Northwoods Night Sky by Tanner Hermes.
Greetings from the North Shore, where it’s been really amazing to wake up in the morning and see that it’s 62 degrees and to say to yourself, Yikes! it’s going to get hot today.
“Hot,” in this context, means 72 degrees or so. For those of us who like “cool,” 72 qualifies as “hot.” But any way you look at it, 72 degrees in the first week of October, is, well, strange.
Truth be told, we’re scheduled to have typical fall temps of 50 degrees or so by the weekend. Frost in the highlands, perhaps, but no frost by Lake Superior for a while.
In all cases, we’re truly enjoying this long fall. The colors are gorgeous and the gardens are thriving.
There’s lots to do this week in the county, too, including a wide variety of outdoor activities, music, and art.
For the next two days, Oct. 4-5, the public will have an opportunity to watch Duluth artist, Paul LaJeunesse, create a mural on the north side of the Stone Harbor Wilderness Supply building.
Draft of the Paul LaJeunesse mural that will be installed at Stone Harbor Wilderness Supply this week.
The public is invited to watch and meet the artist as the mural, entitled “Forge”, is created.
On Thursday, Art Night at Joy and Company will feature making art to celebrate the season.
Creating with fall leaves will be the topic of this week’s Art Night at Joy and Company.
Participants will be shown ways to preserve leaves so that the colors last well into the next season, and then they can try their hand at making a beautiful leaf collage themselves. The event is from 4-6 pm at the shop. It is free with a suggested donation. The public is invited.
There are only two more weeks left to find locally grown produce and baked goods at the Grand Marais Farmer’s Market, which closes for the season on Oct. 12.
Nick Wharton arranges his vegetables on his table at the Grand Marais Farmer’s Market. There are only two markets left this season. It closes Oct. 12. The market is open from 4:3o-6 pm on Thursday in the parking lot of the Community Center.
This is really a great time to find all kinds of produce, including tomatoes, beets, carrots, cucumbers, chard, hot peppers, apples, and much more, as well as baked goods, including gluten-free. The market is held from 4:30-6 pm on Thursdays. The last week of the market, Oct. 12, will feature apple pressing, live music, games, and more as well as local produce. Stay tuned.
Also on Thursday, Oct. 5, Historic Cook County Trivia will be held at Up Yonder starting at 7 pm.
Historic Cook County Trivia Night will be held at Up Yonder from 7-9 pm Thursday.
The game is free and open to all and features lots of great questions, including tests of your knowledge of Cook County history. Prizes are awarded.
On Friday, North House Folk School will hold its first Hide Week Gathering Day on campus featuring craft demos, mini-courses, and a speaker series, with a wood-fired pizza potluck at 5:30 pm., followed by a special presentation about tanning moose hides.
Hide Week Gathering Day, a public event at North House Folk School, is Friday, Oct. 6. To read more about Hide Week, click here.
This is the first time that North House has held Hide Week, and students have been working all week in a number of different classes. On Friday night, Jean Marshall, the featured speaker, will present Moose Hide Revolution: Hide Tanning Revitalization. In this talk, she will share her efforts to revitalize this craft practice in northwestern Ontario. She’ll discuss how community and identity are part of her work and what she finds most exciting. Her presentation is at 7:30 pm in the Blue Building. Free. The public is invited. To find out more about the speaker series and the mini-courses, click here.
Also on Friday night, the Cook County Historical Society will hold its annual fundraiser, The Lumberjack Bash, at the Cook County Community Center.
The Lumberjack Bash, a fundraiser for the Cook County Historical Society, will be held Oct 6.
At the event, guests will be able to taste authentic logging camp cuisine and dance to the tunes of the North Shore Swing Band. The evening will feature a presentation by local logger Marco Good, logging camp displays, dancing, games, and prizes. For more details and to purchase tickets or to donate, click here.
There’s lots to do on Saturday, too.
