Arts

“Bittersweet Harvest” season

September 16th, 2015

It’s amazing how large sections of history can get buried by time. This fall, the Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County (HCSCC) is highlighting a relatively forgotten event in American history, one which happened in the not-too-distant past and in our very backyard, or rather, in our farm fields.

In partnership with the Smithsonian Institute Traveling Exhibition Service, HCSCC has brought “Bittersweet Harvest: The Bracero Program, 1942-1964,” a bilingual (English/Spanish)…

A cut above the rest

September 3rd, 2015

Wycinanki, pronounced vee-chee-nine-key, is the Polish art of papercutting. The distinguishing factor is the colorful, often symmetrical, layered paper cutouts. Tower City-based Meridee Erickson-Stowman learned the folk art wycinanki from Leona Wojcik Barthle, a woman of Polish descent who was based out of Sioux Falls, S.D.

The pair met in 1998 as part of the North Dakota Council on the Art’s Folk and Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program. According to the NDCA website the program…

Ide and Seek

August 19th, 2015

Photo by Sabrina Hornung

508 Oak is a commercial property owned by Scott Nelson. One of the properties houses a Crossfit gym and the other houses the Crossfit Ice House. But the most compelling part of the property is a 110-foot weathered fence exhibiting an original spray paint mural by Fargo artist Paul Ide.

Nelson wanted to draw attention to his commercial properties and after looking at Ide’s sketchbook he let him have at it. Four weeks later the fence contained a beautifully twisted dynamic mural.

“For…

Post punk

August 12th, 2015

Peace Catcher by Dwight Mickelson, Photo by Mara Morken Fogarty When Mara Morken Fogarty’s stepfather and regional artist Lynn Fundingsland installed a carved cedar post in her front yard, she had an epiphany.

“I looked at it and I loved it so much that I realized that this was the perfect medium for the sculpture garden of my dreams,” she said.

The simplicity of the post was the main inspiration for Sticksgarden, a small sculpture installation and adaptation of Moorhead’s planter adoption program. It adds a bit of much-needed green space to…

Sarcasm and humor cover walls of Plains Art Museum

July 29th, 2015

St. Paul-based artist combines wit and whimsy to add social commentary to the walls of local museum

The playful surface of Julie Buffalohead’s “Coyote Dreams” show at the Plains Art Museum covers only a fraction of the multi-faceted expression that occurs within the work.

Based in St. Paul, Minn., Buffalohead has consistently shown work both regionally and nationally since her first show at the Weisman Art Museum in 1999. Buffalohead received her undergraduate degree from…

Art in the Buffalo City

July 29th, 2015

Sen. Heidi Heitkamp at Jamestown Arts Center

A chat with Cindi Wish from the Jamestown Art Center

Cindi Wish is a relatively new addition to North Dakota. Originally from Cape Cod, Mass., she admits that prior to her interview for the executive director position at The Arts Center in Jamestown, N.D., she had never set foot in N.D. In fact North Dakota and Alaska were the only two of the 50 states that she had not been to — but she’s glad she did.

Wish has served as executive director at The Arts Center for the past seven months.…

Unlimited Art!

July 22nd, 2015

Zot Artz Conference encourages artists of all abilities to add a little color to the landscape

On July 27, Wisconsin-based artist and engineer Dwayne Szot, who is also president and and founder of Zot Artz, will be contributing a splash of color to the North Dakota Vision Services/School for the Blind in Grand Forks.

The Anne Carlsen Center, based in Jamestown, N.D., is teaming up with the NDVS (ND Vision Services), NDCA (North Dakota Council on the Arts) and the North Dakota branch of…

Postcards from the Enchanted Highway

July 9th, 2015

Art by Gary Greff / Photo by Sabrina Hornung

A man with a vision puts his hometown on the map with the world’s largest salvaged metal sculptures

Regent, N.D., is nestled in the beautiful hills, buttes, cut banks and valleys of the southwest corner of North Dakota. It is a quiet community with strong agricultural ties, and it is notorious for being a hunter’s paradise. It once gained the moniker Wonder City. According to the city’s website, Regent is “a town founded in 1910 on the solid steel of railroad lines that forged a…

Sailing the prairie

June 3rd, 2015

Two retired ministers take art show across North Dakota

For Vicki Kessler and Donna Kjonaas, the long voyage is almost over.

Their collaborative art exhibition “Land, Sky, Water” comes to North Dakota State’s Memorial Union Gallery after a year of traveling North Dakota from Bismarck to Ellendale, Minot to Mayville. Through the North Dakota Council on the Arts, the two artists present a show prompting viewers to examine their own surroundings -- their own land, sky and water.…

Local photographer, professor tries hand at digital work

May 27th, 2015

Meghan Duda presents “New Works” at ecce

By Tessa Beck

Photo courtesy of ecce galleryPositioned neatly on the clean walls of ecce gallery, Meghan Duda’s 12 face-mounted plexi digital images have found their Fargo home from their Scandinavian roots.

The photos were taken at Sjællands Odde in Denmark – each session taking place at the same location and time of evening. Due to the consistency, the images become a study in color and light.

“I was just playing,” Duda said. “I…