The Baboon Congress

Family Art Day

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Today’s post comes from Barbara in Rivertown

On a perfect Saturday (one of the 10 perfect days this year) during Labor Day Weekend, Husband and I were introduced to Family Art Day here in Winona. Held from 10:00 – 2:00 on Saturday at a covered pavilion on the banks of Lake Winona, this annual event features a couple of dozen local artists, each with a table (or two) holding the supplies required to do/make their craft. There was everything from painting murals to…  well, here is the list of options:

  • Fish Prints with Dirk Nelson
  • Sculpture with Michelle Cochran
  • Finger painting with John Durfey
  • Kosmic Knots with Tom Dukich
  • Book Arts with Jill Krase
  • Bow drill a shell for a necklace with Patty Albrecht
  • Murals with Julia Crozier
  • Acrylics with Barb Feiten
  • Puppets with Jill Marie Piggott
  • Mosaics with Monta May
  • Clay sculpture with Emerald Hulsing
  • Masks with Julie Johnston
  • Weaving with Kathie Peterson
  • Wood and Wire Sculpture with Jamie Schell
  • Tatoos with Heather Casper from Minnesota Marine Art Museum
  • Giant Bubbles with Ramona Redig and Robert Aldrich
  • Hats with Amy Peterson
  • Cartooning with Mary Singer
  • Sing-alongs with Amanda Grace
  • Watercolors with Kathy Delano
  • Thrown pottery with Anne Scott Plummer, Mary Denzer, Mickey Maslowski, John Bloomfield, and Sue Pariseau  (There was also a side tent with two potting wheels)
Not Just For Kids
Giant Bubbles
Lots of Options
Mural Painting
Hat Making
Mosaics
Weaving

The idea was conceived 9 years ago by our late friend Bernadette Mahfood (about whom I will write more another time) and another local artist, Julie Crozier. The event is designed to get adults, as well as children, to try out new art forms. Says coordinator Vicki Englich “Sometimes, people are intimidated to pick up a brush… This gives you permission to explore things you didn’t have a chance to explore in school.”

We were among the many volunteers who helped set up, take down, and act as “gofers” during the 4-hour run. It takes an amazing amount of organizing, and some grant funding from the Southeast Minnesota Arts Council for supplies and stipends for the artist/teachers. I’ve met a watercolorist that I would like to team up with for next year – she was heading it up solo this year and would like help. I can hardly wait – it was a joy seeing the look on some of the faces of the artists as they finished their creations, and then scanned the pavilion to see what they wanted to try next.

What type of art, that you haven’t yet tried, would you like to try your hand at?

92 thoughts on “Family Art Day”

      1. I should add, just this spring I signed up for a session of pottery classes for myself and my two adult daughters. Once a week we threw (or attempted to throw) pots together.
        Like so many things, you just have to put in the time to get a feel for the subtlties of the process. None of us produced elegant pottery in six weeks, but we all got closer…

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        1. i found that in throwing pots and vases and cups on the wheel the trick is to learn what you can do by learning what you cant do.
          i think everyone has a vision of a shape that is thin and beauti=fula nd the ra=eality is that a thick clunky design is the way to begin. as you find sucess with the big ol cup or one of those covered pots that you put paper clips in. the problem is when you try to ge fancy with thin walls 9 inches tall the design fights you.
          if anyone wants to try i have a wheel in storage i would be willing to loan out

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  4. Besides knitting, which might seem an obvious choice given Robin’s interest in the art, the only art forms I think I haven’t tried are sculpting in stone and casting in metal. Of the two, metal casting interests me more but I am reluctant to add hunks of metal, no matter how artfully crafted, to my accumulation of stuff.

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    2. 4H Arts and Crafts projects usually became something welded up in the shop a couple days before they were due at the fair. And spray painted black. (Unless something we made in Art Class at school would qualify)
      And then displayed on a wall or shelf for years and years. Until the artist moved out of the house and the piece was relegated to the basement until said artist had a home and room to receive all the stuff they made.
      Or, in my case, left in the house for me to deal with.
      That must have been the beginning of the fabled ‘Arts and Crap’ room…

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      1. ive dont glass blowing and it is coo but so methodical it is a process that feels like the art of knowing the tricks to do with molton glass rather than the art of art.
        its cool to be able to come out at the finish with a piece of glass that looks cool but the need for all the stuff to make it and the surprise factor when you do the process is both interesting and less than desirable to my brain.

