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• an artist, an influence: jeanne kuhns on margaret lockwood
• Hardy Gallery Community Mosaic Project Book Signing a Success!
• an artist, an influence: mary uhl
• an artist, an influence: marcia nickols
• art camp: connecting migrant children with creativity

an artist, an influence: jeanne kuhns on margaret lockwood Written on August 23, 2010, by mripp.

Margaret Lockwood taught me to see! I started taking drawing classes with Margaret before I moved to Door County in the late 1990s. I loved the way she set up her drawing classes so much that I started taking her painting classes. Her classes are much different than anyone else’s. She doesn’t demonstrate, she illuminates. She teaches a way of seeing art with her famous overhead shows of master artists, teaching the humanity of painters she uses to illustrate her concepts. Painted spaces, negative and positive, how shapes work together, are objects anchored or floating on a canvas, what kind of movement is present, and how to travel into a painting are just a few of the things she has taught me.

She did not teach me to mimic, but rather turned me loose after filling my mind up with inspiration and practical lessons on what makes a painting work.

Her still life set-ups are legendary, huge conglomerations of interesting objects!

My art reflects the hope and intimacy modeled in Margaret’s work. I have never tried to copy her style, but you can tell she has inspired my work.

Margaret’s paintings are epic to me, stories of journeys, emotional rivers born of light and painted space. Margaret never tells you what to think with her work, she always lets you find your path through misty meadows, stands of quiet trees, and waves of water or grass. Her colors are vibrant and mist enshrouded at the same time. I spent two winters sharing space and painting in her studio. I remember the sound of our brushes, listening to music and not talking because were were both intent on our work. It was a time of huge growth for me. I am thankful to count her as my friend and my mentor – and my respect for her work is endless.

Jeanne Kuhns’ gallery and studio, Lost Moth Studio, is located eight miles north of Sturgeon Bay and one mile east of Highway 42 at 5199 Townline Road. For more information on Jeanne’s work, visit her website at www.jeannekuhns.com.

Hardy Gallery Community Mosaic Project Book Signing a Success! Written on August 23, 2010, by mripp.

We wanted to share a few photos with our Hardy Gallery supporters from our Community Mosaic Project Book Signing & Release Party event, which we held at the Gallery on Thursday, August 12. It was a wonderful celebration that was very well-attended, despite the crazy amount of humidity that made the Gallery feel very sauna-esque!

When Beth and I conceived of this project this past December, we didn’t realize how challenging — and ultimately, rewarding the process of publishing a book was going to be. There are so many steps to publishing a book on your own, especially one like the Community Mosaic Project book:  trying to map out the concept of the book, finding a publisher that can work within your budget and the project’s parameters, finding a graphic designer that understands the look you’re going for (our graphic designer, Renee, is really a saint — she and her assistant edited the over 650 artist images that are in the book), going through countless revisions to make sure that everything is just right, and — the scariest part — uploading all of the pages to the printer and hoping that everything comes out correctly. It’s stressful, to be sure — but all of that stress was totally worth it the minute I broke open one of the boxes of our book shipment and saw the bright green covers of our books. There’s something tangible about a project like this — and I love that people are responding well to the book and taking the book back to their own communities for ideas.

Anyway, back to the Book Signing Event on the 12th. Everyone there was SO excited to finally get a look at the book, and the event itself was a laid-back one. I wanted to create an event where everyone actally looked at the book and looked for their own artwork, the artwork of their friends, etc. I thought back to when I was in high school, and our small classes would assemble in the cafeteria to obtain our yearbooks at the end of the year and have our friends sign them, and how much fun that was. So, I thought that the Hardy’s book signing could operate in much the same way. Below are a few photos from the event…as you can see, everyone was happily penning their names next to their respective works in the book — which is exactly what the event was intended for!

Now that the book is here, we’re working hard to get the books into hands of participants and Hardy Gallery supporters. The #1 question we’re getting right now is, “Will there be a book of the 2010 Project?” We would LOVE to do a book of the next two years of the Project (2010 & the upcoming 2011 project), but right now, we’re waiting to see how well-received the 2008 & 2009 book is before we make any decisions. The response to the book has been overwhelming and we’re hoping that response continues!

an artist, an influence: mary uhl Written on August 20, 2010, by mripp.

