5119 McQuade Road, Duluth, MN 55804
Joan Bellin, Host Artist
Overlooking Lake Superior from my home and studio, I feel gratitude. I’ve been able to work for a lifetime as a mixed media artist. What appears in my work, primarily through printmaking mediums, is not planned as much as sought. Merging human constructs with the natural is where I find the balance I seek.
Some images are cropped. Please click on each photo to see the entire artwork. All images copyrighted & may not be reproduced without permission.
Robert DeArmond, Guest Artist
Throughout my long career in clay, I have intentionally focused on producing work that is beautiful to look at, feels good in your hands, and enriches everyday life. I look to the natural world around me for inspiration. This is expressed in clean, simple forms, and traditional glazes combined with intentional, yet spontaneous, decorative elements. The glazed surfaces reflect colors found in nature. The decorative elements introduce texture and color. Working in high fire stoneware clay allows me to produce work that can be used on a daily basis. Since retiring from a long career in arts administration, I have reset my life by rediscovering my passion for clay. In the Duluth Art Institute’s Clay Studio, I have become reconnected with a vibrant clay community that enables me to be involved with artists of all ages. My goal is to continue to explore form and function and to grow my personal style as a clay artist.
Some images are cropped. Please click on each photo to see the entire artwork. All images copyrighted & may not be reproduced without permission.
Karen Keenan, Guest Artist
Traditional handwork practices in clay and hairwork braiding ground my creative output. Regarding clay and pottery, I use a Bernard Leach treadle wheel for throwing white or iron clay bodies. Thrown forms are sometimes altered with hand building techniques. In terms of surface applications, my work travels two routes. One focuses on texture development through addition or subtractive actions. Another uses the smooth clay body surface of thrown items to make a variety of glaze applications such as decorative resist techniques or brushwork applications. I strive to create pleasing relationships between mostly functional pottery pieces and their surfaces. My pottery is informed by problem solving, nature, research, practice and previous teachers and/or mentors with backgrounds in the craft movements of the early 1900s. My work has been shown in exhibitions at the Nordic Center, Duluth Art Institute and MacRostie Gallery (Grand Rapids, MN). The hairwork items I create are inspired by the traveling hairworkers of Våmhus, Sweden, the home of my ancestors. In 2018 and 2024 I received fellowships from the American Swedish Foundation to study hairwork in Våmhus and Stockholm. Since 2019 I have been making hair jewelry, demonstrating and giving presentations about this art form, researching hairwork in the Midwest, and teaching others how to make hairwork jewelry as it is known through pubic print material. Hairwork classes are held at North House Folk School in Grand Marais, MN or at the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis, MN.
Some images are cropped. Please click on each photo to see the entire artwork. All images copyrighted & may not be reproduced without permission.
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