Folk School at Midsummer exhibit continues through Sept. 13 at Finlandia Gallery; public reception Aug.31

The Finnish American Folk School exhibit in the The Finlandia Gallery, located in the Finnish American Heritage Center (FAHC), Hancock, includes works by Kenyon Hansen, Ceramics (foreground) and Dish Towel Round-Robin Five Looms Five Weavers: Clare Zuraw, Marci Schneider, Sue Ellen Kingsley, John Gale, Phyllis Fredendall (background). (Photos courtesy Finnish American Heritage Center)

HANCOCK -- The Finnish American Folk School in the Finnish American Heritage Center, Hancock, has had a remarkable year of instruction. 18 instructors shared their craft with workshops filled to capacity. The Folk School at Midsummer exhibition, featuring the work of seven of these Folk School instructors, as well as the work by students produced in their workshops, continues through September 13, 2023.

A reception for the artists will take place from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, August 31, at the gallery. The reception is free and open to the public; refreshments will be served.

Folk school instructors and the classes they presented are listed here: Anita Jain, nuno felting; Wynne Mattila, rug weaving; Alice Margerum, himmeli; Lindsey Heiden, handbuilding: clay tiles; Kenyon Hansen, ceramics on the wheel; Clare Zuraw, knitting, drop spindle and jouhikko playing; Terri Jo Frew, natural inks; Jennifer Szubielak, spinning; Karen Tembruell, birchbark journal; Ginger Alberti, laudelinna sewing; Anna Dijkstra, sock mending; Sandy Lindblom, broom making; Phyllis Fredendall, beginning weaving, inkle weaving, dyeing, garment design; Jim and Harri Kurtti, cookie baking; Elizabeth Brauer, Finnish language; Charlotta Hagfors, rekilaulu; Emmi Kuittinen, folk songs from Karelia.

Students exhibiting work include Melissa Lewis, Mat Moore, Mary Markham, Carol Johnson Pfefferkorn, Nathan Ryckman, Marci Schneider, Monica Maki, John Gale, Stephanie Carpenter, Sue Ellen Kingsley, Hannah Lowney, Emma Wuepper, Kristiina Vanhala, Amanda Moyer Rogers, Jimalee Jones, Linda Lohmann, Kimberly Cook, Tiff DeGroot, and Clare Zuraw.

This past year the Finnish American Folk School studio was full of new and returning weavers. Wynne Mattila returned in the fall to teach the "Over the Waves" workshop to an enthusiastic group. Over the Waves is a traditional Finnish weave structure that has been passed on to Finnish-American weavers. It is called Over the Waves in the Upper Peninsula and Love’s Path in northern Minnesota.

Folk School Co-Director Phyllis Fredendall taught several inkle band weaving workshops, beginning weaving and an intermediate block weaving workshop. Enthusiasm for the weaving process and results filled the studio. The dish towel round robin idea came as a way to continue weaving through the holidays and to explore color and structure in a group. Each weaver designed and set up a warp, allowing weavers to rotate between looms to weave a towel from each of the five different designs. The results hang together for us all to enjoy. 

Folk School Co-Director Phyllis Fredendal, left, assists student Sue Ellen Kingsley with weaving. 

In the fall Anita Salminen Jain taught two nuno felting workshops and led a group in the creation of the Finnish American Folk School Banner inspired by fiber equipment, plants of the dye garden and pollinators. This process combines two protein-based fibers, silk and wool wet felted together.

Finnish American Folk School Banner. Led by Anita Jain with Amanda Moyer Rogers, Mary Markham, Lindsey Heiden, Alice Margerum, Clare Zuraw, Phyllis Fredendall. Wool and Silk Nuno Felted.

Nationally recognized Dollar Bay-based artists Kenyon Hansen and Lindsey Heiden taught workshops in the clay studio. Students made functional wheel spun work and whimsical hand built and mold cast tiles.

Lindsey Heiden is exhibiting clay sculptures of modified animals specifically chosen to represent what she sees and feels daily. Heiden manifests these feelings and moments of nostalgia and recollection into animal characteristics. Her resulting clay hybrid creatures tell a visual story.

Lindsey Heiden Earthenware clay sculpture installation.

Hansen is exhibiting soda fired porcelain clay pieces inspired by the everyday experience, patch work quilts, and the structure and patterns found in nature. His hope is that the pots he makes will contribute to the field of craft and elevate the everyday experience.

Terri Jo Frew, a practicing contemporary artist and professor with the Visual and Performing Arts Department at Michigan Technological University, created two pieces for the exhibit, one using an alcohol-based black walnut ink and the other, a dye made from madder root grown in the Folk School garden.  The black walnut ink was made by the students of the Natural Ink Making Workshop that Frew led for the Finnish American Folk School in the fall of 2022.

