In The FiftyNorth Gallery Echoes & Shadows
3rd Annual Poetry & Art Collaboration
Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance. — Carl Sanburg
On display in the Gallery September 4 — October 2, 2026 The artist reception and poetry readings will be Thursday, September 17. Gallery Reception 4:00pm-5:00pm Poetry Reading 5:00pm
FiftyNorth, 1651 Jefferson Parkway, Northfield MN 55057 | (507) 664-3700 | fiftynorth.org
“Echoes and Shadows” Poetry and Art Collaboration
ARTIST
POET...........Page
Craig Swenson
Marie Gery.........................3
Andrea Curley
Becky Boling.......................4
Pat Jorstad
Mary Kay Feltes....................5
Andrea Turini
Torild Homstad............... 6, 7
Maia Homstad
Cot LaFond........................8
Alllison Albright
Orick Peterson.....................9
Mac Gimse
Nancy Exel-Rechtzigel.......... 10
Dean Neuburger
Wendy Manuel...........12, 13
Pat Jorstad
Karen Herseth Wee............. 14
W
Sylvia Ismet
Stella M. Capek................ 15
Mary Boylen
Heather Candels................ 16
Libby Falk Jones
Leslie Schultz................... 17
For three years running, this collaboration has served as a sanctuary where visual art and the written word meet to tell stories that neither could fully express alone. Tonight, we celebrate the magic that happens when a painter’s palette speaks to a poet’s stanza, and when verse gives a voice to color and form.
Kate Douglas
elcome, artists, poets, and creative spirits, to our 3rd Annual Echoes & Shadows Event!
Susan Jaret McKinstry........... 18
Gail Gates/Kate Douglas
Julie Ryan....................... 19
Katherine Hanson
Libby Falk Jones..........20, 21
Gail Gates
Theresa Heiland................ 22
Kathy Weed
Lucky Rimpila................... 23
Brenda Mulry
Deb Muotka.................... 24
Whether you are here as a featured contributor, a longtime supporter, or a first-time guest, thank you for bringing your energy to this space. Take your time tonight to wander, read, look closely, and let these extraordinary cross-disciplinary works spark your imagination.
Judy Saye-Willis
Marie Gery...................... 25
Kate Kouglas
Becky Boling.................... 24
Marty Amundson
D.E. Green (Doug).............. 25
Cheryl Ramette
Roger Jonesn............26, 27
John Dedzej
Dawn Glewwe.................. 28
Linda Veit
Sarah Entenmann............... 29
Let’s celebrate the powerful dialogue between art and poetry!
Mary Jo Winter
Charlotte Melin................. 30
Joyce Francis
Dee Olson....................... 31
— Michelle Brant FiftyNorth Gallery Director
Marty Amundson
Sharol Nau...................... 32
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Barb Bauer
Jane Sarles Larson.............. 33
Thank yous!
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WIND SHOPPING
Today Wind Shoppe special offers blast, gust, and breeze. Gusts bend tall grass tips into arches Garden’s short green noses won’t bend Hold back spring’s burst of color Heads cocked, Robins listen, pace the lawn Stop, peck, false clue, no worm Together, the proper length apart, Rise, search local real estate for nesting From the woods Blue Jays snicker Wait for nut-in-shell-peanut-dropped noise Fly arrow-straight Don’t waste a second
ARTIST STATEMENT I am fairly new to woodburning aka Pyrography. I started in 2020 and have loved working with various types of woods to make designs and great pieces of art. For this piece I used basswood and a wood burning pen to burn the designs of the birds and trees, for the color I used colored pencil to increase vibrance of the colors for each type of bird. Title: Cardinal Direction Medium: Pyrography & Colored Pencil Price: $100 — Craig Swenson Pyrography artist
What -cheer? What-cheer? Cardinals whistle Perk their crests, flit from woods Sunflower seeds beckon, feed Brilliant red hunger and song Hallowe’en on the wing, Orioles fluster Back porch grape jelly and orange feeder House Finch invisibly close, waits Invades, perches, sips, and sings May’s Budding Plants Moon wanes Strawberry Moon waxes. Hummingbirds whirr Nestlings arrive. Turkey vultures play high sky-tag. One painted turtle meanders toward the pond. Breezes waltz high green-leafed limbs And I am rich beyond wealth — Marie Gery
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A BRIEF, PASSING LOVE After Tony Hoagland That summer in the cool green lake, I treaded water, buoyed on my blue Styrofoam noodle, when a lithe, tapered winged angel hovered then lit on my husband’s shiny, damp head. An iridescent turquoise and blue brooch carried in by sunlit breezes tempered in a cool green forest came to keep us company, weightless and still, just a few seconds that have lasted a lifetime. I recall when the dragonfly graced us. It flitted from my husband’s head to my upraised hand. A bold gallant come to kiss my wet fingers so that I would know nature’s brief love in the piercing touch of a needle’s life. — Becky Boling PAGE 4
ARTIST STATEMENT
My mother was an artist that mentored me from a very early age. We spent years painting together. Later in life she would comment on coming back as a dragonfly to check on us. She believed this would be a brief passing from death to the spiritual realm or a heaven. Every time I see a dragonfly, I think of someone coming briefly to check on a loved one. — Andi Curley Title: When Dragons Fly Medium: Oil and Cold Wax Size: 24” X 18” Price: $650
WHAT WE SAY
Light the lights! Fire the fires! Ring the bells! We sisters-Jane, Jeanne, Nancy, me-and Jimmy, tooRecite that When we’re surprised, pleased Be-wondered Be-stirred Be-mused We sang it with our laughing mother Who left us long ago.
