Arts

Rebirth in Death

January 25th, 2017

Laura Forgie, visual artist, has always interested in art and being a creator was something that she has had a knack for. Art was not only her interest but a useful way to express herself. She is inspired by what she sees around, especially while walking in new cities or places that she has never been before. She did not see the view in a certain way but profoundly recognizable.

“As I walk around, it is not hard to notice the ways in which we are impacting everything that was here…

Metal that moves: father and son kinetic sculptors at the Rourke

January 18th, 2017

The Rourke Art Gallery Museum is pleased to announce two artists, Jeffrey Zachmann and Carl Zachmann. They are holding an exhibition of kinetic sculpture.

Jeffrey and Carl collected their childhood memories, adulthood curiosities, and recreated them as visible art work. Jeffrey and Carl’s work is not only about creativity: their actual lives are melted down into each piece of sculpture. In this exhibition, we can time travel into their lives and appreciate how one’s life would…

Sculpting Our Community with Snow

January 11th, 2017

Most of Fargo-Moorhead families would stay at home during winter, which is getting colder. Winter makes people huddle in their bedrooms; they lose a place to take strolls and spend time with their family all in one chilly gust of wind. If anyone wanted to resolve this problem, consider visiting Folkways’ Sudden Ice Sculpture Park. Folkways provides an opportunity to get involved in creating artwork as a community member and enjoy this chilly winter.

The Sudden Ice Sculpture Park is…

Americana dreams and the Cowboy Prince

December 21st, 2016

photo by Zach Gibson

When asked how he would describe his work, Richmond, Virginia-based artist Charlie Umhau says,“I’d say it’s a functional Americana version of traditional Greek black figure painted vases married with Howard Finster’s hyper productivity; the black and white gold framed color palate of Civil War tintypes, the sustainable but frenzied improvisation of African American scrap quilts, the talismanic tailoring of Old World shamans dressed for ceremony, spiritually…

Mixing it up

December 21st, 2016

“I was never a fan of non-objective and abstract art. I just didn't have that perspective, I was too literal. Towards the end of my stay at NDSU I took sculpture classes and got into making assemblages and trying to utilize the repurposed look in a more contemporary fashion. I carry some aesthetics from this phase into the work that I create now.” says mixed media artist Alison Buecksler.

You may have seen her demonstrating at Corks and Canvas events in Downtown Fargo,or her show…

Downtown gentrification: the good, the bad, and the unaffordable

December 14th, 2016

Meps building - soon to be the apt building for artists - photo by C.S. Hagen

The art trade in Fargo is a cutthroat business. Photographers, painters, and potters struggling for local sales are now also fighting for spaces in the downtown area.

Recognized by many as the cultural avant-garde of Downtown’s awakening and current revitalization programs, some artists are being forced out, while others are fearful of what future gentrification will bring.

Change doesn’t come without casualties, artists recognize, they’re simply asking not to be forgotten. The city…

You think you have problems?

December 14th, 2016

While researching the concept of his current solo exhibition at the Spirit Room, titled “#MillenialProbs,” ceramicist Hayden Swanson did a bit of crowdsourcing by reaching out to his peers via social media. I couldn’t help but ask what he thought the most serious problem was.

“I don't think I could say there is a single ‘most serious problem’ since they are all valid, but people were really concerned about opiate use, Dakota Access Pipeline, and the election. The tone people…

Make room for lost arts at Make Room

November 30th, 2016

“Make Room has seen a resurgence in the lost arts. There are a few reasons people come to us with the need to create. One catalyst for the revival of dying skills is the disconnect between the products we buy and how they were made.” says Chelsea Thorson, owner and director of Make Room Gallery in Fargo. “There's something comforting about knowing exactly where a handmade item came from and how it was created.”

Make Room Gallery will be presenting a “Lost Arts Workshop…

Diversity shines in Facebook project “The World in F-M”

November 30th, 2016

“The World in Fargo-Moorhead” is a community photography and story project featuring area residents who have come here from other parts of the world. Launched in September, 2016, the project is a social media-based collaborative effort, first envisioned by Meg Luther Lindholm.

New York native Lindholm is a freelance radio journalist working in Fargo-Moorhead. She is currently doing North Dakota-based work as part of a grant from the North Dakota Humanities Council, telling stories…

Punchgut and Jeff Knight: Wandering Ghost Gallery

November 16th, 2016

I’m sitting on a couch in the combination art studio/garage of local artist Matt Mastrud, aka Punchgut. We shoot the breeze about topics from horror movies to the tension in the air after the recent presidential election. He muses about how he thinks people would put aside their differences if they had a common enemy.

“Like Watchmen,” I say.

“Yeah,” he replies, then brings out his newest work of art, a stylized picture of an unquestionably hostile alien soldier with a shooting…