L’Anse-based basketry artist, Karen Tembruell teaches nationally led students in birchbark journal making this year.  Tembruell is exhibiting a Foraging Basket made of Birchbark bias double woven with a leather rim and cross body strap, cotton cord, and brass fittings. She is also exhibiting a willow bark, cedar bark, birchbark and cotton cord basket.

Karen Tembreull, Spaced and Laced, 2020. Willow bark, Cedar bark, birch bark and cotton cord.

In September the Folk School will host Barks and Willow, a basketry symposium led by Karen Tembreull and Marquette area basket artist, Poppy Hatinger.

A Barks and Willow Symposium led by artists Karen Tembreull and Poppy Hatinger will be held from Sept. 8-13 at the Finnish American Folk School. Click on poster for larger image. 

Around the Baltic, many cultures create mobiles using straw. In Finland these are called "himmeli." Folk School instructor Alice Margerum presented a himmeli workshop, and then created a sculpture that combined the himmeli structure with an octahedron shaped paper sculpture. The octahedron is covered in a series of drawings representing the four seasons and  featuring the colors associated with those seasons.

The Vörå Neckwarmer is a cowl designed and knit by Clare Zuraw as a sample for a FAFS class she taught during Heikinpäivä 2023. The pattern is inspired by traditional sweater patterns from the island of Vörå /Vöyri in western Finland.

The Finlandia Gallery is located in the Finnish American Heritage Center, 435 Quincy Street, Hancock. Gallery hours are Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.- 4 p.m. Please call 906-487-7500 or email gallery@finlandia.edu for more information.

New slide show: Keweenaw Art Sept.-Oct. 2015, more ...

This pottery by Ed Gray is displayed in the Calumet Art Center Gallery. (Photo by Keweenaw Now)

HANCOCK -- Keweenaw Now has been taking photos recently at several art exhibits, related events and activities. Whether you attended some of these or missed them, we hope you enjoy the photos.

Click here to access the photo page. Then click on slide show in the upper left corner.

Finlandia University's Festival Ruska to celebrate Finnish roots Sept. 21-27

Poster for Festival Ruska 2015 courtesy Finlandia University. 

HANCOCK -- Finlandia University is celebrating Finnish roots this week with their Festival Ruska, from TODAY, Monday, Sept. 21, through Sunday, Sept. 27.

The weeks events include hiking; two concerts by Baltic Crossing, a folk band of Finnish and British musicians, at the Calumet Theatre; presentations and book signings by authors Tim Jollymore and Ellen Jensen; a lecture by actress Taina Elg; an art exhibit at the Finlandia University Gallery; a tour of Finnish American sites (see our News Briefs and sign up TODAY, Sept. 21); a Finnish game on the Quincy Green; Finnish Genealogy Day; and a concluding vesper service at Jacobsville Chapel.

See the poster above, visit www.finlandia.edu/festivalruska or visit the Finlandia Facebook page for details.

Opening reception, fashion show for Finlandia art and design students is Mar. 28

HANCOCK -- An opening reception for a juried exhibit of artwork by Finlandia University art and design students will take place from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. this Thursday, March 28, at the Finlandia University Gallery, Hancock.

Melanie Houghton: Homage to Hofmann, oil painting. (Photos courtesy Finlandia University)

A fashion show will begin at 7:15 p.m., and awards for student excellence will be presented. Much of the artwork will be available for purchase. The reception is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

The exhibition includes art by students working in media including drawing, painting, illustration, ceramic design, fiber arts and fashion design, sculpture, integrated design, graphic design, digital media, photography, and mixed media/installation.

Dylan Peterson: Reuse Chair, old walkers and scrap canvas.  

Gallery director Carrie Flaspohler notes that the structure of the juried student exhibit has been changed this year.

"This year students entered work in one of three categories: two dimensional, three dimensional, and freshman work," Flaspohler says, explaining that the reduced number of categories is intended to eliminate artificial separations of media and encourage students to be inventive in their use and combinations of artistic media.

Sarah Jalkanen: Original Bag Design with Jacquard Fabric, designed fabric and hand-woven strap.

In each of the three categories, the jury will select a first and second place award, and an honorable mention award. The jury is comprised of a faculty member, a graduating ISAD (International School of Art and Design) senior, and a community member.

Finlandia art and design student Tori Schwanke installs work by Hailey Macias: These Nuts, digital photography.

New awards this year are a Best of Show Award, a Faculty Award -- an outstanding work selected by ISAD faculty -- and a Purchase Award -- a work which the ISAD will purchase for its permanent collection.

The exhibit is featured from March 28 through April 17, 2013.

The Finlandia University Gallery is in the Finnish American Heritage Center, 435 Quincy St., downtown Hancock.  For information, call 487-7500.

Finlandia Gallery to host International School of Art and Design Faculty Exhibit Feb. 21 - Mar. 16

HANCOCK -- Finlandia University’s International School of Art and Design will present an exhibit of work by its faculty at the Finlandia University Gallery, located in the Finnish American Heritage Center (FAHC), Hancock, Feb. 21 to March 16, 2013.