The day opens with the Cook County Market, which is held in the parking lot of The Hub from 10 am to 2 pm.
Misha Martin is one of the vendors at the Cook County Market. She creates botanical prints on fabric and paper.
All the vendors at this outdoor market are local and create everything from pottery and paintings, jewelry and knitwear, balms, and chainsaw art, just to name a few. There is live music as well. Open to all.
The Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa will hold a day of cultural events entitled Indigenous People’s Day, on Saturday, starting at 10 am with the Chippewa City Drum and invocation at the Log Community Building in Grand Portage.
Indigenous People’s Day is in Grand Portage Oct. 7.
The day’s events include speakers and presentations, an Indian Taco fundraiser, and a class on how to make fish leather, Giigoon Bashkweginike. To enroll in the class, click here. The public is invited to Grand Portage to enjoy the day.
At 11 am on Saturday, Drury Lane Books will host author Jean E. Pendziwol for a Meet & Greet from 11 am to 1 pm. She is the author of the children’s book, Skating Wild on an Inland Sea.
Skating Wild on an Inland Sea by Jean E. Pendziwol. She will be at Drury Lane Books on Saturday.
The illustrations in the book are by Todd Stewart. The event is open to all. Free.
At 2 pm on Saturday, nationally acclaimed photographer Layne Kennedy will give a presentation at Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center.
Layne Kennedy will present Beyond the Light: The Stories Behind the Photographs at Chick-Wauk on Saturday at 2 pm.
The title of his presentation, and his newly published book, is Beyond the Light: The Stories Behind the Photographs.
Kennedy has traveled the world and presents his favorite photographs in this book. At the event, Kennedy will give a slide show and tell stories about the photographs. He was driven to assemble a collection of images that span the 40-plus years of his career doing fine art and editorial photography – images that may not have been published and may not have been seen by his 90-year-old mother. It should be a great show and copies of his new book will be available for purchase. The event is free and open to all.
Drury Lane Books is on deck again on Saturday evening when it will host Lin Salisbury for a live Superior Reads conversation with author Carol Dunbar about her newest novel, A Winter’s Rime. The event begins at 6 pm.
Lin Salisbury will interview Carol Dunbar live at Drury Lane Books on Saturday starting at 6 pm.
The book tells a story about sisterhood and second chances. A harrowing and emotional novel set in rural Wisconsin, A Winter’s Rime explores the impact of generational trauma, and one woman’s journey to find peace and healing from the violence of her past.
Dunbar is the author of the critically acclaimed novels, The Net Beneath Us -winner of the Edna Ferber Fiction Book Award, and A Winter’s Rime. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, The South Carolina Review, Midwestern Gothic, and on Wisconsin Public Radio. Salisbury is the producer and host of Superior Reads on WTIP Radio and has hosted New York Times bestselling authors, National Book Award winners, Minnesota Book Award winners, and Pulitzer Prize-winning authors on her monthly show featuring author interviews and book reviews. She is currently at work on a memoir, Crazy for You, as well as a novel, The Violet Hour Book Club.
Her work has appeared in Snowshoemag.com, Fourth Genre, and Minnesota Memories. She is the 2023 winner of the Lake Superior Writers contest in creative nonfiction.
The event at Drury Lane Books is free and open to all.
On Saturday night, Davina and the Vagabonds will perform at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts at 7 pm.
Davina and the Vagabonds will play at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts at 7 pm Saturday.
Putting a new spin on an old sound, Davina and the Vagabonds bring audiences high-energy live shows and a commanding stage presence. Davina Sowers has been compared to Etta James, Janis Joplin, Billie Holiday, and Betty Boop, but she is a true original. Offering 100 years of American music and Davina’s originals, the band mixes edgy nostalgia with fresh new music. The quintet is made up of Sowers on keyboard, with acoustic bass, drums, and a spicy trumpet and trombone horn section. The group’s focused, clean sound and emphasis on acoustic instruments is novel to both the blues and jazz worlds, and it sets the show closer to New Orleans than to Chicago.