What artists have influenced my work as a watercolor painter? There are many.

First, I would choose Mary Cassatt, with her brilliant touches of color highlighting a figure. The most influential artist was Ferdinand Hotz, my uncle. A lifelong gauche artist, he capture the essence of the moment. Each time I put a brush to the paper, I attempt to do just this.

I have loved the medium of watercolor and the way the pigments merge together, and I have also been frustrated when the painting of the subject is not what I had planned. My watercolor instructor Floyd Hopper influenced me greatly  by always saying, “Go with the flow!” Also, Phillip Jamison and Charles Reid, both authors of watercolor books.

There are so many artists who have touched a part of my work — some professional, some just beginning, and some who are yet to come. There are many parts to the whole of an artist and I feel there are still pieces of the pie that I have not eaten!

Mary Uhl’s artwork can be viewed at her gallery on 4094 Main Street in Fish Creek. To contact her, call 920.868.2668.

an artist, an influence: marcia nickols Written on August 9, 2010, by mripp.

From the Peninsula Pulse Newspaper
Published Friday, July 30, 2010

An Artist, An Influence
By Marcia Nickols

I started volunteering at the Hardy Gallery as a docent, and soon asked to learn more about the process of hanging an exhibit. Beth (the Hardy’s Executive Director) introduced me to a self-proclaimed “forever 27-year-old” artist by the name of Tom Seagard. Seagard has volunteered his time for many years hanging exhibits at the Hardy. Not only did I learn how to hang a proper show, but there was also an added bonus: as we hung each piece, he would discuss what made it a good piece of art.

While finding the best spot for each piece of artwork, Tom would point out a variety of things, such as how the artist made the artwork for himself. Often quoting from a professor of his, John Ernst, he has helped me to see more of how the artist was “honest” about their work, the techniques that were theirs alone, and what made their artwork stand out among others. He would point out places where the artist demonstrated total command of the technique and composition. After all of these critiques I understand better how important it is for an artist to respect the viewer and treat them honestly.

Tom has helped me take another look at my previous works of art, look into myself more, and create what really excites me. In doing this, I feel that I am respecting the viewer more because I am truly giving more of myself than I did before. I find myself looking deeper into my artwork and the work of others.

Thank you, Tom, for taking me to a higher level of quality.

Marcia Nickols is an artist living in Ephraim, and her work can be seen at the Gallery of the Door County Art League at the Top of the Hill Shops in Fish Creek as well as at PKJ Designs Gallery in Ephraim and Charlene’s Gallery Ten in Gills Rock. For more information about Marcia’s art, please visit www.woodennickols.com.

art camp: connecting migrant children with creativity Written on August 5, 2010, by mripp.

The Hardy Gallery’s Art Camp program just ended last week, and even though we have many Hardy Gallery supporters, many of them aren’t aware of this program and what it offers the children of Door County’s migrant farm workers. I wrote the following article as part of the Peninsula Pulse’s Culture Club series (in which each organization involved in the Peninsula Arts & Humanities Alliance — PAHA for short — takes an issue of the Pulse to write about something unique to their organization). I hope the article provides a bit more insight about Art Camp!

Art Camp: Connecting Migrant Children with Creativity
Peninsula Pulse, Volume 19, Issue 16
July 30,2010

It is estimated that between one and three million migrant farm workers will leave their homes each year to plant, cultivate, harvest, and pack fruits, vegetables, and nuts throughout the United States. This transience is invisible to most people, but the presence of migrant farm workers in many rural communities throughout the nation is still a constant, even in the age where machines often replace human hands.

I can’t imagine that it’s easy for anyone to pick up and leave their home for a few weeks without a fair amount of effort, but for these workers, it is a very typical way of life. For the children of these workers, this traveling lifestyle often begins at birth and often leads to a disruption in their educations and a disconnection from the community they inhabit for the majority of the year.

Even though many of us know about Door County’s agricultural bounty, it might surprise some readers to learn that there is still a large group of migrant workers that arrive in early July to help harvest the large cherry crop. Because many of these migrant workers have young families, the Gibraltar School District has hosted a Migrant Education Program since the 1960s, when thousands of migrant workers were needed to harvest Door County’s cherry crop by hand. Since then, cherry picking machines have replaced most of the workers — but the Door Peninsula still sees its share of migrant workers, and Gibraltar’s program is still going strong. The program takes place over three weeks, and it ensures that migrant children benefit from the same free public education provided to other children in their age group.