"Early Afternoon" by Joyce Koskenmaki, Finlandia University emeritus professor of art. Colored pencil and crayon on watercolor marks. (Photos courtesy Finlandia University)

An opening reception for the artists will take place at the gallery from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. TONIGHT, Thursday, Feb. 21, The reception is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

This year’s exhibit features the work of Jon Brookhouse, Colleen Carroll, Cynthia Coté, Phyllis Fredendall, Robert Grame, Kenyon Hansen, Josh Jaehnig, Harriet King, Joyce Koskenmaki, Erica Lord, Rick Loduha, and Carrice Chardin McKinstry. Media include ceramics, interdisciplinary sustainable design, collage and assemblage, fiber art, graphic design, painting and drawing, and interactive media.

"This diverse group of teachers has so much to offer young artists," notes gallery director Carrie Flaspohler. "Finlandia students are learning from professional artists, some of whom have practiced their art for over 30 years, some who have recently completed graduate school and are actively pursuing gallery representation."

Professor of fiber and fashion design Phyllis Fredendall, who recently presented a solo retrospective of her work at Finlandia’s Reflection Gallery, has created new work for the faculty exhibit. In her current work, Fredendall explores memory.

"My work explores the slipperiness of memory, paying homage to family elders in wool and silk through the process of hand felting," says Fredendall.

Associate professor of graphic design Robert Grame, who joined the art and design faculty in August 2011, has been redesigning the curriculum of the graphic design concentration. He has exhibited his work nationally and internationally -- in China, Korea, Austria, and Germany.

"I believe strongly in the social and ethical responsibility of design," Grame writes in his artist's statement. "My experimental / expressionistic efforts are focused upon creating statements regarding typography, rhetoric, and elevating the role of design. Personal experimentation has the innate ability for me to feed a network of ideas and aspects that I work with in my professional activities, making my industry efforts much stronger and more deeply informed."

Associate professor of integrated design Rick Loduha will exhibit work from throughout his design career.

Loduha believes that the design challenge of the future will be to find holistic well-being that is less hierarchical, less individualistic and materialistic, and less wasteful, and by virtue of all these, less self-destructive.

"Strong Medicine," mixed media, by Rick Loduha, Fnlandia associate professor of integrated design.

"Our next challenge as a culture is the mindful remediation of what we have despoiled," Loduha says.

Emeritus professor of ceramics Jon Brookhouse will display ceramic pieces created in his studio in Tapiola, Mich.

Emeritus professor of art Joyce Koskenmaki has returned to Finlandia this year to work with the university’s painting and drawing students. In her recent work, Koskenmaki has moved away from creating art that expresses concrete ideas and has begun to work more intuitively.

"Working in abstraction allows me to express what can’t be put into words," Koskenmaki says. "It allows me to deepen my expression and to access feelings and inner states which may have been hidden from my consciousness. I think turning back to abstraction has come with getting older, needing to get past ideas and into just being."

Adjunct instructor Cynthia Coté, also the executive director of the Copper Country Community Art Center, Hancock, teaches a class in art business at Finlandia. Coté will display a mixed media collage and assemblage.

"My work is about saving, remembering, and letting go," notes Coté. "Caught in the transitory nature of life, I am eternally processing the past, doing my best to honor the present and wondering about the future. All of the work that I do involves repetition and introspection. It is quiet when I work and the work is quiet. Selecting, sorting and folding paper, collecting words, gluing, and tying knots -- the repetition in each step is important. All the while, I am interpreting the circumstances of my life."

International School of Art and Design alumnus Kenyon Hansen has returned to Finlandia to teach ceramic design. Hansen, who completed his B.F.A. at Finlandia in 2005, served as a long term resident at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts, Helena, Mont., and as a studio assistant at the Penland (North Carolina) School of Crafts.

Ceramic teapots by International School of Art and Design alumnus and Finlandia University adjunct instructor Kenyon Hansen.

A recent addition to Finlandia’s faculty, adjunct instructor Carrice Chardin McKinstry ('08), will exhibit work from her installation, "In the Crucible of the Mind: Eye for an I for an Eye," an interactive installation of which the viewer is an integral part.

"I work intuitively to set up dramatic installations using light and space, involving a sculptural vocabulary that welcomes debate," explains McKinstry. "Each viewer’s history and perspective are integral elements in the interpretation of my work."

Adjunct instructors Colleen Carroll ('09), Josh Jaehnig ('11), Harriet King, and Erica Lord will also display their work.

The Finlandia University Gallery is in the Finnish American Heritage Center, 435 Quincy Street, Hancock. Gallery hours are Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Thursday, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., or by appointment. Please call 906-487-7500 for more information. 

