| Studio Tour will be part of ArtSwirl events |
By: DAVID HENKE, Staff Writer
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Posted: Wednesday, August 6, 2008 1:02 am
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NORTHFIELD — It isn’t exactly easy to find Rhonda Bank’s art studio. Bank, a local watercolor painter, doesn’t own a gallery just off of Division Street, or lease space in any of the local businesses. Instead, she works out of a personal studio in the basement of her house, and, like a handful of other artists living in Northfield, she relies on word-of-mouth, the occasional exhibit or juried show and her Web site for publicity.
That is why Bank, who has been painting since 2002, is eagerly anticipating the Greater Northfield Studio Tour, from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday as part of Northfield’s annual ArtSwirl festival.
“I just think it makes you real,” Bank said. “Visitors actually see where you paint and what you do.”
IF YOU GO
Greater Northfield Studio Tour, noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 10.
PARTICIPATING STUDIOS AND GALLERIES
• Rhonda Bank, 1307 Thye Parkway, Northfield (watercolor).
• Toni Easterson, 316 Oak Street, Northfield (fiber/textile art).
• St. Olaf College, Flaten Art Gallery, Dittman Center “Looking Towards the Heavens,” featuring the paintings of renowned Chinese artist He Qi.
• Carla Thompson, Barefoot Studio, 418 Division Street, Northfield (acrylic painting).
• Jennifer Wolcott, 3725 W. 321st St., Waterford (metal, glass, concrete). |
Bank’s studio is one of five studios or galleries open to the public as part of the ArtSwirl studio art tour. Local artists Toni Easterson, Jennifer Walcott and Carla Thompson are also participating, and St. Olaf College will reopen an exhibit of paintings by Chinese artist He Qi in Flaten Art Gallery for the tour.
In the past, the organizers of ArtSwirl arranged a Northfield studio crawl that included a number of downtown galleries and personal art studios, but with the focus of ArtSwirl shifting to downtown Northfield this year, Jessica Paxton, a co-chair of the ArtSwirl planning committee, decided to arrange a studio tour dedicated to representing those visual artists who might otherwise miss out.
“Even though this year’s ArtSwirl has a definite downtown focus, we didn’t want to exclude the artists in the greater Northfield area,” Paxton said.
Both Paxton and Bank hope the Greater Northfield Studio Tour will give tour-goers a uniquely personal look into an artists’ life.
“Because painting is such a solitary thing, it’s fun to actually bring people in and show them where I hide out so much of the time,” Bank said. “I think a lot of people are interested in the process itself.”
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For Toni Easterson, a textile artist who will also open her studio to visitors during the tour, ArtSwirl and the studio tour are a chance to support the arts and answer visitors’ questions about textile art, a less common medium.
“It’s kind of a lost art,” Easterson said. “It isn’t as common, and it’s becoming a more appreciated field because fewer people are doing it.”
Besides the Greater Northfield Studio Tour, a Downtown Studio and Gallery Crawl is scheduled for Saturday, and will showcase work in 12 different galleries and studios in downtown Northfield.
According to Paxton, the Greater Northfield Studio Tour should take two or three hours to complete. The Northfield Arts Guild will provide maps and mark the galleries with directional signs. Info is available atnorthfieldartsguild.org.
— David Henke can be reached at dhenke@northfieldnews.com or 645-1100.
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