ARTIST STATEMENT I’m Pat Jorstad and I’m a mixed media artist. I make use of various art materials such as acrylics, watercolors, paper clay, and inks, often in combination with vintage papers, beads, and ephemera to create my art. I’m always seeking new techniques and media and enjoy taking and teaching art classes at FiftyNorth. I decided to match the joy in this poem with bright colors and a party atmosphere. The background was done with watercolors. I used distress inks for the vibrant colors on the balloons.
We celebrate her. We celebrate each other When we shout our family poem. Light the lights. Fire the fires. Ring the bells. — Mary Kay Feltes
— Pat Jorstad Title: Celebrate Medium: Watercolor and Ink Collage Size: 21” X 17” Not for Sale
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WHEN THE WORLD FEELS HEAVY
When the world feels heavy And seems too much to bear, Wake up in the morning—Before the trees Have begun to bud—to find that Scilla has carpeted the entire lawn in blue, and Celebrate this first harbinger of spring. When the world feels heavy And seems too much to bear, Sit on the dock on a summer evening Let the lapping water gently fill your soul And listen to the loons sing. When the world feels heavy And seems too much to bear, Look out the window in fall At the Japanese maple across the street Leaves a golden color, so intense It fills your heart to bursting. When the world feels heavy And seems too much to bear, Step outside on a winter’s night Let sparkling snowflakes fall silently On your uplifted face and Let them fill your spirit With gratitude and peace. — Torild Homstad
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ARTIST STATEMENT
A STUDY IN POLARITY Handwoven glass beadwork, hand-stitched to vinyl, 2026 At a time when I could barely get off the couch, I found some relief in my art. Unable to design for myself, I used someone else’s patterns. I was free to focus on one bead at a time, to create something without a purpose. This work represents a journey I never want to relive, yet when I look at this work, I choose to focus on polarity. This collection gave me a sense of purpose, something tactile to ground me, and community through collaborating with friends on color design. The finished collection does not reveal the state I was in while making it. It is orderly, deliberate, and hopeful. Perhaps that contrast is why, after a lifetime of making jewelry, this has become the most personal work I have ever created, and some of the most difficult to finish and put into the world. Pattern design by Peggy Sudz Lampwork Color interpretation and beadwork by Andrea Turini Medium: Handwoven Glass Beadwork Size: 8” X 8” Price: $475 Each — Andrea Turini PAGE 7
ARTIST STATEMENT — Carol Fraher, Mixed media
WAKING UP IN FERNTREE GULLY, VICTORIA AUSTRALIA
In the morning, first thing, is the magpie music. The blue sock-octopus hangs on the clothesline. Coffee from the red enamel French press found in a Cambridge sidewalk box comes in your Duluth Death Row coffee mug. My paintings, of the Canadian island canoe landing, of Newport harbor at dusk, are on your walls. On the counter sit your Namibian baskets; the bristlecone pine box rests on a Rhode Island chest of drawers. We range across a vast world to arrive at the pleasure of another morning like any morning in a new or faraway place, waking up to a lengthening life of partings and love. — Cot LaFond
ARTIST STATEMENT While “we range across a vast world,” the large frame brings images together on the clothesline. Images within the poem are strong – the sock octopus is a relative of the sock monkey – both part of childhood. Ferntree gully in Victoria, Australia, in one place holds items that come from other places in the world. Maybe where you are now is a place that holds pieces and memories of where you’ve been. Just as life continues, so does parting. Love brings these people together in this vast world. — Maia Homstad Medium: Watercolor Not for Sale
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ARTIST STATEMENT ARTIST STATEMENT This watercolor was inspired by the poem “This Moment of Forever” and its reflection on the way memory allows our past and present selves to exist together. I was especially drawn to the poet’s images of ‘this blue my eyes once were” and “this gold my braids had then.” I imagined a young girl standing in windswept golden grass beneath an expansive sky, holding tightly to a blue kite as it pulls against the wind. The fluidity of watercolor felt especially suited to this idea of memories with its soft edges and multiple layers. Our minds have a beautiful way of weaving our experiences and memories into the person we are today. What a gift it is to remember. I am a watercolor artist and pharmacist in Northfield. These two endeavors may seem very different, yet both are grounded in curiosity, care, and connection. At the heart of my artistic life is a passion for bringing people together to create. That is what makes Echoes and Shadows especially meaningful to me. A poet offered an eloquent selection of words to evoke emotion and create imagery, and I responded in watercolor. Collaboration gives us the opportunity for creativity to become less an individual act and more a conversation.