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        1. a guy in downton st paul bought an old fire station and turned it into a studio and does calsses too. my buddy gave it up. it costs so much to cank up the furnnaces it was costing him too much to do his art after his patrons p[aying 10,000 plus for his wonderful collectors pieces dried up during the art crunch of the new millenium

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  5. i thought i responded earlier but things are a little off on this end so i will dupe it.
    my interest is in sculpting in bronze stone and trying the mobile as a premise ala calder

    my sculptor favorites are henri moore like folks but i like the stuff i see in plazas as public art. that isnt really fair because i see a lot i dont like at all too.

    i have enjoyed lots of different things with my mom being an art teacher i had access to the supplies. i love pastels and acrylics charcoal and watercolor clay and sculpting with found pieces, mosiacs and simple things like landscape architecture. you get feeling when you walk into my house that the art is in charge. i think it is.
    i have a friend who is an artist and doesnt display art because it is so distacting for her she cant see the view out her window r even in her brain because of the art calling out.

    i like it calling out.

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  6. I am very art challenged, particularly in the drawing and painting arenas. I think I would like to throw a pot or carve, but I really can’t draw at all. I used to sew quite a lot, which is an art form, I think. I also do embroidery.

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      1. i loved my night school courses at the u of m if you take them as an audit i think they are cheap (er). looks like a legit art department at u of m winona, online would be ok too but the studio atmoshpere may be a good idea to get started.
        or just go buy some watercolors and brushes ($100 should do it) and some paper i’ll help you online if you deide to go that way. watercolor on youtube appeals to every taste

        acrylics are good to but the paint is expensive. brushes too. go garage sailing or come up with 500. you can get the starter stuff for 100 at michaels but you second canvas you need to buy paint. dick blick is good for cheaper supplies

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    2. i used to worry about aking a leaf look like a leaf and be imprssed by those who could until i took a night class at the u of m wher ethe teacher was a huge transition for me and said it is ot what your drawing looks like it is iwhat it feels like. and i realized the art i love is often not a realistic representation of the hand or the rock or the tree but the overall feeling. my leaves went from attempts to duplicate photographs to a feel that went with the drawing i was working on.
      instead of looking to your brain for the exact photograph you are aiming at. look closely at some art books with a bunch of different artists. it is amazing that you never noticed before that that person doesnt draw hands, just makes blobs, that person makes rocks with a shape and accents of other colors rather than the painstaking intricate attention to detail you think of when you envision it.
      its worth a try anyway. try a real loose drawing where the goal is to do a vibe rather than a photo

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  7. I would like to paint and do pottery. I used to sketch a lot as a child, and learning to paint would be a wonderful art to try me thinks.

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  8. Metal work would be intriguing. I’ve seen a lot of interesting welded pieces that turn found objects into animals and things (google Whimsey Welding). More craft than art, probably.

    There are many, many things that I haven’t tried. Having the space and the right tools and materials would be a wonderful thing.

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  9. I have always had a hard time with penmanship, and now my writing is pretty illegible. I think it is linked to my difficulty drawing. My hand and my head just don’t communicate. I have wonderful manual dexterity, though. Graphomotor skills are different than dexterity.

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  12. Pottery. It’s an ancient art form that archeologists love. Maybe someone would find my work and gain some understanding of American civilization. Or not. I will require a teacher like Demi Moore in the movie Ghost.

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  13. OT: and last time I will mention this. After a fight to get info (my dr. is on an extended vacation and nobody was checking for reports or was willing to “verify” them, in their terminology), I have found out I do not have cancer of the pancreas or liver. In two weeks I find how serious it all is, which could be minor to major. I can tell you that my condition is usually caused by alcoholism (I seldom ever did drink and have not had any for 12 years because of meds I am on) or an auto-immune disorder, which the rheumatologist just said I don’t have.

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    2. linda asked about my colleague who was found to have pnacreatic cancer a little over a year ago and i checked and he is still alive and kicking but that is the good news. he is having a bout of pnemonia and when the side effects are tough. he has been wthout chem fo 6 months and the did him one more dose and aggitated a bund of yeast that had been laying low and he is having a very difficult time with his body not being able to deal with it in his weakend state. the human body is an amazing device and there are so many ways to screw it up that the doctors dont hve enough experience to knw about. taliking to my heart doctor he mentions that he has knowledge of a doctor who has success on this procedure and it dawns on me it is like youtube for doctors where they all just geek out talking about the stuf they deal with daily. bless those geek doctors who try to get better at their jobs

      pancreatic cancer is tough. glad to hear you dont have it, if you are going to feel like crap it ould be nice to know why but at least they can tell you that you dont have the stuff that it looks like it may be.
      how do you find out in to weeks how serious it is?
      dont tell us this is the last time you wll talk about it. we and to know every update and every piece of the puzzle as it presents itself.

      hope it gets sorted out. wouldnt it be nice.

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    3. I’m sorry you have to wait to get answers, Clyde – it doesn’t seem right and it must be damn frustrating to have to such a long time! But I’m glad you don’t have cancer.

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  14. Stone sculpture, rosemaling, fine furniture/woodworking. Wouldn’t mind trying a bit of pencil sketching or weaving again.

    Clyde – It’s unconscionable that they made you wait for results. Hopefully you can get some answers that will at least help you get relief.