The Hardy Gallery’s involvement with the Migrant Education Program dates back to the early 2000s. One of the components of the Hardy’s mission has always been to enhance the creative enrichment of local youth, and the organization saw the opportunity to collaborate with Gibraltar on a series of arts-focused activities that would blend into their existing program and allow the students to explore their own personal creativity. The migrant children that are served in the program have fewer opportunities to engage in the arts than many of their peers, and the art lessons they do have (if any, because for many this is their first introduction to formal art classes) often lack one-on-one instruction. We developed a loose curriculum for the students and assembled several local artists and volunteers to help us execute the curriculum — and Art Camp was born!

Planning for Art Camp (and the Gibraltar Migrant Program in general) can be challenging — the program hinges on when the cherry crop is ready to pick, and unfortunately, there’s no magic date to schedule around! To give you a bit of insight, this year’s Art Camp instructors, Door County artist Donna Brown (who has selflessly given up many a July to teach the Art Camp program) and our Hardy intern Beth Servais, solidified this year’s Camp on a week’s notice upon learning that the students would be starting school on July 11 — a good two weeks ahead of schedule (last year’s program began at the very end of July)!

The 2010 Art Camp program consists of fourteen total children — and out of that number, six of the children are returning students. One student has been attending the Camp for six years. Most of the students are from Texas, with one being from Michigan and another being from nearby Green Bay. The students range from seven to thirteen-years-old. To that end, there are many challenges for our staff — finding a variety of activities that not only appeal to all ages, but also making sure not to repeat things from year’s past.

I stopped in at Art Camp in its first week, just in time for Donna and Beth to embark on their first project with the students — mask making. Donna asked the kids to think of a favorite animal as a subject for their mask, and then went around the table, asking each student what their animal their mask would be. The students were shy at first, but after a few probing questions from Donna (What does your animal like to eat? Is it regular penguin or a rainbow penguin? What sounds does your animal make?), they happily began sketching, painting, and affixing feathers, antennas, and whiskers to their masks. I always marvel at how the shy and timid nature of the students seems to change in a matter of hours — which only speaks to how the arts build confidence as well as creativity.

As I write this, Art Camp is at the beginning of its second week. In the days to come, the students will learn about positive shapes, the contrast of light and dark, and other concepts. They will create collages, mobiles, will draw as teams, experiment with sculpture, and will even learn about the performing arts. At the end of the third and final week, the Hardy will host a presentation for the students at our gallery on Ephraim’s Anderson Dock. The event is open to the entire community, and highlights the projects that the students worked on throughout the duration of Art Camp. I attended this presentation last year, and what sticks with me the most is the obvious pride these students have in their work and their involvement with the program. The group of students involved in the ending presentation is a far cry from the shy, unsure kids that gingerly sat down at the Art Camp table on that first day. I like to think that programs like Art Camp help these children hold tight to that newfound sense of creativity and excitement about the arts — an excitement that will hopefully stick with them when they travel home, and throughout the rest of their lives.

an artist, an influence: bonnie paruch Written on August 4, 2010, by mripp.

My apologies for not having blogged in awhile — it’s been very busy at the Hardy over these past few weeks, and it seems that every time I sat down to write something, my to-do list was giving me a look! However, I did want to blog the past few “An Artist, an Influence” features that were published in the Peninsula Pulse over the past few weeks. This one comes to your courtesy of Hardy Gallery supporter and Door County oil painter Bonnie Paruch:

I recently had the chance to reconnect with an old acquaintance — one that helped my husband and I make a major decision many years ago. While we chatted, I remembered a conversation we had shared at a time when we were considering becoming self-employed in a new art business. I could recall our friend, Tom Lidtke saying, “Are you ready for success?” On another occasion when I wondered aloud when the time was right to start showing my work, Tom pushed me along with these words: “If you wait until you think you’re ready, you’ll never begin!”

I’ve spent a lot of time considering the many individuals who have influenced my career. What follows is my collection of memorable and empowering words, spoken by the people who have made a difference in my life as an artist:

Vernon Paruch (my husband): “Do we really need a dining room? You need a studio!”

Bill Parks (teacher and mentor): “Keep smiling.”

