. Her exhibit “As Long as the Rivers Shall Run” is on display in the Dr. Robert Powless Cultural Center until Feb. 24.
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.
Book Trailer for Eric Chandler’s Kekekabic
I’m happy to announce that my new book, Kekekabic, is for sale now at Finishing Line Press! From now until March 25, you can preorder a copy of my book and it will ship to you on May 20. You can get a copy for $19.99 at finishinglinepress.com. (more…)
Minnesota Point Lighthouse Painting
This painting by the late Sylvia S. Reasor was sitting among the Pink Floyd lighters, Bob Marley patches, bongs, sex toys and whatnot at the Last Place on Earth liquidation auction this past weekend. (more…)
2021: The Year in Duluth Gig Posters
It wasn’t quite the wild and crazy return to rawk that Duluthians longed for, but 2021 did mark the transition away from livestreams to in-person concerts. Sometimes outdoors, sometimes masked, sometimes with vaccine cards required and often just with fingers crossed, music fans edged back into the concert scene in year-two of the COVID-19 pandemic. If one thing remained normal, it was that Perfect Duluth Day collected a bunch of gig-poster images to share at the end of the year. (more…)
The Slice: Emily Koch
Artist Emily Koch paints portraits focused on the surreal and abnormal.
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.
The Slice: Nancy X. Valentine
Nancy XiáoRong Valentine‘s exhibition, “The Audacity to be Asian in Rural America: We Owe You No Apologies,” is on display on the second floor of the Kathryn A. Martin Library at the University of Minnesota Duluth and in Lake Superior College’s Erickson Library until Dec. 17. The exhibit is a series of 12 watercolor and Chinese ink scroll paintings on rice paper that visually tells the story of the Hao family’s Chinese American immigrant experience in rural western Minnesota.
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.
Rituals and Masks
“Ritual and Masks” is part of the 32-minute feature Masking, an experimental video by Joellyn Rock. The segment features Duluth artist Mary Plaster, artistic director of Duluth All Souls Night, who collaborated with Chris Lutter of Minneapolis to build the 17-foot-tall marionette skeleton that was paraded down Superior Street a month ago. (more…)
I’m starting a new project and need help. What do you know about Poetry Harbor?
I’m looking for people attached to Poetry Harbor.
Google tells me that the late Patrick McKinnon (DNT spotlight here) was a founder, maybe? So was Ellie Schoenfeld? (more…)
Lake Superior video from Duluth included in Ukraine exhibit
Three of my Lake Superior videos are included in this exhibit of “video dress sculptures” with “looped video playing in three places on each dress”: The Invisible Woman: Videodresses. All dresses and skirts by Genevieve Davis of Wisconsin. Videos of Lake Michigan by Genevieve Davis, except the above: #1 The Politician, #2 the Mother, and #6 the Composer, which incorporate three of my Lake Superior videos from here. This digital exhibit will be at the Gender Museum in Karkhiv the Ukraine from January – March 2022.
The Cartoon History of Hunter S. Thompson
My complete 13-part comic strip originally published in Duluth’s Transistor circa 2008. Much information from E. Jean Carroll’s book, Hunter: The Strange and Savage Life of Hunter S. Thompson. In addition to ripping off Frank Miller, I copied several panels from X-Men comics, and some Hunter photos. (more…)