THIS MOMENT FOREVER
higher than the clouds above the elms floats weightless blue tugging this way and that at the light anchored taut in the flaxen grass tousled from winter this blue-my-eyes-once-were and this gold-my-braids-had-then lock this time, this place into forever I am still that girl I was and I am myself today my lifetime’s memories rise here all at once each true as this blue sky each surprised by the others — Orick Peterson
— Allison Albright Medium: Watercolor Not for Sale
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THE NEWEST GREEN OF SPRING
Walking by the river I discover just one Magnolia emerging as white as the last remnant of winter snow quickly disappearing. Patches… …of yet sleeping grass want to spring up while I grab an inhale of freshness that grows deeper with every breath. Harbinger... …of things to come, I sit on my old bench lounging over our not yet mown lawn, to announce while the sun is high, that the world and I are alive. Starting… …with nature’s next waking birthday, I see budding on sky-high twig-tips and hear singing on branches with birds just landing. Growing... …old and dying briefly between each changing season, I try not to injure those blades of greening under foot, lightened by my neighbor child’s laughter. Dancing… …as if I’m younger when I enter my stirring garden to plant seeds in not yet warm soil, then waiting while fragrantly weeping flowers blossom. Annually… …after this year, I need to know why I am still here, so I will now remember how that bright white Magnolia smells sweeter than all the world’s aroma… — Mac Gimse
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ARTIST STATEMENT
Fresh green grass, bright blue skies, and budding flowers appear with the season’s change from winter to spring. Our world seems to come alive again. This may turn our thoughts to things yet to come. As the birds chirp and a warm breeze blows ripples across the rivers, a new hope fights to emerge from the solitude of water. — Nancy Exel-Rechtzigel Medium: Acrylic on Board Size: 14” X 11” Price: $50
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ARTIST STATEMENT
”SEASONS” The concept of seasons is engaging to regard and perhaps good for everyone to consider throughout life. Has everyone heard this adage?: “There is a season for everything.” The poem “The Endless Celebration Season” offers inspiring insight for aspects of seasons to consider. Of course, seasons of nature come to mind. Nature is beautiful to behold and enjoy and does offer splendid motif for focus in art. Life experience has presented no standard spectrum of seasons, however, and this poem offers us a larger message. Therefore, while considering the possible connections the poem has for perhaps anyone and how broad the concept may be regarded, I decided upon five conceptual seasons to represent. Life experiences may be regarded as seasons which can be chronological as well as spiritual. These seasons recur and blend with each other. I narrowed focus to five distinct seasons. My choices of combinations of colors and patterns are intended to compel certain ideas about life experience and perhaps evoke more emotion and appreciation for what life offers. Please enjoy! History and Heritage Growth and Learning Love and Passion Crisis and Sadness Appreciation and Reflection “All of them are neighbors. Everything, each and every one.” Rearrange and perhaps multiply the image in your mind as you wish to present your own life of special seasons. — Dean Neuburger Price: $500 for the set of 5
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THE ENDLESS CELEBRATION SEASON
“It’s the time of the season for loving.” — Rod Argent, 1968 “How do you measure, a year in the life? How about love? Seasons of love.” — Jonathan Larson, 1996 A definite period of time is a season, but then it may also be an indefinite period of time. Some consider a single season the right time to recognize what is deemed worthy of celebration. It is by special conditions that seasons are marked, determined merely by Earth’s position in relation to the sun. Sometimes a season is marked by chapters of aging with measurements unclear, numbers, color of hair, or accomplishments. Often a season is defined as a recurring time, like a holiday, a sporting calendar, or remembrance of a special event. Me? I prefer seasoning that is not bound by time or space, memory, or measurement. My heart chooses the endless season of love. A season of loving the entirety of creation’s diversity: Insects, birds, reptiles, fish, mammals, plants, trees, fungi, humans, and a universe beyond comprehension. All of them are neighbors. Everything, each and every one. The creator called creation not merely good. The creator called creation very good, and called us to love it. Life is the time for the season of celebration. — Wendy Manuel