Wally Scheunemann (Sunday painter and friend): “You’re an oil painter. Get rid of those *!#* watercolors!”

Dan Gerhartz (artist and mentor): “Just paint.”

An unknown gallery visitor in Scottsdale, AZ: “You paint like a dead Russian.”

Ryan (my son) at age eight, pointing to paintings in our home: “These are the ones my mom didn’t sell.”

Austin (my son): “That one belongs in a museum.”

Irene & Alex Goeden (mom and dad): “Give it time.”

Lori Beringer (friend and artist): “It’s okay to ask for help.”

Pamela Sweet (friend and artist): “You can do it!”

All of these individuals have inspired me to give a little more, try and little harder, and listen more intently. Pay it forward and pass the word.

Bonnie’s work may be viewed at her website, www.bonnieparuchfineart.com, or at her studio, which is located at 11249 County Road ZZ in Sister Bay and is open 1 – 4 pm Wednesday and Saturday or by appointment. She is also represented by Edgewood Orchard Galleries in Fish Creek. For more information about Bonnie and her artwork, please call 920.421.1616.

an artist, an influence: karsten topelmann Written on July 9, 2010, by mripp.

Door County is proud of our rich visual arts community — our peninsula boasts over 100 galleries and studios hidden both off and on our county’s main-traveled roads, and that doesn’t count the amazing art that’s coming out of Kewaunee County right now — or all of the artists that don’t have galleries or studio spaces. I don’t even know if I’d want to hazard a guess as to how many visual artists thrive in this tiny little community of ours — I’m sure whatever number I threw out into the world would be a gross understatement.

In any event, because of our geography and the tourist economy of our peninsula, there’s an even more amazing thing at play than simply having all of these artists around – and that’s that you can actually get to know them. You find out where they’re from, how they made their way to our community. You become friends with them, you eat dinner in their houses, you talk about art and life. And for me (this is Melissa writing) I think that’s the best part of being involved with the artist community in Door County – the fact that not only do you get to know these amazing artists personally, you get to be their friends.

One of the first set of artist friends I made in Door County was Karsten Topelmann and his wife, Ellen Sprogo-Topelmann. Anyone who has met Karsten and Ellen can vouch for the fact that they’re amazing people — and unbelievable artists. I first met this dynamic couple when I was a young girl, living with my grandmother for the summer on the next street north of their home and gallery on County Q in Ephraim. I spent a lot of time walking around the tiny streets and lanes of Ephraim, and I was so taken by their house one day that I decided to stop in. Karsten and Ellen made me feel at home immediately, and I loved their warm German accents, the way they playfully teased me (and each other!) and (in a moment of self-indulgent honesty) how important they made a shy 12-year-old girl feel. I stayed at their gallery for over an hour, Ellen showing me paintings and telling me where she found the inspiration for them. At the end of my time there, Ellen told me to wait a moment, for she had something for me. She came out with a small framed print of a wedding party scene, the focal point of the painting a young blond woman holding the hand of her newly betrothed as the wedding party streamed out of the Ephraim Moravian Church. “I know you are too young to get married,” Ellen said, teasing me, “But when you came in our gallery today, you reminded me of her. I want you to have this.” This random act of kindness was something that I had never witnessed before, and to this day, thinking about that story warms my heart.

I relate this story because the Hardy Gallery has partnered with the Peninsula Pulse to bring the Door County community a small arts feature called “An Artist, an Influence.” The feature is basically what you’d expect from the title – a Door County artist telling about someone (or something) who influenced their artwork. This week’s feature comes to you from none other than Karsten Topelmann, and in reading his words, I find myself remembering the stories about his mother and father, and the artists he admired that he told me when I was a young girl stumbling into his gallery. He was a great storyteller then…and the years have not changed that.

Please click here to read Karsten’s story on the Peninsula Pulse’s website — and be sure to check out the Pulse for a new “An Artist, an Influence” every week. I will try my best to keep up with posting them on our blog as well!

Hardy’s Mosaic Project Inspires! Written on July 1, 2010, by mripp.

Working for an organization like the Hardy is doubly rewarding — not only to you get to promote the visual arts in a community that you love, but every once in awhile, you find out that you’re inspired someone else (whether it’s an individual or another organization) to do the same.