Celebrate mid-winter at Heikinpäivä 2013 Jan. 25, 26

The 2012 Heikinpäivä parade heads down Quincy Street in Hancock on a snowy day with a balmy 23 degrees F. (File photos by Keweenaw Now)

HANCOCK -- Heikinpäivä 2013 is underway to celebrate mid-winter (in case you haven't noticed the weather!) It should be a bit warmer by Saturday for the parade and main events. Unfortunately, the Polar Bear Dive has been cancelled this year for lack of a warming place. Nevertheless Heikinpäivä promises fun for the whole family.

Here is the schedule for Friday and Saturday, with some of our photos from last year:

Jim and Debbie Kurtti carry the banner of the Finnish Theme Committee, organizers of Heikinpäivä, in the 2012 Parade.

Friday, January 25

2 p.m. -- Finnish card making class, Finnish American Heritage Center, Hancock. 2 hour class. $15 fee.

Trio Tumpelot -- from left, Ana Gawboy, Pasi Lautala and Meghan Pachmayer -- play Finnish folk tunes in the Finlandia Gallery at the Finnish American Heritage Center during Heikinpäivä 2012. Various music groups participate in the events on Saturday, as well as playing for the annual dance.

6 p.m. -- FinnFest preview night/Heikinpäivä Dance, Brownstone Hall, Atlantic Mine, Mich. $5 cover charge, food for sale, cash bar, silent auction. Proceeds benefit FinnFest USA 2013. Call (906) 370-3110. Various musicians will play from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., and the Minnesota Finn Hall Band will play for dancing at 8 p.m.

Saturday, January 26

Meghan Pachmayer, left, and Anna Leppänen offer Finnish snacks for sale at the 2012 Heikinpäivä Tori in the Finnish American Heritage Center.

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. -- Tori Market, Finnish American Heritage Center and First United Methodist Church.

Carol Bird, seamstress, sells her lovely handmade items at the 2012 Heikinpäivä Tori.

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Family Fun Day -- Vipukelkka (Whipsled) reindeer, kicksleds, World's Largest Kicksled, Rakovalkea (log burning), Finlandia's Quincy Green.

Kids enjoy the Vipukelkka (Whipsled) at the 2012 Family Fun Day events.

11 a.m. -- Parade, downtown Hancock. Line up at BRIDGE School at 10:30 a.m. Prizes.

Immediately following parade -- Wife-carrying contest and kicksled races, Finlandia's Quincy Green.

Contestants in the wife-carrying contest make a required stop at the sauna.

Alex Mayer and Suzanne VanDam stop for coffee during the 2012 wife-carrying contest.

Hannu and Lilli from Finland race for the Finish line ...

And Hannu and Lilli are the winners!

3 p.m. -- Open house for "Art from the Kalevala" exhibit, Community Arts Center, Hancock. Call 482-2333.*

6 p.m. -- Seisovapöytä (Finnish buffet), Zion Lutheran Church, Hancock. Tickets $18.
Silent auction during the banquet.

More photos from Heikinpäivä 2012:

Hazel Tepsa, Hankooki Heikki for 2012, rides on the giant kicksled during the parade. Each year, the Finnish Theme Committee selects one person whose work toward preserving and promoting Finnish culture in the area goes above and beyond "normal" efforts. That person is the festival's "Hankooki Heikki" and presides over the festivities, wearing the crown and robe that come with the honor. Hazel Tepsa was recognized for her many volunteer activities, including service on the Finnish Theme Committee. This year's "Hankooki Heikki" is Dan Maki, longtime history and Finnish culture professor at Finlandia University and performer in many local plays and concerts.

Kivajat Dancers and their Moomin float add color to the 2012 Parade. Moomins are favorite characters in Finnish children's literature.

Reindeer walk in the Parade and later join the Family Fun on Finlandia's Quincy Green.

Carol Williams offers her lovely handmade jewelry for sale at the Tori.

Young Suzuki musicians perform in the Finlandia Gallery just outside the Tori, in the Finnish American Heritage Center.

For more information about Heikinpäivä, visit their Web site.

* Click here to read about the "Art from the Kalevala" exhibit.

Finlandia Gallery to host "Color of Kindness: Anne Beffel," opening Oct. 25

HANCOCK -- "Color of Kindness: Anne Beffel" will be featured at the Finlandia University Gallery, located in the Finnish American Heritage Center, Hancock, Oct. 25 to Dec. 1, 2012.

Jiryu Compassionate Dragon 4, by Anne Beffel. (Photos courtesy Finlandia University)

An opening reception for the artist will take place from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the gallery on Thursday, Oct. 25. The reception is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

With eyes, minds, and hearts open to color, artist Anne Beffel and the Finlandia University community will explore how people visualize kindness by asking, "What is the color of kindness?" Beffel asked friends and strangers this question for four months and translated their responses into nearly 100 paintings.

The paintings will be on display at Finlandia University Gallery and will serve as a springboard for conversations about visualizing kindness. During her weeklong stay, Beffel is talking with students and hiking the far northern Michigan landscape in search of examples of the "color of kindness."