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PLUM BLOSSOMSARTIST STATEMENT
SMALL-TOWN GROCERY PARKING LOT
Small-Town Grocery Parking Lot A man In saggy jeans walks briskly to his truck holding a bunch of bananas in one hand and a fistful of generic flowers in the other for a non-generic moment in his kitchen where either he puts the flowers in a Mason jar with water peels a banana cracks open a beer washes down the banana while he sits in front of a small black and white tv or he comes into the house walks up to his wife at the kitchen sink from behind tongues her earlobe and whispers darling I bought these for the heck of it cuz I’m crazy totally wildly in love with you Karen Herseth Wee — Narrative poem
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I’m Pat Jorstad and I’m a mixed media artist. I make use of various art materials such as acrylics, watercolors, paper clay, and inks, often in combination with vintage papers, beads, and ephemera to create my art. I’m always seeking new techniques and media and enjoy taking and teaching art classes at FiftyNorth. I chose to focus on one oversized flower to represent the love so evident in the poet’s words. “Bloom” was created using acrylic paint applied over glass bead gel modeling paste and fiber paste. — Pat Jorstad Title: Bloom Medium: Acrylic Paint and texture pastes Size: 12” X 12” Price: $90
ARTIST STATEMENT
SMALL KITCHEN MAGIC Washing dishes I set a wineglass to dry stem up on a white cloth. The next time I look over I am amazed. Hovering above the glass on the kitchen wall is a soft gem of light three-dimensional like a diamond but with sharp edges removed: a velvet texture of brightness. I cannot solve the mystery of how that shape came from this glass. It reflects a doorway to another place where astonishing patterns shine just beyond the reach of our experience. I thought the celebration was over when I washed the glass but it is always beginning. — Stella M. Capek
ARTIST STATEMENT My name is Sylvia Ismet. I am an emerging artist rediscovering my God given creative talents. I hope to inspire others who may like me have let the world stifle their creative abilities and thought creativity belongs only to a gifted few. In creating this art piece from a chosen poem with mixed media I want to share that it is never too late to begin! Art for me isn’t just in doing but in being. It is where I feel at home, authentically myself. It is starting and never ending in discovering new ways to create and to be inspired by others who have decided to do art in their special unique way. This particular work of art is seeing a simple object reflect light in hope and possibilities. It’s a new way to look at an empty wine glass and light coming together to show an amazing myriad of color patterns. I’ve created this art using collage material both paper and cloth, my photograph, water paint, and pencil to show this. I am grateful for the freedom to share and express this special poem, Small Kitchen Magic, in art work in my unique way. Thank you, FiftyNorth, for this wonderful opportunity! —Sylvia Ismet Medium: Mixed Media Size: 12” X 15” Price: $40 PAGE 15
PERFECT UNTIL
One July morning, I woke up, sauntered into the kitchen, made coffee and repaired to my screened-in porch where my cat rolled around waiting for a belly scratch. The cardinals, chickadees, mourning doves and robins chattered while a train whistle blew in the distance before I put on my swimsuit and headed for the pool. The sun’s butterscotch rays captured the fur of a Golden retriever, tail wagging, out for a walk with her master. It was still early when a family of five paraded by: a mother, a father, a baby tucked into a stroller, a 4 year old skipping in zig zags across the sidewalk, his big sister, wearing a striped top, cartwheeling as she brought up the rear. I almost had to pinch myself. Everything was perfect. Until I turned on the radio. — Heather Candels
