A Day at the Fair: Weaving Memories and Weathering the Storm

 The Minnesota State Fair is a bittersweet time and marks the end of summer for Minnesotans. Nestled within the Twin Cities metro area, the fair attracts a diverse crowd from the city, across Minnesota, and neighboring states. It’s a big deal in our state, with many folks upholding annual traditions they revisit every year. For artists, it represents the largest juried art exhibition in Minnesota. The competition is fierce—this year, there were 2,821 entries, with only 333 works making the cut. Despite the overwhelming number of pieces, the display space is expertly arranged, providing enough room to breathe between works—a delicate balance indeed.

Studio space for the day.

My one-day residency at the fair was on Monday, August 26th, which turned out to be a beastly hot and humid day—the hottest day of our summer. I joked with many visitors that it felt just like a typical summer day in St. Louis. Despite the sweltering weather, I had a great time working on my studio projects and chatting with the crowds. The day concluded with severe storms rolling into the area. We were evacuated to the 4-H Building under some of the eeriest orange skies I’ve ever seen. Thankfully, the walk from the Fine Arts Building was short, but it was quite an experience with blowing debris, dust, and sand instantly sticking to our sweaty skin. The police and fair staff guided us to shelter, where we waited out the storm. The 4-H kids seized the moment and entertained the captive audience with a musical production—they were fantastic! While we sheltered, 4-Hers walked through the crowd, offering water and checking on everyone. The storm passed quickly, and the day ended much cooler, though the fairgrounds required quite a bit of cleanup.

With the help of the Weavers Guild of Minnesota, I borrowed a loom to work on during my residency. It took most of the day to find the time to sit down and start a piece, but I managed to get a decent start on a new work.

Working in an art gallery is pretty great!

This piece will always remind me of late August. It began at the state fair and was finished in my garage, accompanied by the summer cicadas’ song. In many ways, works made on the loom become time capsules for me. I often remember what I was thinking during particular sections of the work. This piece holds the conversations I had with fair visitors, as well as the chats with neighbors passing by my garage. I suppose seeing someone weave in their garage isn’t a common sight—I highly recommend it.

I vividly recall the curiosity of folks and their questions: How does the loom work? Do I work from a sketch? And, of course, the ever-popular, How long does it take?

At the fair, I had a notebook on my table with the prompt: "What do you love about Minnesota?" While many people were happy to engage with me directly, others quietly approached the book and wrote their thoughts without speaking. I expected plenty of comments about nature, state parks, and the lakes, but I was delighted by how many mentioned the people as their favorite part of Minnesota.

I want to extend a big thank you to Jim Clark and the staff of the Fine Arts Center for making me feel welcome, cared for, and for giving me the opportunity to share my work with visitors. I couldn’t have asked for a better experience. Thanks also to the state fair transportation crew for making it easy to get where I needed to go. A heartfelt thanks to the Weavers Guild of Minnesota for the loan of the loom and to all the members who stopped by with curiosity and support. Finally, thank you to everyone who braved the weather to come out and visit with me.

Join Me at the Great Minnesota Get-Together: One-Day Artist Residency!

I am honored to announce that I have been invited to participate in a one-day micro artist residency at the Minnesota State Fair through the Studio: HERE program. This program showcases twelve artists over the twelve days of the fair, providing a unique opportunity for the public to engage with the creative process.

On August 26, from 9 am to 9 pm, I will be in the Fine Arts Building, experimenting and making new work. As part of the event, there will be a special exhibition featuring artists participating in Studio: HERE, including my newest work, Solace.

Studio: HERE aims to reveal the hidden labor of being an artist and offers the public a chance to interact with artists about their processes, work, and experiences. I look forward to sharing my journey and connecting with visitors at this exciting event.

Solace

28.5" h x 27.25: w x 1" d, Linen, cotton. Handwoven painted linen with reclaimed fabric rag rug structure and fabric scrap and linen yarn fringe. 2024

Impaired Water

I never really thought much about rag rugs until lately. So it is with some amusement that I have found myself drawn to making them. In the past,  I’ve made a few functional rugs for my studio space, and I love living with them. I love that I can reuse textiles or use up fabrics that have been languishing in my fabric collection. Rag rugs represent a link to culture for me, on both my Swedish and Finnish sides. They are so common in homes of Nordic decedents. I have a book and a DVD on my shelf about the rag rugs of Finnish American weavers. My new preoccupation is using a rag rug foundation to layer fabrics and stitches to build upon the meaning of home, culture, and to reuse my maps of environments and places in nature.

 I started by hand painting a linen warp to build colors of the warp with the colors of the rags that I’m using. I cut down remnant fabrics from other projects, overdyed textiles from the home, and perhaps my favorite, fabrics that were once pieces that didn’t work out, leaving the stitches in place and letting them poke out into the rug. I love seeing how color can be altered while the weaving is taking place.

Rag rug in progress on the loom with stitch remnants from a previous incarnation.

My latest work, Impaired Water, resulted from this experimentation. In this piece, I wove on a linen painted warp with linen fabric scraps and handmade paper. The paper is printed with the names of names of impaired waters found in the seven counties of the Twin Cities Metro areas. Monitoring water impairment and reporting findings every two years are requirements of the Clean Water Act. Impairments can include bacteria, litter sediment, and fertilizers. Storm water runs unfiltered off lawns, parking lots and roads and ends up in our lakes, streams, and rivers. Local and state governments are working to mitigate the impacts on our water. There is also a lot that individuals can do to improve water health in their neighborhoods and communities. To learn more, visit the Minnesota Water Stewards website at https://minnesotawaterstewards.org.

Impaired Water, 2023

When I wrote my proposal for the Art for Water project, I proposed a group of eight pieces for exhibition in the fall. Since I have continued my research into the project, it became clear that this wasn’t going to be just a single project, but a body of work. Impaired Water is the first piece.

Detail of Impaired Water with the names of water weaving in and out of visibility.

I received news this week that Impaired Water was accepted into the Minnesota State Fair Fine Art Exhibition. I’m thrilled that it will be seen by so many at the state fair, bringing the message of protecting our water to many people.