Tickets are for sale in advance at northshoremusicassociation.com and at the door starting at 6 pm on the night of the performance.
Exhibits:
The Johnson Heritage Post is currently exhibiting work from the Grand Marais Plein Air Competition throughout the galleries. More than 250 paintings are in this show, painted by artists who came to Cook County and worked for a week painting outdoors.
The exhibit, Grand Marais Plein Air, is currently on view at the Johnson Heritage Post.
Look for inspiring landscapes and waterscapes and town scenes as well as quirky things we find here in Cook County. A number of awards were given at the opening reception. Find out about them here. The exhibit will be up through Oct. 15.
The Heritage Post is open from 10 am to 4 pm Wednesday through Sunday. It is closed Monday and Tuesday. Free and open to the public.
Muse, an exhibit of 12-inch by 12-inch works by members of the Grand Marais Art Colony, is currently on view at Studio 21.
One of the pieces in the Art Colony’s exhibit, Muse 12×12, at Studio 21. The exhibit continues through Oct. 21.
The Lake Superior Watercolor Society has an exhibit at the Cedar Coffee Company in Two Harbors.
Chris Dillon is one of the artists in the Lake Superior Watercolor Society show at the Cedar Coffee Company in Two Harbors.
The exhibit features a wide variety of artists and styles and continues through the month of October.
The Duluth Art Institute is exhibiting a number of shows this fall, including paintings by Sharon Dawson.
Blessed Born:
of Sky, Cloud and Earth Scented Shroud,
Oil, mixed media on paper, by Sharon Dawson.
The deeply spiritual paintings by this artist always include something of the natural world in them. The exhibit continues through Nov. 30.
In Superior, Wis., the Kruk Gallery, which is located in the Holden Art Center on the UWS campus, is exhibiting a series of paintings by Scott Murphy.
The Pioneer by Scott Murphy. He is currently exhibiting his new paintings at the Kruk Gallery in Superior at UWS.
Upcoming:
The Clean Energy Community Event is Oct. 14 this year and it invites members of the community to learn how to save money on energy efficiency upgrades for their homes and see ongoing, clean energy projects in Cook County.
The Clean Energy Community Event is Oct. 15.
To learn more about the event and register for your free tickets, visit the website here. And stay tuned.
Discover the rich and diverse history of The Graphic Memoir with the Grand Marais Public Library on Wednesday, Oct. 18 at 6 pm. Minnesota writer and artist Lynn Von Sien, a 2023 recipient of a Creative Support for Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, will facilitate the workshop.
The Graphic Memoir, a workshop at the Grand Marais Public Library, is set for Oct. 18.
Attendees will take away knowledge of the genre’s elements, as well as Take and Create exercises and resources to explore the craft further. This free hour-long program is suitable for patrons ages 12 and up. Extra Take & Create exercises will be available at the library. No sign-ups are necessary.
Also, the 5th annual Apple Fest will be held Oct. 20-22 during MEA weekend at the Cook County Community Orchard.
Apple Fest is Oct 20-22 this year.
Stay tuned for details about the Apple Fest.
Artists at Work:
Mark Hansen with the Viking ship named Valhalla, the replica he built and donated to Trinity Lutheran Church. Photo by Tom Healy.
Wood-fired vase by Mike Smieja. He has work at Betsy Bowen’s Studio.
Day 1, Inktober: Dream by Bryan Hansel.
Diane Booth is making glass garden ornaments. She has them outside her studio just up the Caribou Trail.
‘Tis the season, by Betsy Bowen.
Online Findings:
WTIP’s Rainbow Trout, middle, with two of his favorite musicians: Erik Koskinen, left, and Keith Secola.
And here is Rainbow’s favorite song:
And since we’re doing local …
Sweetheart’s Bluff in 1988. Pictured is Terry Backlund’s 53 Chevy making the run. Facebook post. Photo courtesy of Terry Backlund.