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ARTIST STATEMENT Hello, my name is Mary Boylen. I am an artist, a dabbler, and a maker. I like to try many different art mediums and right now my favorite is making collages using all kinds of different papers. No paper is safe because sometimes just the littlest piece creates just the right touch. As I read the poem I had chosen it created an instant picture in my mind’s eye. I tried to put it on paper using that current favorite medium of mine, collage. If you look closely you’ll find a red cardinal and a chickadee along with the family of five. Like the poet I wanted you to feel like you were having the same experience, but from the other side of the street. Mr. Rogers always said, “It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood”…when the radio is off. I hope you enjoy the view. — Mary Boylen Title: My Neighborhood Medium: Collage Size: 15” X 13” Not for Sale
ODE TO AN AFTERNOON INTERLUDE — FOR JUDY Yesterday, perched on a chair, in a friend’s lofty house, making a sock from maroon wool, discussing knotty new fiction, I dropped my knitting, half-rose to stare: down through the wide, clean window. Over tufts of straw-bleached grass and a partly thawed pond, CHASING the low, long,SURVIVAL elegant swoop of a lone sandhill crane flowed to its conclusion oblivious of utterance. Full of its own light and syntax, punctuated only by wing and pinion, it appeared to be made solely of cadence, of insight. — Leslie Schultz This ode (or praise poem) celebrates both human friendship and the rich context of the natural world context upon which we all depend.
ARTIST STATEMENT
A few years ago, in early February, a photographer friend and I journeyed west from our homes in Berea, Kentucky, with our cameras. A local wildlife biologist had told us that thousands of migrating sandhill cranes had been sighted in the winter cornfields around the tiny town of Cecilia, Kentucky. We found an empty field, parked our car, then hiked out into it and waited. We heard them before we saw them. Flocks of cranes filled the skies, wings clattering, mates calling to one another, pairs landing to dance among the stubble. As the light dropped, a single sandhill flew over my head toward the trees lining the field, and I lifted my camera. The bird was, indeed, “full / of its own light and syntax,” the beat of its graceful wings stilled in my camera lens as I clicked the shutter. My photograph celebrates relationships—humans and birds—and the awe we humans experience in the presence of what Kentucky poet Wendell Berry calls “the peace of wild things.” — Libby Falk Jones Title: Sandhill Crane at Dusk, Cecilia, Kentucky Medium: Digital Photograph Size: 11” X 14” Price: $90 PAGE 17
ARTIST STATEMENT
LOVING LIGHT
This piece explores the essence of “Komorebi” (Sunlight filtering through the leaves of trees, creating small, shifting projections of the sun.) Using photographic collage, it reveals imagery that captures this delicate interplay of light and shadow, echoing creative and spiritual evolution while showing appreciation for nature’s beauty and subtlety.
Komorebi (木漏れ日) Japanese: sunlight filtering through the leaves of trees, creating small, shifting projections of the sun.
This is my second year participating in Echoes & Shadows. I enjoyed a career in Art at Northfield public schools and in Art Education at the college of St. Catherine. Most recently, I taught art here at FiftyNorth and have participated in solo gallery show.
through a delicate lace curtain sun decorates a sleeping cat with intricate arcs of light
— Kate Douglas Medium: Photography Size: 22 ½” X 22 ½” Price: $140
Sunlight flickers through new leaves and the ground shimmers with tiny dancing suns
sunbeams through a heavy glass globe reflect a tiny inverted tree in a circle of sparkling stars for a beat everything is perfect for a beat seeing brings such joy the heart fills with borrowed brightness as if the sun overhead gathered its vast scorching self into tiny round brushes to pattern the world with light and wonder in fleeting exquisite kisses. — Susan Jaret McKinstry
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ARTIST STATEMENT #1
ARTIST STATEMENT #2
JUBILEE ROAD
Travel far together— past blossoming trees carved with couples’ promises, through blazing tunnels filled with perennial love, under bridges tangled with waning vines of time, over mountains capped with chilling lines of frost— and leave no milestone unturned.
ARTIST #1 — GAIL GATES You’re probably hoping this is short enough to finish before your popcorn gets cold and that glass of wine gets warm. Deal. I start with a photograph I’ve taken — usually from my Nikon, sometimes just my iPhone, because inspiration rarely waits for the “good” camera. From there, things get playful. Working through a handful of iPhone apps (and other software), I layer, blend, and coax the image into something new. Sometimes it stays close to traditional photography; other times it drifts into full impressionism. Most pieces are built from several images stacked together before I settle on the one to print.