Finlandia University Gallery will be awash with gestural sparks of color. Each painting is inspired by one of Beffel’s conversations about kindness. Beffel’s neighborhood gardens as well as vast land and seascapes provided color sources.

Artist Anne Beffel. 

"Sometimes, after I ask this question about kindness and color, a story revealing an important memory of kindness emerges: an exchange between a teacher and student or a neighbor’s experiences as a peace worker in nine different African countries," Beffel says. "However, most people remain with the description of the color itself and linger there briefly. I often see them moved to joy. This exchange is in and of itself a moment of shared kindness."

Known for working with ideas such as attentiveness and apologies on the East and West coasts, Beffel welcomes the opportunity to explore the far north coast of her home state.

"I’ve been working in the public realm for over a decade, so this return to studio work naturally includes a social aspect. I welcome the curiosity of strangers as I paint out of doors. Our conversations are as much art works as the paintings themselves."

Beffel is an associate professor of art at Syracuse University, New York. Since earning degrees from the University of Michigan and the University of Iowa, and participating in the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Studio Program in New York City, she has worked within contexts as diverse as the World Financial Center in Lower Manhattan, Saint John’s Benedictine monastery in rural Minnesota, and the New York Downtown Hospital and surrounding streets, offices, and community centers.

Her most recent projects have been at the Everson Museum, Syracuse, New York; the Gandhi statue in Union Square, New York; and Occidental Square Park, Seattle, Washington.

The Finlandia University Gallery is in the Finnish American Heritage Center, 435 Quincy Street, Hancock. Gallery hours are Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Thursday, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.; and Saturday, noon to 4 p.m., or by appointment.

For additional information, please contact Carrie Flaspohler, gallery director, at 906-487-7500 or carrie.flaspohler@finlandia.edu.

Finlandia Gallery to hold closing reception for "collectors at heART" Sept. 6

HANCOCK, MI – The exhibit, "collectors at heART" is featured at the Finlandia University Gallery, located in the Finnish American Heritage Center, Hancock, through Sept. 13, 2013.

A closing reception for the collectors will take place at the gallery from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 6. A gallery talk will begin at 7:15 p.m. The reception is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

"collectors at heART" features artwork from the collections of eight Copper Country residents: Phyllis Fredendall, Robert and Christi Grame, Joyce Koskenmaki, Rick Loduha, Denise Vandeville, Christa Walck, and Mary Wright. Artwork media include sculpture, ceramics, paintings, mixed media, digital art, and even a piece made entirely of trash.

Historically, the "patron" has served an important role in the development of fine art, and it’s been said that today’s art patronage is tomorrow’s art history. But what role does patronage play in today’s culture? In these uncertain economic times, who collects art?

The word "patron," from the Latin "patronus," means "protector of clients" or "defender." For these eight Copper Country residents, however, the motivation to collect art grows from the heart. The artworks they have purchased, traded, or been gifted have become treasured parts of their lives.

"As I was visiting homes to help select the artwork for the show, I came to understand how much this artwork means to their owners," notes Carrie Flaspohler, director of the Finlandia University Gallery. "As they shared stories of how each piece was acquired, I sensed that their initial excitement about purchasing the pieces hadn’t diminished, but rather had been transformed into a deep respect for the artwork."

Artist and collector Joyce Koskenmaki considers herself fortunate that she can trade work with other artists. But Koskenmaki also purchases art from artists "whose work I have needed to keep with me to nurture my soul."

For community artist Mary Wright, collecting has become a life mission. "One of the reasons I am on earth is to collect art and support artists," she asserts. "It is truly my belief that artists have great power to move people positively," Wright continues. "When I first see a piece that captivates my heart, I’m done for. I am going to find a way to buy it, whatever it takes."

Wright says that she has acquired the artworks in her collection because she can’t live without them, and that she is happy to share them with others. She encourages everyone to collect art and support artists.

"As an artist, my motivations for buying art may be different from other collectors," notes Denise Vandeville, explaining that she doesn’t buy art simply because its value may increase.

"My collecting practices rely completely on emotion," Vandeville says. "I either know the artist as a person and I want a representation of them in my house (almost like a snapshot), or the form and/or content of the artwork strikes me on such a personal level that I want to live with it and see it every day."

For Phyllis Fredendall, purchasing artwork is a way to support an admired artist.

"I began collecting art years ago when a wonderful painter I knew needed money," Fredendall explains. "I bought three of his pieces, in a way to be a caretaker of the work."

An individual’s goals for art collecting may change as time passes, notes Christa Walck, whose interest in art started with "collectibles" and crafts, then moved on to fine art and design.

"I have been collecting art for over 40 years," Walck says. "I am addicted to beautiful things because they give life meaning, and I collect because I want to support artists and designers."

Walck also purchases art for public collections, including for the VanPelt and Opie Library at Michigan Technological University, Houghton, and the Copper Country Community Arts Center in Hancock.

