Art of the Lakes 108 Lake Ave S Battle Lake, MN Upcoming Studio Tour Reception Saturday, July 8 (6-8) at the AOTL Gallery Studio Tour July 14-15-16 Monthly Meeting Tuesday, July 18 AOTL annual potluck picnic at Glendalough State Park. The picnic will start at 5:30. Bring a generous dish to share! AOTL Studio Tour Rides Again! by Kristi Kuder All AOTL members, families, and friends are invited to the Studio Tour's Opening Reception at the gallery on July 8th from 6-8 pm. This is a great opportunity to meet and connect with the other member artists and the community at-large. Please join us for a fun evening! July 14, 15 & 16 is AOTL's Studio Tour weekend with 53 member artists showing this year!!! New to the tour this year is a campaign to bring art awareness to the community and hopefully increased sales to the participating artists and merchants. For every purchase over $10 from a Tour artist that weekend, the buyer receives an I BUY ART sticker good for discounts throughout the area. Please support your fellow artists and local merchants by spreading the word. U P C O M I N G Studio Tour Artists The I Buy Art stickers are available for you to pick up at the gallery (in the box in the bathroom, of course!). More are on order. The list of participating merchants will be ready by the Studio Tour Reception on July 8. Artists can pick them up there, and Kristi Kuder will also send out an email with the file attached so the list can be printed on demand.
AOTL Chair: John Olesen 218-405-0234 johnolesen@whitepinestudio.com Treasurer: Diana Fuder 218-205-4326 dfuder@hotmail.com Secretary/Jewelry Coordinator: Sandy Thimgan 218-862-5594 Gallery Sitter Coordinator: 218-998-4803 otterlady9@hotmail.com 2-D Display Coordinator: Winnie Collins 218-864-5925 twcollins@arvig.net 3-D Display Coordinator: 218-998-4803 otterlady9@hotmail.com Newsletter Editor: Dan Thimgan 218-862-5594 Featured Artist Coordinator: Donna Westerling 651-633-55943144 donnawesterling@aol.com AOTL Administrator: Reba Gilliand 218-864-8606 aotl@arvig.net The mission of Art of the Lakes is to develop, promote, and encourage an interest in the arts in the area through art exhibitions and art related education activities for people of all ages. Art of the Lakes is funded in part by a grant from the Lake Region Arts Council through an appropriation from the Minnesota State Legislature. Captain s Corner AOTL Chair John Olesen Summer is in full swing now and the gallery has been hopping!!! As some of you know, I ve been working in the gallery on Friday nights in June extending the hours from 8pm to 10pm to see what kind of foot traffic is around Battle Lake after 8pm. The results from those extra two hours have been interesting! Here is a sampling of this experiment from the first four Fridays in June. June 2nd: I was pleasantly surprised to have nine visitors: two St.Cloud area couples who were there following dinner. One of the ladies in this group having known of the gallery previously, but all four spending over an hour looking around the space with interest. The other five visitors were three people who finished their ice cream faster than the rest of their group, and a younger couple on their way to dinner. June 9th: five visitors before 9pm a mix of Granny s customers and the dinner crowd. Then at 9pm, there was a passing thunderstorm and everyone disappeared. June 16th: 17 visitors. Many were diners and most of those were out-of-town visitors. One area couple who didn t know the gallery was here, and coincidentally, she is actually an artist! June 23rd: 31 visitors! Also, for the first time some sales after 8pm. Two factors contributed to the increase in people stopping by: firstly, that this was the first Friday that truly felt like summer was here. Secondly, I propped open the front door which directly contributed to quite a few people stopping in on their way to dinner. I watched two couples walk by the door, glance in, stop, turn around and come in! To me, this example speaks to the desperate need for new windows! The new windows will happen soon, and I think that will increase foot traffic at all times of the day. As for the extended hours, it will be interesting to see what the rest of the summer brings. With the use of data from Shopkeep, in conjunction with our manual tracking of visitors to the gallery, we have the information to target the hours we should be open and optimize the contribution of our members valuable time. In other gallery business, we have several new displaying members which is excellent! Welcome to you all! Everyone likes seeing new work in the gallery. That said, we haven't discovered any unused wall space to accommodate all the new artists. Wall space is a fairly constant issue. Winnie Collins does a great job of juggling to insure that everyone has the opportunity to display their art. In talking with Winnie, she uses the rules we currently have in place, e.g., older than three years, and to limit the number of large format pieces. This helps determine what pieces come down in order to accommodate each new artist, as well as new work from established members. This is a difficult job, and I would like to ask anyone to help out if you can. Thank you to all the members who stopped by Lake Region Arts Council Gallery on June 20, the opening reception for Refraction, an exhibit of collaborative works by Jenny Field and myself. If you missed the reception, the show is on display until July 28. The gallery is located at 137 South Mill Street in Fergus Falls. While you're there, don t miss Arlene Sherman's beautiful works in the adjoining LRAC Solo gallery.
