Flying Into The Last Weeks of September

Greetings from the North Shore, where we’re piling up events like an airport at Thanksgiving. Fun. And the latest Monarch butterfly hatch is making a dash for the southern border, delighting us all with their graceful dances in our flower gardens on the way.  And art-making continues, thank goodness.

This is Plein Air Week in Cook County and this Thursday, the public is invited to watch artists create new work on Artist Point for the Birney Quick Paint.

Here’s a great video of the Quick Paint that Karen Sunderman did several years ago. She called it The Brush Off.  It won an Emmy for our region. Enjoy!

The event is named after influential artist and educator Birney Quick, who is credited with co-founding a summer program called the Grand Marais Outdoor School of Painting, later renamed the Grand Marais Art Colony. At the time, Quick taught at the Minneapolis School of Art.

Plein Air Grand Marais began in 2008, bringing outdoor painters to the North Shore of Lake Superior for a week of painting, learning, competition, and camaraderie. Since 2018, the Outdoor Painters of Minnesota has organized the event, and the Cook County Historical Society’s Johnson Heritage Post Art Gallery has hosted it.

Other Plein Air events:

• Off-The-Easel Painting Sale: Thursday, Sept. 17 |11 am – 3:30 pm | Harbor Park | Watch artists along the shore and purchase newly completed plein air paintings fresh off the easel.
• Exhibit Opening & Awards Reception: Friday, Sept. 18 | 5- 7 pm | Johnson Heritage Post Art Gallery | Celebrate 240+ fresh festival paintings with light refreshments and the official awards ceremony.
• Gallery Exhibit: Sept. 19-Nov. 1.

To make art of your own, check out the Art Counter Project at Joy and Company, which is held from 3-4:30 pm every week. Art Projects vary, from painting, origami, paper folding, drawing, and more.

Instruction and supplies are provided. Free, but a $5 donation is appreciated. Open to all.

The Grand Marais Farmer’s Market is held from 4:30-6 pm on Thursday in the parking lot of the Cook County Community Center.

Look for fresh, locally-grown produce, baked goods, artisan breads, fresh flowers, and more.

On Thursday evening, the North Shore Swing Band plays for Jazz Night at Up Yonder.

The band plays from 6:30-8:30 p.m. It’s a great band for listening and dancing. Free. The public is invited.

Friday opens with Schroeder Shortstop Backyard BBQ at 10 am. The event continues daily through Sunday.

The event, which is held at the Short Stop in Schroeder, features BBQ, beverages, live music, DJ’s, and family-friendly activities all weekend long, from 10 am to 7 pm each day. Open to all.

On Friday afternoon, Jill Terrill will hold a Wrapped Rocks workshop at Joy and Company.

Participants will learn the techniques for wrapping rocks with pleasing designs. The class runs from 1-3 pm. Bring your own rocks or pick one from their selection. The workshop costs $20. For reservations and more info, call 218-387-1004. If there is space, walk-ins are welcome.

And, not to forget, the opening reception for the Grand Marais Plein Air Competition is from 5-7 pm on Friday at the Johnson Heritage Post.

Saturday opens with the annual Grand Marais/Cook County Airport Fly-in/Drive-In Pancake Breakfast.

The event, which is sponsored by the Arrowhead Eagles, is held from 8-11 a.m. at the Sawtooth Aviation hangar at 123 Airport Road.

The event features a breakfast with wild blueberry pancakes and sausage links, watching airplanes come and go, and vintage airplanes on display. There will be discounted airplane rides, weather permitting. Cost is $12 for adults, $8 for kids under 16.

The event is the primary fundraising event for the organization, which last year gave out $5,000 in aviation scholarships to area applicants. The Eagles’ mission is to support the Cook County, Minnesota airport and aviation tradition through promoting aviation events, airport enhancements, youth-oriented activities and opportunities, and to encourage community use and a friendly atmosphere at the airport. The public is invited.

At 10 am on Saturday, the Cook County Market opens in the parking lot of the Hub at 10 am.

Local artists and artisans make up this market, which features paintings, pottery, baskets, fiber art, baked goods, rock lamps, and more. Open to all.

The Grand Marais Public Library will hold a Cell Phone Photography Workshop at the library from noon to 2:30 pm.

Photography enthusiasts of all experience levels are invited to explore the fundamentals of picture-taking through a hands-on photography workshop beginning inside the library and continuing outdoors in the surrounding natural environment.

Starting inside the library, participants will look at examples of basic picture-taking strategies, including developing awareness of the quality of light, lens choice, vantage point of the camera relative to the subject, and composition within the frame.

Participants will learn how to change the technical settings of your camera to be able to control or experiment with various effects. Once outside, participants will practice new strategies for using camera functions in conjunction with observing and taking photographs of the natural environment.

Participants should bring a smartphone and charging cord to the workshop. Free.

Voyageur Brewing will hold an Oktoberfest celebration on Saturday.

The event will feature games, crafts, competitions, and more. Open to all. The Brewery opens at 11 am.

Drury Lane Books will hold an Author Talk with Jennifer Bowen at 6 pm Saturday at the bookstore. She will discuss her collection of essays, The Book of Kin.

The Book of Kin, which was a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award, is a remarkable debut that explores the imperfect ways we care for one another and how we seek repair when care fails.

