From fusing broken glass to shaping clay on a pottery wheel, members of Northland Art Society show various brushstrokes of visual art talent from across Borderland.
“The art kind of takes you where it wants to go sometimes,” said the club’s newest member, Margaret Sedgwick of Fort Frances, who joined last fall. “You can start in one direction and be taken in another by your creative spirit.”
Club members range from dabbling artists looking for an extra hobby, to those who consider themselves “serious artists.” Members, who meet twice a week to work together in the club’s art room at Backus Community Center, have talent in areas including painting, drawing, sculpting, pottery, jewelry-making, glass slumping, photography, and mosaic.
Regardless of the art form or media used, skills learned through art are relevant to daily life, according to Kathie Fluke, the group’s public relations coordinator.
“It makes you learn how to problem-solve and figure things out,” Fluke said. “You learn about thinking outside the box.”
Art uses both sides of the brain, Fluke added, in thinking about various steps in the project as well as relating to color, tones and use of types of color.
Sedgwick is new at the glass work she does, she said.
“This is something you really have to learn; it didn’t come easy to me,” she said of glass slumping, which requires cutting different types of glass and strategically placing them before they are “melted” or fused together in a kiln. Then she finds a mold and slumps the glass to give it curvature. “There is an art to it, a lot of it is trial and error.”
One of the glass pieces displayed in the room is an old wine bottle that an artist melted and fused into what looks like a flattened blue wine bottle, but is used as a cheese tray.
“You start buying wine bottles in terms of how they’ll look when they’re fused,” said Kathie Fluke, the group’s public relations coordinator, as she laughed.
Borderland inspiration
Bringing together artists from both sides of the border and from different levels of experience brings out more well-rounded pieces, Sedgwick said.
“I think we’re really fortunate to live on the border because we have double the opportunities,” she said. “What’s great about this art club is that you learn from each other. I enjoy it more than solitary work. I get more inspired around these artistic people. And we have so many inspirations here.”
Joyce Rasmussen, who has been in the group for 25 years and mainly does watercolor, said she finds inspiration in the local scenery: Rainy Lake, trees, wildlife, rocks, the clouds, sunrise and sunset and gardens.
“Every place you go, there is art,” Rasmussen said. “Even the light that comes into your kitchen window is inspiring.”
Kay Arnold, president of the club, who has been involved since 1993, said even famous artists like Claude Monet have acknowledged there is always more to learn as an artist.
“He died at age 96, and there is a famous quote that he says before his death, ‘Oh, just as I was catching on,’” Arnold said with a smile.
Fluke added that many people are inspired into a media of art from initial exposure to a different type of art.
“What first inspired me to paint was I was taking photos of sunrises and sunsets, and I wanted to be able to paint the scenes,” Fluke said.
She added that the region may also have a disadvantage for visual artists.
“Around here, people will spend a couple hundred dollars to have a fish mounted, but not for a painting to put up on the wall,” Fluke said. “It’s the Minnesota culture here, especially. A real appreciation of the visual arts is not instilled in people.”
Historically, the first art group in the area started meeting locally in the mid-1940s; the group was made up of painters who met in area garages, homes, and schools. They formed The Palette Painters Club in 1955, the name has changed over the years and is now Northland Art Society and has been meeting in Backus since 2002.
Members agree being involved in art makes them feel centered and teaches them to live in the present moment.
“When you start with one thing and it becomes another, it’s a feeling of achieving the impossible,” Sedgwick said.