The Hardy’s Executive Director, Elizabeth Meissner-Gigstead, recently passed along a link to a webpage that described a “Vision Mosaic Mural” that had been unveiled this spring by the Wisconsin Council for the Blind and Visually Impaired, a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote the dignity and independence of the people in Wisconsin who are legally blind and visually impaired by providing services, advocating legislation, and educating the general public. The council had teamed up with nearby Edgewood College in Madison to construct a large-scale mosaic mural composed of more than 100 unique artwork panels created by people of all ages with the help of Edgewood’s art therapy students.

The story is truly heartwarming — during the winter of 2010, the Edgewood College art therapy students conducted a workshop for a small group of students who attend the Wisconsin Center for the Blind & Visually Impaired in Janesville. Together, they worked on the mural artwork panels to be used in the Vision Mosaic Mural. Each student from the center was paired with an art therapy student who introduced them to various media and tactile items that could serve as parts of their own panel.

The story is inspiring all on it’s own– but when Beth revealed that the inspiration for the project came from the Hardy’s own Community Mosaic Project, it brought a whole new degree of “warm and fuzzy.” And in the thick of 300-plus canvases coming into the gallery this week in preparations for our third-annual Community Mosaic Project exhibit that will be unveiled in a few week, it only reiterates the importance of this project — both in terms of community building and increasing arts awareness overall.

Interested in reading more about the Wisconsin Council for the Blind and Visually Impaired’s project? Click here!

Grant News! Written on June 29, 2010, by mripp.

Friday is usually a good day at the Hardy office for obvious reasons — the end of the work week and the beginning of weekend plans. However, last Friday was made even better by some extremely good news! During the course of the day, we learned that we were the recipients of not one, but TWO important grants that will help the Hardy carry out its mission of promoting and fostering Door County art and artists.

One of these grants was made possible by the Wisconsin Arts Board, and is called a “Creation and Presentation” grant. This grant provides artistic program and operational support to established nonprofit arts organizations whose primary mission is to create or present ongoing arts programming that makes a significant local, regional, or statewide impact on the cultural life of Wisconsin — and, at the same time, furthers the Arts Board’s community development and arts education goals. The grant is a multi-year program, with one group (music, opera/music theater, theater) applying in odd calendar years and the second group (visual arts, etc.) applying in even calendar years, so the total award is stretched out over two years. The Hardy recieved just over $7,000 over two years from this grant.

Just as wonderful as the grant itself is the fact that the Wisconsin Arts Board posts audio files of the grant panel reviews — so the office got to listen to every aspect of the Hardy’s panel review. So many nice things were said about our organization — that the work we do with such a small staff is pretty amazing, our programs were creative and extremely well-executed, that is was nice to see a small organization that was actually increasing their marketing budget in spite of the economy, and (a direct quote) that the Hardy was a “case study in how an arts organization was thriving in the midst of the economic downturn.” To be completely honest, the comments made us blush a little…but it was great to see that our hard work in the past few years has been recognized!

In addition to the good news about the WAB grant, we also recieved notice that we had been awarded a Google Grant and would be able to begin promoting the Hardy’s website free of charge through Google.com! Google only gives this award to about 4,000 non-profit organizations in the United States, and when you think of how many non-profit companies there are in the world, the fact that the Hardy won one of these grants is pretty cool! The typical amount of grant money an average Google Grants recipient receives is a little over $300/month, which works out to be over $3,600/year. The Hardy is very excited to start building this portion of our marketing plan — and we know that it will increase our website traffic (and, of course, awareness about the Hardy as a result!) significantly.

If you know of a non-profit organization that might benefit from a Google Grant, be sure to forward this link to them. It doesn’t take much time to fill the online forms out — and they might find themselves on the receiving end of some free Google marketing!

http://www.google.com/grants/

ETC Photography Mentorship Completed! Written on June 21, 2010, by mripp.

We can explain our ETC (Exposure to Creativity) program until we’re blue in the face, but when Door County photographer and ETC mentor Suzanne Rose dropped an entire disc of photos off at the office detailing her mentorship experience, we figured these photos might speak more to what we’re striving to achieve with this program!

Suzanne mentored three photography students over a series of four months — Gibraltar High School students Sage Conrad, Ashley Schnick, and David Reinhardt. See the story of their mentorship experience below!

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