Arts

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…

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…

A Fargo art two-fer

February 20th, 2019

Fish Keeper Two - by Carol Albright

Two local art exhibitions had their opening receptions last week, the first one being at the Spirit Room last Thursday. Their current exhibition, “Wonderful Works of Whimsy,” will be displayed until April 13th, free to view during the hours of 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

“Whimsy” celebrates the fanciful nature of creativity, with bright colors, surreal images, and unique designs. Food and drink were served as some of the artists present gave talks on their pieces.…

Create and get inspired at 9th Annual Unglued: Craft Fest

February 20th, 2019

Unglued Craft Fest

By Gabrielle Hersch
gabbyhersch@gmail.com

Eight years ago, Ashley Morken, now owner and operator of Unglued: Market, watched her friends’ modern types of crafts sell poorly at traditional craft shows in town. She saw pockets of makers, creators, and artists feeling frustrated; their inability to succeed at local craft fairs had them wondering if they would be able to succeed in Fargo at all. In noticing Fargo’s need for a venue for modern crafting, Morken’s own passion for…

MSCTC and Kaddatz to host two day workshop

February 6th, 2019

By Jacinta Zens
jacinta.zens@gmail.com

The Department of Visual Arts at Minnesota State Community and Technical College Fergus Falls and the Kaddatz Galleries are excited to announce the First Annual Visiting Artists Workshop series. The purpose of this workshop series is to give participants from the region the opportunity to learn from and create with arts educators and professional artists from around the nation.

Both the Department of Visual Arts at Minnesota State Community and…

Fargo VA Displays Art of Those Who Served

February 6th, 2019

Art chainsaw eagle carving - by Ed Helmer

There has been a lot said in the media about the plight faced by veterans. The transition back to “normal” life from serving in the armed forces is rarely a smooth one.

For those who return home, there is often the question of how to heal the wounds of war in the individual. It is the mission of the Fargo VA to help ease the struggle, and one of the ways they do so is through the therapeutic value of art. Recently I had the opportunity to interview Kimberly Douglas, the…

Local Artists, Local Inspiration

January 16th, 2019

Woodcut by Charles Beck

By Nataly Routledge
natalyroutledge@googlemail.com

"Snowgeese" for Charles Beck
By Timothy Murphy

The flock is whorled like a translucent shell
and intricate as the tubing of a horn,
its embouchure, the soft foot of a snail
lighting on sand, except the sand is corn,
chisel sloughed and left to build the soil
from which indebted farmers have been torn.
I catch one note—a wild, wayfaring cry
as snow geese splash into a glacial mere.

Framed by moraines under a nacreous sky,
they echo in the chambers of…

Appreciating the plains through drones

December 19th, 2018

by Gabrielle Hersch
gabbyhersch@gmail.com

Within the ever-evolving art and practice of photography, one piece of technology has been making waves: the drone. Drones, or flying cameras, are becoming a highly utilized tool for photo-taking, especially in landscape photography. Appreciating all of the opportunity that drones offer, NDSU’s art department implemented a new drone photography course in the fall of 2017. Now one year later, student projects from the drone photography course are…

The art of Amanda Frost

December 19th, 2018

by Emma Garton
emma.garton@icloud.com

For being a relatively small city, Fargo is not lacking in local artists of all kinds. One of such artists is Amanda Frost, a junior at Minnesota State University Moorhead specializing in printmaking and graphic design. Some of Frost’s artwork is currently on display at The Red Raven Espresso Parlor in Fargo and will be up until the end of December.

Art has been a part of Frost’s life since the very beginning.

“I have always enjoyed being…

New Deal era mural faces destruction

December 12th, 2018

SEBEKA, Minnesota – Nearly a century ago the nation was racked by inclement weather, soaring unemployment, and despair following World War I and the lucrative Roaring 20s. The 1930s were an era of dust storms and lunch lines, where banks closed and Wall Street brokers leaped to their deaths from New York City’s “suicide pinnacle,” the Singer Building.

Under such chaos did then President Franklin Delano Roosevelt initiate the Public Works of Art Project in 1934. The government…