Arts Guild Reflections

Feeling quite reflective lately. I have a recent personal blog entry reminiscing
what it was like to go back and see a favorite sculpture, on a college campus
that I hadn't seen in over 20 years. To say the least, it was moving. That
sculpture marked a time when I began seriously making art and appreciating
it, a time in my life that helped steer my path. A lot has happened since I stood
in front of that sculpture in 1989. (For the full blog entry, use link below.)
http://tbesonen.blogspot.com/2011/09/vision-that-was-planted-in-1989.html

“The Arvegods” (1979) by Ray Jacobson, represents a pair of early Norwegian pioneers.

Concordia College, Moorhead campus.

I am also looking back to two short years ago, when the Menahga Arts

Guild was forming, and I was meeting some of the other artists in our
community for the first time. I had my doubts that I could steer the ship
as the president, but I learned that teamwork keeps an organization
like this going. As artists we work well alone, but we have proven that
we can accomplish a lot when combining our talents and strengths.
And currently, I believe we are on the tip of realizing just how much
more we can accomplish individually with encouragement from each
other!

Two years of MAG, in estimated numbers:
$7100--how much we have received in grant funds from
             The 5 Wings Arts Council
91--how many students attended our Youth Arts Camp
       over two summers 
30--local artists who have somehow benefited from the MAG
$2500--how much our April Scholarship fundraiser earned in 2011
250--how many people were served yummy bbq ribs during our
         April 2011 fundraiser
100--how many silent auction items were donated for our fundraiser
4--how many arts guild members recently applied for individual artist
     grants
15--how many gallery exhibits arts guild members have been in over
       the last two years
25--how many art & craft festivals/sales members have participated
       in over two years
350--how many people walk through our Mid-Summer craft festival
         each summer
25--how many craft vendors had booths at our 2011 craft festival
$1000--the amount of our MAG Art Scholarship, for a graduating
             Menahga High School senior going into an art-related field in
             college, will be announced in April 2012
70--artworks by youth art camp participants on display at the Cottage
       House Cafe during August 2011

July 2011 youth art camp paintings drying

July 2011 youth art camp handmade paper/paint quilts

July 2011 youth art camp, watercolor still life painting

Intuitive Ewe




February Ewe 1, 2011. Ink on a 1921 encyclopedia page.
(Click on image to see words and details.)

 Artist blog entry from Menahga Arts Guild member, T. Besonen.
http://tbesonen.blogspot.com/

Recently, I have been working more intuitively with images, words,
and materials to create narratives that seem to delve into the
subconscious. Creating these personal metaphors is a therapeutic
process of soothing my own anxieties, and discovering how we are
all connected to each other, as well as connected to nature and to
the past.

Also, I have been researching the Art Nouveau movement of the
early 1900s in art and design history. I am fascinated with how this
time period was such an important transition into the modern art era,
and I see parallels between the industrialization of the early 1900s
and the digitalization of today.

Drawing on the surface of 1920s encyclopedia pages with black
ink, I am enjoying the process of responding to the surface texture
and words as sheep images and natural, art-nouveau-inspired
motifs overlap.

I grew up on a sheep farm in North-Central Minnesota. At age
eleven, I became awe-inspired by nursing half-frozen lambs back
to life, and experienced mothering instincts for the first time.
Experiences with mothering my own two daughters today, the
oldest nearly eleven, may be why sheep images are surfacing in
my work recently.



February Ewe 2, 2011. Ink on a 1921 encyclopedia page.
(Click on image to see words and details.)