The weathered road will unfold into adventures offering glossy snapshots to hang inside fading hearts and mementos to preserve in scrapbooks bound for eternity— propelling souls to dance across a vital map toward the pulse of memorable music at the next celebratory stop. — Julie Ryan
For this year’s Echoes & Shadows exhibit, poetic text transforms into physical layers, light, and personal history. This multimedia work marks a personal journey of translating the rhythm and imagery of poetry into my own tangible world. This piece responds to the poem “Jubilee Road.” Utilizing acrylic, photography, print, and collage. It freezes fleeting moments in time, offering an interpretation of personal mementos bound for eternity. This artwork explores how words change when they take up physical space, inviting viewers to navigate the hidden textures of the written word alongside my own path of discovery. — Kate Douglas Medium: Multimedia Size: 23” X 35” Price: $160
ARTIST #2 — KATE DOUGLAS
I hold a Master of Liberal Arts from Metropolitan State University, and I’;m pretty much always on the lookout for my next story/composition. My husband and our chubby, judgy cat keep me tethered to reality — which is more than can be said for my photos. — Gail Gates
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HOW THREE FRIENDS AND MARY OLIVER SAVED A LIFE Dorothy was having a bad day. It’s no good coming, she told me on the phone. I’m locked up here. My father has come. My mother has come. No, it’s no good speaking with the sitter. She’d be 96 on Tuesday. O let the body give way before the mind. I went anyway, carried in the birthday gift bag Maureen had sent from half a continent away, found Dorothy upright, as usual, in her red chair. Her fingers searched the tissue paper, drew out a book: black, a white bird on front, one wing unfurled: Swan. Turning pages with sure fingers, Dorothy began to read, her voice no longer querulous, but clear and true, once again the voice that had led thousands of students along a path of words and art and spirit, into the world, into their lives. Inside the river there is an unfinishable story / and you are somewhere in it / and it will never end until all ends. INVITATION No longer a prisoner in the house of her mind, for an hour Dorothy wandered with Mary among the drowsy mountains, in the fields, the woods. Was I lost? No question. / Did I know where I was? Not at all. / Had I ever been happier in my life? Never. It took three friends to save a life: one to find Mary’s book and know it would be loved; one to deliver it and witness; one to receive it, hungrily, and share the feast. If you have ever gone to the woods with me, I must love / you very much. — Libby Falk Jones For Dorothy Tredennick, 1914-2011. Mary Oliver, Swan: Poems and Prose Poems (Boston: Beacon, 2010).
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ARTIST STATEMENT Intertextuality and “the leaf is singing still” Merriam Webster defines intertextuality as “the complex interrelationship between a text and other texts.” On the surface, the poem “How Three Friends and Mary Oliver Save a Life” is a simple narrative about how three friends share a book of poetry. One distant friend sends the book Swan to another to deliver to a third friend who is losing her memory. The book revives her memory and experience and brings to life Mary Oliver’s words and ideas steeped in the natural world. Lines from several of Oliver’s poems from the book are interspersed within the narrative and add to the complexity of the poem. In the middle of the poem, two lines from the first Oliver poem in Swan “What Can I Say” refers to the “river that is an unfinishable story.” This idea is linked to another image that begins and ends the poem which is the leaf “that has a song in it” and “is singing still.” I have used this as the central image of my print. This multi-layered poem that includes a simple narrative linked to Mary Oliver’s poems linked to a shared experience with three friends that leads to restoring, at least for a short time, a life well-lived and a tribute to a dear friend inspired a multi-layered work of art. Using a gell printing process, I created a botanical print with three sprigs of singing leaves in order to celebrate and commemorate the lives of Dorothy Tredennick (1914-2011) the poetry of Mary Oliver (1935-2019). — Katherine Hanson Not for Sale
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RED PRAIRIE Fireflies flood the field Music swells above the barn We dance all night long — Theresa Heiland
ARTIST STATEMENT You’re probably hoping this is short enough to finish before your popcorn gets cold and that glass of wine gets warm. Deal. I start with a photograph I’ve taken — usually from my Nikon, sometimes just my iPhone, because inspiration rarely waits for the “good” camera. From there, things get playful. Working through a handful of iPhone apps (and other software), I layer, blend, and coax the image into something new. Sometimes it stays close to traditional photography; other times it drifts into full impressionism. Most pieces are built from several images stacked together before I settle on the one to print. I hold a Master of Liberal Arts from Metropolitan State University, and I’m pretty much always on the lookout for my next story/composition. My husband and our chubby, judgy cat keep me tethered to reality — which is more than can be said for my photos. — Gail Gates Title: Fireflies Medium: Manipulated Photography on Canvas Size: 17 ½” X 21 ½” Price: $175
