Jumping into Lake Superior

It is always a challenge to maintain a website, which is primarily static, when what most artists work within is ever-changing body of work - whether finished or just a faint ghost of an idea that may take years to turn into something more. I recently got an email from someone asking me about new work and I decided this might be the best solution, an opportunity to show new work and the journey that  led to the work, as well as side trips that might end up being the main journey in the end.

This summer I spent a bit more time than usual immersing myself in new places and these experiences have led to some new art and some ongoing thinking about how art and other interests can be braided together.

I will jump in with one of my summer highlights, participating in Plein Air Duluth, a challenging and beautiful week painting along the Southwestern corner of Lake Superior. It rained, gale force winds blew and on the quiet days the biting flies bit. I crawled under a bridge to paint, I painted in the back hatch of my little car while lightning crashed all around me and a row of ducks lined up to watch, I stuffed myself and my easel in the protective bows of a tamarack, but I painted. There were moments of sun, conversations with curious folks, and quiet moments when I startled a wild animal who didn't expect a painter to be standing in the middle of its usual route. And there was always the water, somewhere in view, always my favorite thing to paint. This is a piece done on Park Point in the Duluth harbor amidst persistent sun showers and is now hanging as part of a show of work by the Outdoor Painters of Minnesota at Como Conservatory in St. Paul.