July Events AOTL Studio Tour July 14-16 Preview Reception July 8 6-8 at the AOTL Gallery live music/food/beverages July Workshops July 12 Mary Smith Carry Basket Weaving contact: Linda Andres La55124@yahoo.com June 22 Kim Bakken-Parr Fine Silver Jewelry with Precious Metal Clay contact: Sandy Thimgan Gallery Sitters If you are unable to sit at the gallery on the days for which you signed up, you are responsible for finding a substitute. You may find someone to trade days with you, or if you decide to hire a replacement, the fee is $8.00/hour payable to the substitute. Substitutes available: Theresa Hanson 218-310-4721 Craig Haukebo 2318-862-5510 John Mehl 218-864-8525 Ila Osman 218-864-0181 Sandy Thimgan 218-862-5594 Donna Westerling 612-386-2868 July 22 John Olesen Blown Glass Tumblers (*private lessons) contact: Bonnie Showers showersbonnie@gmail.com July 25-27 Sandra Barnhouse Realism through Design and Hard Pastel contact: Janet Demars janetdemars@hotmail.com July 28 Mary Williams Clay Sculpture contact: Terry Oscarson toscarson@arvig.net July 31 - August 1 Kristi Swee Kuder Foraged Color the Art and Science of Eco-Printing contact: Ila Osmin ilamlo@arvig.net AOTL Board Members John Olesen, chair (2019) Diana Fuder, treasurer (2019) Sandy Thimgan, secretary (2019) (2018) Sharon Fleischauer (2018) Stephen Henning (2019) Craig Haukebo (2020) Annette Hochstein (2020) Kristi Kuder (2020)
AOTL Featured Artists of the Month (July 1-15) Meet the Artist Days July 4 (11-6) July 14 (9-8) Residence: Fergus Falls, MN Medium: Raku fired ceramics/art pottery: vessels, tiles, wall panels, and sculpture. Most work is a combination of wheel thrown and coil built ceramic with crackle glazed surfaces creating an ancient earthy feel to my work Artistic intent: This show will have all new work. You will find that it is nature inspired. The beauty that I see each day becomes the subject of the next piece. People are not as connected to the outdoors, we're at work, in our cars or at home. So, I document the natural beauty of our region to help people connect with the outdoors when they can't be there in person. Raku is an ancient Japanese pottery technique which is to remove the glowing hot vessel from the kiln and immerse it into a bed of combustible materials. The vessel ignites the combustible material and blackens every part of the pot that isn't glazed. It also imparts brilliant color and copper blush onto the work. No two vessels will be alike because of the work of the fire and the handwork combine into a unique piece. Michael Weatherly Woman III (July 16-31) Artist s Reception July 28, 5:00-7:00 pm Michael Weatherly Residence: Elbow Lake, MN Medium: Printmaker: Mainly relief wood and linoleum Artistic Intent: I try to depict things we see in everyday life people, places, nature. Going Deep
A Special Thank You! (Because volunteers never get enough thanks) Donna Westerling Featured Artist coordinator who also volunteered to coordinate artists shown at Stella s restaurant in Battle Lake Eugene Smith for donating two paintings from long-time Battle Lake resident and early AOTL artist, Gladys Gense Craig Haukebo (see right) Kristi Kuder and John Olesen for heading up this year s Studio Tour and Reception Bonnie Showers for becoming the new AOTL Workshop Co-Chair Rumor has it there will be a S Mores Bar at the Studio Tour Reception at the gallery on July 8th! You shouldn t miss that! Other July Events Arlene Sherman s Solo Artist Exhibit will be on display from June 1 - July 31 (Mon- Fri, 9-5) at the LRAC Solo Gallery in Fergus Falls. John Olesen and Jenny Field s Refraction Exhibit at the LRAC Main Gallery in Fergus Falls will continue throughout July, ending on the 28th. LRAC Annual Meeting & 40th Anniversary Celebration will be held at the Rourke Gallery in Moorhead, MN, on July 25th. 5 pm Social Hour/meal at Rustica. Reception and awards at the Rourke Gallery from 6:30-9:00. Craig Haukebo: Volunteer Extraordinaire Who is this guy? What s he doing at the gallery all the time? Why do we see him at every AOTL function? Well, that s because Craig is an AOTL Volunteer Extraordinaire! According to AOTL Administrator Reba Gilliand, below are just a few of the things that volunteer Craig Haukebo does to make Art of Lakes run more smoothly: works with Reba to enter sales data into Quick Books for accounting and to pay artists works with Reba to count cash in the envelopes and match to Shopkeep reports hand delivers bill payments to local businesses saving postage ensures cash drawer is sufficiently and correctly supplied each day waters plants in ART Stream alley spays weeds in back of gallery on occasion helps set up and take down chairs, screen, and demonstration mirror when needed helps set up and take down information tent at the Art & Craft Affair Thanks, Craig!