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  15. I am sitting beside an oak log bed I made about 25 years ago. It came out all right. But I always wanted to make more log furniture, to get better at it.
    Mr Tuxedo, now in grade 6, was at Ren Fest last week, for which he has been saving money all year and not spending much of his money on their amazing trip to Alaska last weekend, in costume as a wizard and carrying the Gandalfesque staff I carved him, the last thing I ever carved. That may be the most enduring thing I carved.
    Maybe I should learn the art of being content with and enjoying all the things I have done. When something is done I have to ignore it for awhile because all I see are the faults. Then after a few weeks I can look at it again, at which point I sort of dismiss it.
    I noticed last week that Windows 10 has voice activation capacity in it. I will check that out. I do have an idea for another collection of short stories, which I would call Old Love.
    Modeling in clay is the one untouched form I never did that I wish I had.

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    2. would modeling clay be too tough today?
      i have a friend who tught me you always see your own iperfections. he was a plaster, taper drywall guy who walked into the house we moved into years ago and aid oh yeah i messed up the ceiling on the soffet in the basement. he walked over and touched the spot he was talking about and we lived there 40 years and no one else ever saw it but he did every time he entered the house. could you do carving with drill tools and soapstone or something like that? your work is so amazing it wuld be fun to see it continue. teach mer tuxedo

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      1. tim, I like your mention of the friend, the “plaster taper, drywall guy” who was so aware of his imperfections. My dad once built a fancy wood table with a highly ornate checkerboard parquet pattern. It was a showoff sort of project for a guy who spent a lifetime improving his woodworking skills. The top is covered with chips of wood, each piece about half an inch long and wide. He laid in the chips so that one would have grain running north and south, then the next would have grain going the other way, etc. Like a checkerboard. The surface of the table was composed of nearly three thousand chips. The elegance of the table depends on the charming contrast of all those bits of wood.

        One of those three thousand chips lies the wrong way. It should have its grain north-south but instead he put it in east-west. Anyone but my father would need ten minutes of scrutiny to find the misplaced chip. For my dad it was a horrific flaw that jumped out at him. Looking at that table from thirty feet away he could point out the misplaced chip.

        My daughter now has this table in her kitchen.

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  16. Morning all. I have wanted to try batik for a while now. I visited a batik “factory” in Malaysia and was fascinated by it. I’ve checked out books from the library but the start-up costs of teaching myself seem too high.

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    2. I remember doing some batik as a teenager. Had fun with it, but it’s one of those processes where there can be a big disconnect between the result you imagine and the result you actually get.

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      1. I’ve had a LOT of that kind of disconnect over the years with my various crafts. And it’s the worst when I haven’t left myself enough time for something.

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      2. Doesn’t it to a certain extent depend on chance? Those art forms are rather appealing, where you trust to the materials to do their own thing.

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  19. The only art I want to perfect right now is the art of healing. On a vacation to visit family in Texas, I had a nasty fall playing pickleball and now have a fractured femur with a rod and screws holding it together. This is post op day 1 – I can weight bear and have been up walking with a walker a couple of times. Don’t know at this time how long I will be hospitalized or when I can return to MN. Was supposed to fly back this coming Tuesday. Not the vacation I intended to have….GRRRRR! Back on the trail when I am more comfortable. In case my avatar becomes anonymous, this is K-2.

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      1. Well, if all anyone did was sit in a chair all day and never venture outside, I’m sure their chances of injury are less than if you actually do something.

        Sorry K-2, I hope you get better soon.

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  20. try some bryonia for homeopathic remedy to aid the healing process.

    thats what you get going on vacation when the weather in minnesota is beautiful, you are supposed to wait until january when cabin fever stats setting in

    pickle ball is something i am interested in trying but with my gimpy foot i am hesitant. now this, i already walk funny form my brokern foot 10years ago. i thought pickle ball might be the one sport i can try. nnot so easy after all huh?

    are you gonna go with the white cast so you can do art on it?

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        1. Pickleball is played like tennis but with a racket more like a ping pong paddle on steroids with a wiffle-like ball and a smaller court. It is supposed to be a gentle sport but I didn’t find it so.

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      1. yeah broke it i a bunch of places and it didnt heal right. the doc was a friend of my uncles who tried his best but i knnd of did a peanut brittle job on it and it was a hope for thebest and live with the results deal. it took two years for me to get rolling without a severe hitch in my get along. today i am ok unless and util i run or walk uphill.

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  24. I’m not feeling the need to try a new artistic venture, probably because I know that I would be an utter failure at almost anything. But maybe I could do finger painting.

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  28. Greetings from Monterey, California. Just finished the aquarium on Cannery row. I’m now inspired to read more Steinbeck. Great weather for me but very dry for the locals. I had two long delays and detours because of fires even though they were quite small and not newsworthy. Adios.

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