For Robert and Christi Grame, their art collection "adds rich eclectic verb" to their lives. "We actively seek, trade, and purchase art artifacts (2d and 3d) that embrace a highly quirky narrative," says Robert Grame. "Our art is not necessarily precious, but it is vital."

"Life Without Art is Stupid," claims a popular bumper sticker. "Perhaps that bumper sticker is an overstatement, but I believe it is true," says designer Rick Loduha, proposing that the "faint of heart" could tone it down to "Life Without Art is Empty."

Loduha, who "honestly can’t imagine living without visual art" surrounding him, often barters his design expertise for the artwork of friends who are painters and sculptors.

The Finlandia University Gallery is in the Finnish American Heritage Center, 435 Quincy Street, Hancock. Gallery hours are Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., or by appointment.

Finlandia Art and Design Diploma Works Exhibit to open Apr. 28

 Amanda Mears, Finlandia University International School of Art and Design student in ceramic design, displays her work, "It's a Mad, Mad World," for the 2012 Diploma Works Exhibition opening Apr. 28 in the Finlandia University Gallery of the Finnish American Heritage Center. (Photos courtesy Finlandia University)

HANCOCK -- The Finlandia University International School of Art and Design (ISAD) 2012 Diploma Works Exhibition is featured from April 28 to May 26, 2012, at the Finlandia University Gallery, which is in the Finnish American Heritage Center, Hancock.

Mallory Torrala, "From Here to Eternity," mixed media.

A reception for the artists will take place from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.at the gallery Saturday, April 28. The artists will be introduced at 7:15 p.m. The reception is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

 Rebecca Langlais, "A Route's Ending," digital illustrations.

The artworks featured in the annual Diploma Works Exhibit represent the final body of student work for each graduating bachelor of fine arts (B.F.A.) student. The works include intensive research projects, series of individual artworks, and design prototypes. A variety of media is represented, including painting, illustration, sculpture, fiber design, graphic design, integrated design, and ceramics.

 Kari Heikkinen, "#182," paste resist on cotton.

The 2012 ISAD graduating seniors are Illustration majors Brooke Cummings (Bergland) and Mallory Torola (Calumet); Fiber and Fashion Design majors Kari Heikkinen (Mohawk) and Eileen Sundquist (Hancock and Jamestown, NY); Graphic Design major Ashley Hoeper (Houghton); Digital Art major Rebecca Langlais (Norway, MI), Ceramic Design major Amanda Mears (Houghton); and Integrated Design major Christine Westrich (Ewen).

For more information please call 906-487-7500.

Finlandia Gallery to exhibit work by Aimo Hyvärinen, Finnish photographer

Photography by Aimo Hyvärinen. (Poster courtesy Finlandia University)

HANCOCK -- The Finlandia University Gallery will present an exhibit of work by Finnish photographer Aimo Hyvärinen from Feb. 16 to March 20, 2012.

An opening reception for the artist will take place from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16. An artist talk will begin at 7:15 p.m. The reception is free and open to the public; refreshments will be served.

Hyvärinen was ten years old when his godmother gave him his first photo album. Using his brother’s Kodak Brownie, and later his own Agfa Instamatic camera, Hyvärinen filled the album with photographs of snow-covered landscapes.

Hyvärinen’s exhibit at the Finlandia University Gallery, titled "Snow and Ice," combines a selection of these old photographs with some of Hyvärinen’s current work to capture the poetic and synergetic relationship between humans and snow.

Aimo Hyvärinen is also a filmmaker and there will be a special screening of two of his films at the Finnish American Heritage Center at 2 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 16. This event is also free and open to the public.

Päijänne Symphony (49 minutes) is a musical documentary about Lake Päijänne, a meeting place for people and nature. It is a positive story of a clean and beautiful lake in the middle of a country. Päijänne is the lake between east and west -- it is the soul of Central Finland. The music presented in the film is in the tradition of Finnish romantic music, which has always had its inspiration in nature. Works performed on strings and piano combine with the cinematography, harkening back to the style of "city symphonies," popular in Finland in the 1920s.

The Spirit of Folk Music (46 minutes) is a documentary film about the growth of the popular spirit of folk music. The film features two festivals; the musicians, organizers and audience are shown at the Viljandi Folk Music Festival and Kaustinen Folk Music Festival during the summer of 2010. The film explores the different ethos of two closely related nations -- Estonia and Finland.

The Finlandia University Gallery is in the Finnish American Heritage Center, 435 Quincy St., Hancock.

For additional information, contact gallery director Carrie Flaspohler at 906-487-7500.