Drawing on her experiences as a mother, daughter, and founder of the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop, the country’s largest and most enduring prison-based literary organization, she examines the wild spectrum of shapes that care can take. She investigates the role of community across the world and in her own neighborhood, driven by a curiosity to uncover what might be gleaned from various vanishings in her own life: the shadow of her father, disappeared backyard chickens, a Moleskine notebook that passes in and out of her Little Free Library.

The Author Talk is free and open to all.

On Monday, Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center will host Monday Porch Talks, a free presentation about the Northwoods.

Topics vary each week. The event is free and is held from 1-2 p.m.

On Tuesday, an Invasive Species Removal Day will be held at Pincushion Mountain from 9 am to 3 pm.

Pincushion Mountain is a true gem of the North Shore, but it has significant issues with invasive species. Efforts during this project will focus on non-native invasive honeysuckle and barberry, which are known to outcompete native species and degrade habitat.

Volunteers will work in pairs to cut branches and apply herbicide to invasive species to stunt their growth and allow native plants to flourish. Certified herbicide applicators will be on-site to train willing volunteers and monitor safety conditions.

 For more information and to sign up, click here.

Also on Tuesday, the popular annual Empty Bowls Fundraiser to help the hungry in Cook County will be held at the Cook County Community  Center.

As in past years, lunch will take place from 11 am to 1 pm., and dinner from 5 pm. to 7 p.m. Handcrafted ceramic bowls, the bake sale, and, of course, delicious soups from local restaurants will be available (and macaroni and cheese for the kids), all in the fight against local food insecurity.

Funds raised will support organizations that distribute food to those who need it, including the Cook County Food Shelf, the Grand Portage Elderly Nutrition Program, local school lunch and snack programs, the Hub, emergency food cards, and more.

The community is invited to come and support our local fight against food insecurity.

On Wednesday, Visit Cook County and the Cook County Chamber of Commerce will host the Annual Fall Gala at Lutsen Mountains.

The public is invited to join community leaders, entrepreneurs, and dedicated hospitality professionals for an evening of connection, crisp autumn views, and food.

For more information and to purchase tickets, click here. 

Upcoming:

On Friday, Sept. 25, the Art Along the Lake Fall Studio Tour begins, featuring open studios and galleries throughout the county.

This is a spectacular experience for art lovers throughout the region as artists open their studios and exhibit exciting new work they have created this year. Look for paintings and pottery, fused glass, weaving, basketry, prints, bead paintings, and much more. Here’s a link to participating artists and galleries“

This is a 10-day event and runs through Oct. 4. The studios and galleries are open from 10 am to 5 pm daily and, more often than not, refreshments are available. The public is invited.

Unplugged, the annual fall celebration hosted by North House Folk School, will be held on Sept. 25-26 this year.

Unplugged features live music, craft demonstrations, and activities for the family, an online auction, and more.

Singer/songwriter Dave Simonett, frontman for Trampled by Turtles,  will perform a free concert at 7 pm Friday. Bring your chair.

On Saturday morning, the Roe Family will perform at North House for a family concert.

The Birch Bark Bash, a fundraiser for North House and a special feast, will be held on Saturday night. For tickets and more information, click here.

And there’s an online auction, too.  Click here to see all the items.

 Book Release:

 Tor Torkildson has just released his latest book, The Bear and the Monk.

Tor writes: “The Bear and the Monk is now available. For now, on Amazon, but that will expand in the next few days. This genre focuses on the author’s own life, travels, experiences, and inner psyche, blurring fiction and reality: a type of autofiction. In The Bear and the Monk, personal truth is tangled into fictional elements. Self-revelation uses esoteric subjects and engages inner struggles.”

Exhibits:

This month’s Rising Arrowhead Artists Exhibition at Studio 21 brings together the work of Sue Rauschenfels, a mixed media painter from Duluth, and Emily Wick, a tapestry weaver based in Grand Marais.

Rauschenfels’s layered compositions combine paint, texture, and movement to create richly worked surfaces that feel both intuitive and deliberate. Her work explores abstraction, memory, and the passage of time, inviting viewers to uncover meaning within each layered mark.

Wick’s handwoven tapestries offer a tactile counterpart, where color, structure, and material come together through slow, deliberate process. Rooted in tradition yet distinctly contemporary, her work emphasizes texture and pattern while reflecting a deep connection to place. Together, Rauschenfels and Wick create a dialogue between gesture and structure, surface and thread—highlighting the beauty of process and the expressive potential of material.

The exhibit continues through the end of September. Studio 21 is open from 10 am to 5 pm Thursday through Saturday. Free.

 

Sam Zimmerman is exhibiting new work online. The title of the exhibit is: Wii-tibaajimong – To Tell a Story.

 To view the exhibit, click here.

Artists at Work:

 Online Music:

&;

Photography: 

Here is a selection of what we found here.

Wildlife:

 Monarchs:

The last hatch of monarchs is making its way south, stopping to enjoy fall flowers.

From the Garden:

Potpourri:

 

 Skyscapes, Landscapes, Boatscapes & Waterscapes:

Have a great weekend, everyone!

PS: I hope you enjoyed NorthShore ArtScene this week. Sorry it was so long….. I guess I caught the “It’s Fall! Better -get-things-done-before- it snows” bug. In any case, help support ArtScene this week by donating. We are always so grateful for your support. And thank you!

 

 

Here’s a big thank you to Jeremy Lopez for the Live Music Schedule and tech support, and to Yvonne Mills for proofreading this week. And a special thank you to Visit Cook County for its great Events Calendar.