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DON’T TELL SUMMER
On a freshly covered valley, with a crispness in the air I stand and feel the snow-laden land, with its blanket everywhere It’s moments like these I cherish, when my eyes tear up from the chill And the quietness that abounds here seems like it always will It’s no different from the springtime, when the newness breaks the ground And there’s freshness with the flowers, and each one opens with a sound And the summer meadows linger, a sultry haze heats the air Not a time to gaze in silence, when I walk in stillness there And the leaves that swirl past me, crash and break on autumn’s ground There’s no escaping to the oneness, there’s no silence to this sound Until it’s back to winter’s stillness, and its darkness closes in And I feel God’s warmth around me, even though it’s always been So, crisp night in a hallowed winter, I scorn your days but love your night Don’t tell summer about these feelings, let each feeling be what’s right So, take my breath and cover your beauty, break my words as they hit the air Wrap me in your embrace of twilight, in the winter, loves found there — Lucky Rimpila
ARTIST STATEMENT
As I read this poem, my inspiration is from; “snow covered valleys, crispness in the air”. Then, I knew I needed to include trees, as you might be walking through a forest.
Title: “ Winter Bliss” Textile: Collage of 100% cottons Size: 20” X 25” Price: $ 375.00
While I’m designing, I love the feel of fabric as I’m cutting pieces. Choosing vibrant colors, using many pins to make a collage of raw edge fabric applique. Pulling my art piece all together by “free motion” machine quilting. I’m truly taken by the process of transforming fabric into my vision of nature. — Kathy Weed
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ARTIST STATEMENT
DAKOTA AND ME I wanted a dog A dog I did want Mommy said “no” I cried a lot The days passed on by The months they did too I wished and I wished But my dream didn’t come true Then one day my mommy To my surprise Came home with a dog With two big brown eyes I named her Dakota She was bigger than me Weighed one hundred pounds Or one hundred and three Dakota could pull me Outside on a sled But she was too big To sleep in my bed
I’ve always enjoyed making things with my hands. Textiles, especially, entice me. After experimenting with a variety of fiber arts, I chose weaving for the foundation and structure. A fusion of needle felting, crochet, and wool applique form a unified whole within the finished art piece. — Brenda Mulry Medium: Fiber Art Not for Sale
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So I gave her a hug At the end of each day And told her I’d wake her In the morning to play — Deb Muotka
CREEPING CHARLIE
mint leaves purple blooms carpet of spring bird racket bunnies—a dozen squirrel chatter Charlie never creeps in alone His shag is always accompanied by myriad fellows— sometimes welcome sometimes not but quite persistent Charlie creeps over our outdoor living room That’s how we know we’re in the right place and there’s still time for love — D.E. Green (Doug)
ARTIST STATEMENT Carpet of Spring – This collage expresses emerging springtime colors, lines and shapes of flowers, leaves and trees. Color values and varied textures create a hiding space for a bunny in the foliage. I love incorporating music within my compositions as it provides a calm, soothing background in my home studio as I work/play. — Marty Amundson Title: Carpet of Spring Medium: Mixed Media Collage Size: 11” X 14” Price: $95
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CHEERS! “I guess you know what this means.” John Bullens was levering himself out the door of my Cessna 150. “You stay put,” he said. My palms had gotten instantly sweaty. I knew I was pretty close to soloing, but right that minute, in my airplane…. “John…,” I began. “You’ll do fine,” he said. “Just three up and three down. You’ve done it a hundred times.” “Yeah. With you sitting beside me,” I said as he slammed the door. Ducking under a strut, he punched his hands deep in his pockets and strode across the ramp, leaving me…leaving me! I never in all my flying felt so alone. I couldn’t know that just out of eyesight, around the corner of the hangars, he had stopped to watch me. There was no way to avoid it. I had to solo some time. It was 2005 and I was 60 years old. A year before, I had bought my 150 and begun to learn to fly it. John Bullens, my instructor, thought I was ready to solo. I took a deep breath and reached down and turned the key. The prop blades came around, the engine answered with a throaty roar, and I pushed in the throttle. There was no difference