"Women and Water Rights II" group exhibit to open Oct. 27 at Finlandia Gallery

"Drowning Before I Learn to Swim," a mixed media collage by Marquette artist Rosa Musket, is part of the new group exhibit, "Women and Water Rights II: Rivers of Regeneration," at the Finlandia Gallery in the Finnish American Heritage Center -- opening this Thursday, Oct. 27. (Photo courtesy Finlandia University)

HANCOCK -- "Women and Water Rights II: Rivers of Regeneration," a group exhibition, will be featured at the Finlandia University Gallery, located in the Finnish American Heritage Center, Hancock, Oct. 27 to Nov. 22, 2011.

Included in the exhibit are works by Liz Dodson and James Brenner, Mayumi Amada, Cheryl Wilgren Clyne, Rosa Musket, Christine Flavin, Yueh-mei Cheng, Melissa Hronkin, Robert Grame, Phyllis Fredendall, and Denise Vandeville.

An opening reception for the artists will take place at the gallery from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 27. The artists will speak at 7:15 p.m. The reception is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

Who has the right to bodies of water, in our state, our country, our world? What are the issues involved in making water available to us? How does gender affect the right to water?

Several years ago in Minnesota, a group of women began discussing these questions. Their inquiry blossomed into the 2010 juried exhibit and symposium "Women and Water Rights: Rivers of Regeneration." The event was organized by the Women's Caucus for Art, Minnesota Chapter, and held at the Katherine Nash Gallery on the University of Minnesota Campus.

"Women and Water Rights II: Rivers of Regeneration" will feature artwork by four artists who participated in the Minnesota exhibit: Liz Dodson (Minneapolis, Minn.) and James Brenner (Chicago, Ill.), Mayumi Amada (Minneapolis), and Cheryl Wilgren Clyne (St. Paul, Minn.).

Minneapolis artist Mayumi Amada in her studio. Amada participated in the 2010 juried exhibit and symposium "Women and Water Rights: Rivers of Regeneration," in Minnesota. Her sculpture made of recycled plastic bottles will be part of the second "Women and Water Rights" exhibit in the Finlandia Gallery. (Photo courtesy Bakken Museum, Minneapolis, Minn.)

Also featured in the current exhibit are seven Upper Peninsula artists: Rosa Musket (Marquette, MI), Christine Flavin (Marquette), Yueh-mei Cheng (Hancock), Melissa Hronkin (Mass City), Robert Grame (Houghton), Phyllis Fredendall (Hancock) and Denise Vandeville (Alston).

Liz Dodson, a longtime member of the Women's Caucus for Art, helped to organize the Minnesota "Women and Water Rights" exhibit, working with Marilyn Cuneo of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and Diane Katsiaficas, an art professor at the University of Minnesota.

For the Finlandia Gallery exhibit, Dodson has collaborated with her son, James Brenner, a Chicago-based sculptor and director of the studio collective Chicago Sculpture Works, to create a sculpture that addresses the water crisis.

"The Latin roots for 'sea' and 'mother' are the same: 'mer,' Dodson notes. "We know that without water there is no life, just as without women, there would be no life. How can the 'feminine' qualities of intuition, creativity, and connection restore balance to the planet and meet the long-term needs of all who inhabit her?"

Mayumi Amada will display "Floating/Ukiyo," a 5′ x 9′ sculpture made from recycled plastic bottles.

"Domesticity is the underlying code for my work and I often use traditional female handcraft techniques and their images," says Amada. "The transformation of material is another characteristic of my artwork."

Amada uses flowing water as a metaphor for life. "Time and life are moving forward from the past to the future like the flow of a river," she adds.

Multi-media artist Cheryl Wilgren Clyne will screen a new digital video titled, "Below Lies Softly Glowing." The video was shown recently at the Burnet Art Gallery, Minneapolis, and 2012 screenings are scheduled in New York and Berlin.

"Below Lies Softly Glowing," from video by Cheryl Wilgren Clyne of St. Paul, Minn. (Photo courtesy Finlandia University)

Rosa Musket is a passionate advocate for water rights, and that passion is expressed in the mixed media artwork she will display in the Finlandia Gallery exhibit.

"My heart has been given over to water and its absolute preciousness to our very existence," says Musket. "The need for water to be available to all, without impurities, informs my current work. I ask: is it still water, when there are additives of every sort in it?"

For the group exhibit, Christine Flavin has expanded on her recent photographs of abandoned mine sites in Michigan's Upper Peninsula by addressing the emotional impact of mining on past generations of men, women, and children.

"In response to the invitation to exhibit my work with other artists in 'Women and Water Rights II,' I began researching the number of deaths that occurred in the mines between the years of 1880 and 1920, the era when the mining industry was at a peak," says Flavin.

The resulting photographs underscore the loss, isolation, abandonment, and marginalization experienced by the widows and children of deceased miners.

Denise Vandeville's porcelain vase, "Waterfall," captures the sights and sounds of a stream that runs behind her home in Alston. Vandeville says that the stream is "a long slow waterfall that puddles and flows, puddles and flows. This piece is a gift from that stream."