Online Music:
Live Music:
Thursday, Oct 5:
- Gordon Thorne, North Shore Winery, 7-9 pm
Friday, Oct 6:
- North Shore Swing Band, Cook County Historical Society’s “Woodchoppers Ball/Lumberjack Bash”, Community Center, 6 pm
- Live Music, Mogul’s Grille & Tap Room, 7:30-9 pm
- Live Music, Bluefin Grill, 8-10 pm
Saturday, Oct 7:
- Sky Blue Jazz, Cascade Restaurant and Pub, 6-8 pm
- Davina and the Vagabonds, Arrowhead Center for the Arts, 7 pm
- DJ Birthday Gurl!, Mogul’s Grille & Tap Room, 7-10 pm
Sunday, Oct 8:
- Fred Anderson Mogul’s Grille & Tap Room, 10-12 pm
- Boyd “Bump” Blomberg, North Shore Winery, 3:30-5:30 pm
- Timmy Haus, Mogul’s Grille & Tap Room, 5-7 pm
- Open Mic Hosted by Pete K, Up Yonder, 7-9 pm
Monday, Oct. 9:
- Fred Anderson, Harbor Park, 1:30-3 pm
Tuesday, Oct 10:
- Eric Frost, North Shore Winery, 5:30-7:30 pm
Wednesday, Oct 11:
- Jim McGowan, Mogul’s Grille & Tap Room, 4-6 pm
Thursday, Oct 12:
- Gordon Thorne, North Shore Winery, 7-9 pm
Sunday, Oct 15:
- Fred Anderson Mogul’s Grille & Tap Room, 10-12 pm
- Timmy Haus, Mogul’s Grille & Tap Room, 5-7 pm
- Open Mic Hosted by Pete K, Up Yonder, 5-8 pm
Photographs:
There were lots of photographs to choose from this week. Here’s a selection:
Wildlife:
Yep. It’s a good-sized bear by Jamie Rex.
Roadblock by David Johnson.
Young Sturgeon caught off Madeline Island.
Fishing buddies by Arun Kumar.
Potpourri:
A super hero guards the WTIP Community Garden by Layne Kennedy.
Oct. 1 harvest before the grouse got them by Nina Simonwicz.
What time does. A side of a building in Duluth. Photograph by Annette Block-Valdivia.
Good pals for over three decades. Philis with her Norwegian Fjord Horse, Corinna, by Layne Kennedy.
Schooner Hjordis by Tom Healy.
The perfect balance by Peter Juhl.
‘Shrooms:
Treasures along the trail by Mica Harju.
Mycological majesty in the Boreal Forest by Chuck Olsen.
The most perfect mushroom pair by Holly Johnson.
Shaggy Manes or Lawyer’s Wigs by Ilena Hansel.
Fallscapes, Waterscapes, Landscapes and Lakescapes:
Autumn Fantasy on the Cascade by Chuck Olsen.
Superior at Lutsen by Eric Moen.
A Trail in the Boundary Waters by Chuck Schwager.
Wandering off the beaten path by Chuck Olsen.
The best view, Canadian side, by David Welch.
Fall colors by Paul Sundberg.
To the Light by Mike Wiggins, Jr.
Aurora over Gooseberry Falls by Michelle Osterhus.
A Favorite Fall Combo by Sandra Updyke.
Sunrise over Lake Superior by Bryan Hansel.
Sunset over Bean and Bear lakes by Jim Schnortz.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Note: We’d love to have your support. You can make a one-time contribution or decide to become an ArtScene sustainer with a donation each month in the amount that is affordable for you. Just click on the button below. And Thank You!
And here’s a shout-out to the people who helped make this blog possible: Jeremy Lopez, Live Music Schedule, proofreading and technical advice; Yvonne Mills, stellar proofreading and Kari Carter, photo captions and research.
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