Arts

​‘A warrior in his lifetime:’ photographic book of Natives receives more than acclaim

June 24th, 2019

New Mexico Representative Debra Haaland sitting for a wet plate photograph with Shane Balkowitsch in viewfinder - photograph by C.S. Hagen

BISMARCK – Six months of preparation boiled down to eight seconds. There were wet plate photographs to capture, a well-known Congresswoman from New Mexico to pick up, reporters to please, and… wait… Representative Debra Haaland’s flight was cancelled? The forecast was for rain? Who was arranging refreshments for the book signing ceremony?

Shane Balkowitsch paced back and forth in his natural light wet plate studio, the only one of its kind in the United States, sometimes…

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​Nicki Marie, ‘Northern Stardust,’ and reasons to keep looking up

June 19th, 2019

Art by Nicki Marie

You may have seen Nicki Marie slingin’ her elaborately folded paper star creations at various craft and cultural festivals around the region. She was also a recipient of a folk art and traditional apprenticeship grant made possible for the North Dakota Council on the Arts and learned scherenschnitte and wycinanki through Tower City based folk artist Meridee Erickson Stowman in 2016. This Thursday, Nicki Marie’s first gallery exhibition titled, “Northern Stardust” will be opening…

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​Art on the Red Showcases Prairie Talent

May 29th, 2019

Art on the Red in Grand Forks

With all the coverage of artists in the Fargo-Moorhead area in the High Plains Reader, it can unfortunately be easy to forget that the rest of the state hosts their own fair share of artistic talent. Take, for example, Fargo’s neighbor to the North, Grand Forks. Since 2001, Grand Forks has hosted an annual event originally named “ArtFest”, which was organized and operated by the North Valley Arts Council (NOVAC).

Unfortunately, in December of 2016 NOVAC dissolved, but Grand…

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Plains Art Museum: 23rd Annual Spring Gala

May 1st, 2019

Art by Punchgut, design by Raul Gomez

The Plains Art Museum is ready to take you back in time – or forward, if you prefer – for their 23rd annual Spring Gala. The theme for this year’s event, which takes place on Friday, May 3, is Time Machine.

The Spring Gala is the museum’s biggest fundraising event every year. It will include a silent auction, music from Post Traumatic Funk Syndrome, who will take the stage at 9 p.m., and food catering from Urban Foods, Chef’s Table Catering, Concordia, and Nichole’s Fine…

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Picturing Nam

May 1st, 2019

Twentieth century angel of mercy — Navy Hospital Corpsman D. R. Howe - Glencoe, MN treats the wounds of Private First Class D A. Crum - Fifth Marine Regiment during Operation Hue City - Sergeant William F. Dickman, February 6, 1968

Minnesota State University Moorhead held their grand opening of Picturing Nam: U.S. Military Photography of the Vietnam War last Thursday at the Roland Dille Center for the Arts. The exhibition is the final installment of the Minnesota Remembers Vietnam initiative from MSUM and will run through May 25.

Picturing Nam will be a one-of-a-kind experience in that visitors to the art gallery will be able to see some photographs and images that have not been previously available for public…

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​Hold your head high

April 10th, 2019

Keep your head up with Kim Konikow - photograph provided by NDCA

“I started to look around at state arts council positions because I felt that even though I had never done that, I felt like it would be a really good blend of skills, so I started to look around in 2016. A few jobs came up but I knew I didn’t want to work for a large state agency,” Kim Konikow, executive director of the North Dakota Council on the Arts (NDCA), said.

She went on to say, “I can’t say I ever thought about North Dakota. It was not on the top of my list but it was…

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​Allen Sprenger’s Sculptures along Highway 49

April 3rd, 2019

Sprenger sculptures - photograph by Sabrina Hornung

As you drive the stretch of Highway 49 between Glen Ullin and Elgin, you’ll experience a variety of land features. You’ll see rolling hills, open fields, and great expanses of pasture land surrounded by barbed wire fences and curious cattle. Glorious buttes and cut banks of the area surround and contain the Heart Butte Dam. To say it’s a breathtaking view is an understatement.

Highway 49 is dotted by a few farmsteads and grain bins as one would expect from a state with such a…

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​Dakota Fine Art Featured Artist: Meet Mitchel Hoffart

March 27th, 2019

By Mitchel Hofart

This month at Dakota Fine Art gallery be sure to check out guest artist Mitchel Hoffart’s exhibition, “Flora, Fauna, and the Abstract World.” Hoffart, who lives in Moorhead, is a mixed media artist with an extensive and diverse body of work and a long and growing list of exhibitions and awards.

While Hoffart says it’s impossible to pin down his art into a specific category, he does work with some recurring themes. After being commissioned to create a multitude of 12x12 elk…

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​Karen Valley: The “artist’s artist”

March 20th, 2019

Karen Valley - photograph by Joyce Hinrichs

Hidden away in the tiny North Dakota town of Lefor I find Karen Valley, an author and an artist. She is without a doubt the artist’s artist. Her soul is art, talent and words. Meeting her is a true experience in finding a soul so full of art. At 85 it will never find a stopping or retiring point in her life. It is, she says, what she needs to do.

Quoting Karen, “It is a gift from God and you must use it and so I do.”

Among her authorships she draws coloring books. They have titles…

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​Taking his time: ‘Driving through flyover country’

February 27th, 2019

Nila, Bearcat Cafe, Vivian, South Dakota - photograph by Lew Ableidinger

Though Harvey North Dakota based photographer Lew Ableidinger has switched from film photography to digital photography and back he couldn’t avoid the analog.

“I returned to film because I wanted to start shooting large format, which corrects perspective and produces a negative with so much more detail and information than can be produced with all but the highest end digital equipment,” Ableidinger said.

“There's also something nice about having a physical object as opposed to…

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