By manipulating materials and heat, Vandeville explains that in this piece she was able to emulate the feeling of flowing water, even in the glaze puddles on the horizontal planes that are the shoulders of the pots.

"Is it sight or sound that keeps us sitting at a waterfall?" asks Vandeville. "I enjoy waterfalls even with my eyes shut. The sound of moving water must have soothed the human soul long before music was invented."

For artist Phyllis Fredendall, living near Lake Superior is a constant source of inspiration.

"Lake Superior is my anchor and magnet," she says. "It buoys and baptizes me in the summer and generates layer upon layer of purifying snow in the winter. How to express the preciousness of that water? To speak of it as a 'right' is impossible. It is a sacred body."

Yueh-mei Cheng, who will show a drawing in the exhibit, says, "There's an old saying that women are made of water. Water represents the balance of strength and delicacy that signifies women's lives."

Noting the relationship between women and water in traditional Eastern literature and spiritual practices, Cheng adds. "The symbolic metaphor for the female quality of compassion and wisdom indicates purity, flexibility and durability."

Melissa Hronkin's installation -- "earth, air, fire, water" -- is an intimately scaled, interactive work that employs copper, wood, and glass specimen jars containing substances such as honey, water, salt, ash, dirt, and other precious materials.

"It is a reflection of how the elements of earth, air, fire, and water are all interdependent and necessary to maintain balance on any level," explains Hronkin.

Robert Grame, associate professor of graphic design, joined the faculty of Finlandia's International School of Art and Design this fall. As a designer, Grame believes in the social and ethical responsibility of design. He will display "Measuring Inequality," a mixed media installation/information architecture piece.

"The installation is intended to portray the overall disparity of existing water footprints in terms of water usage per capita, by country," he explains.

Finlandia Gallery hours are Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Thursday, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturday, noon to 4 p.m.; or by appointment.

The Finlandia University Gallery is in the Finnish American Heritage Center, 435 Quincy Street, Hancock. Please call 906-487-7500 for more information.

Finlandia Gallery to exhibit works by Tracy Krumm, Carol Lambert Sept. 22 - Oct. 22

HANCOCK -- "Explorations: The Flexible Linear Element," an exhibit of work by artists Tracy Krumm and Carol Lambert, will be featured at the Finlandia University Gallery, located in the Finnish American Heritage Center, Hancock, Sept. 22 to Oct. 22, 2011.

An opening reception for the exhibit will take place at the gallery from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 22. Tracy Krumm will speak at 7:15 p.m. The reception is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

What remains and is essential? What escapes or dissipates and is no longer relevant?

Tracy Krumm's sculptures -- both reminiscent of tools from the past and metaphors for the modern world -- pose these questions in physical form.

Tracy Krumm in her studio. (Photo courtesy Finlandia University)

Krumm's work embraces traditional "domestic" and gender-specific techniques, like crochet and blacksmithing; but her materials are transformed into conceptual explorations of feminism, popular culture, personal history and identity.

Carol Lambert, 76, a resident of nearby Hubbell, Mich., has been working with yarn for over 50 years. Family members supply her raw materials, such as discarded sweaters and blankets, which Carol then disassembles and unravels to create knitted shapes. Lambert calls these shapes, which are inspired by bound clotheslines, "hotdogs."

"Hot Dog" by Carol Lambert. (Photo courtesy Finlandia University)

For this exhibit, Krumm incorporated a number of Lambert's unwrapped shapes into interlaced and knotted textile structures using over a mile of handmade ropes, which she makes by twining, finger knitting, and finger crochet.

The pieces are held in space, affected by gravity and/or tension, and they play with our ideas about how textiles -- and the flexible linear materials they are made from -- perform in the realm of the language we use to describe them -- words like drape, stretch, bind, weave and interlock.

Several of Krumm's metal sculptures will also be exhibited.

Krumm has a master of fine arts in sculpture from the Vermont College of the Arts and a bachelor of fine arts in textiles from the California College of Arts and Crafts. She is an assistant professor in the fiber department at the Kansas City Art Institute, where she also teaches classes for the community arts and service-learning program and continues her studio practice.

Krumm's first major exhibition was in 1988 as part of the Young Americans show at the American Craft Museum in New York City (now the Museum of Art and Design). Since then, her work has been included in more than 120 exhibitions across the country and in Europe, including the 1996 International Betonac Prize exhibition in Sint-Truiden, Belgium, which also toured for two years, and the 2004 International Triennial of Tapestry exhibition in Lodz, Poland.

Krumm's work is included in hundreds of individual and private collections, including the collections of Ford Motor Company; Bloomingdale's; the Museum of Fine Art, Houston; the Denver Art Museum; and the Museum of Fine Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The Finlandia University Gallery is in the Finnish American Heritage Center, 435 Quincy Street, Hancock. Gallery hours are Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Thursday 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday 12 noon to 4 p.m., or by appointment.

Please call 906-487-7500 for more information.