in the way the 150 behaved as I taxied out. But as soon as I was airborne, the absence of John Bullens—all six-foot three and 250 pounds of him—made itself known. The airplane felt light as a feather and climbed “like a homesick angel,” as a friend at the airport put it. Before I knew it I was 2000 feet up. I pulled out the throttle. The ensuing three landings and take offs went by in a blur. By the third, I felt like a real pilot. I could make the airplane do anything. I didn’t even see John Bullens emerging from around a corner of the hangars with a smile on his face a yard wide and a pair of scissors. He maintained that smile through the timehonored cutting out of a big piece of the tail of my shirt, memorializing the occasion with a felt-tipped pen: First Solo. That shirttail still hangs in Central Kentucky Regional Airport’s main hangar. I continued my own smile all the way to the Mexican restaurant my wife and I had selected to commemorate my soloing. We were ushered into a private room. And there sat, at a long table, my whole EAA chapter and their spouses, each holding a giant margherita glass at full arm’s length. A salute. A celebration! — Roger Jones
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ARTIST STATEMENT ARTIST STATEMENT– Artist Statement Cheryl’s life is actively focused around her enjoyment of making things and bringing new ideas to life. Trained in the medium of printmaking, she’s become fascinated with re-using tea bags as the surface for her work. For this exhibit she created six miniature tea bag kites embellished with indigo leaf, plant ink, and pen. Delicate in appearance, the kites fly with grace and charm. Her Muse is her imagination. Her Motto is “Go to your studio and make stuff!” — Cheryl Ramette Not for Sale
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ARTIST STATEMENT Artist: John Dedzej Medium: Photography Not for Sale
CELEBRATION OF LIFE Not a typical reason to celebrate The loss of one’s parents. The devastating feeling of emptiness Not wanting to accept they’d be gone one day.
Their comfort and strength Continue to guide and lead us. They raised us right With strong morals and values.
Empty places at the holiday table Reserved for mom and dad. Leaving behind their legacy And leaving behind a void.
Surrounded by family and friends Seeing how much they were loved. So many valuable stories From those whose lives they touched.
Perhaps taken for granted Always assuming they’d be there. Too many days without a call or visit Wishing you could hear their voices one more time.
Time will go on Our days will be filled. But their memories remain with us As a celebration of their lives!
Then the memories rush in Their smiles, their laughter. The sound of their voices The way they always made things right.
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— Dawn Glewwe
ARTIST STATEMENT
CELEBRATION
Celebration I am a mixed-media artist who enjoys working with paper, paint, texture, pattern, and found materials. I am especially drawn to collage because ordinary pieces of paper can be transformed through layering, repetition, color, and unexpected combinations.
I’m seventy-five Energetic and alive— Light many candles! — Sarah Entenmann
For Celebration, I was inspired by the joyful spirit of the poem: “I’m seventy-five / Energetic and alive / Light many candles!” Rather than illustrating the words literally, I wanted the collage to capture the feeling behind them— the energy, optimism, and delight of being fully engaged in life. The radiating lines suggest movement and vitality, while the bright colors, circles, patterns, and touches of gold create a sense of celebration. The layered paper forms add dimension and playfulness. I wanted the composition to feel as though it were bursting outward with life. To me, the poem is a wonderful reminder that growing older does not mean growing quieter. There is still much to celebrate, create, discover, and enjoy. — Linda Veit Medium: Collage Size: 16” X 20” Price: $350
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CELEBRATE THE EARTH
ARTIST STATEMENT
Let us celebrate by watching in quiet— praise the ephemerals soon to be gone from the woodland floor, notice small leaves uncurling on each twig, smell the petrichor rising from damp earth, spy the chickadee gathering moss to nest, listen to delicate songs weaving around us that articulate spring with whispers. — Charlotte Melin
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I believe that capturing images that present themselves organically can bring thoughtfulness and hope to people that see them. I don’t want to lose hope in humanity in this world and in the beauty that life provides us. All this helps to realize we are part of something larger than ourselves. — Mary Jo Winter Medium: Photography Size: 20” X 16” Price: $100
TODAY I RAN AWAY
Today I ran away to find the sea Like a splendid wild butterfly In search of distant flowers The waves curled to welcome me the sun bent to bless me the ocean breeze set me free A wild butterfly Me — Dee Olson
ARTIST STATEMENT “TO INCREASE THE QUALITY OF THE DAY, THAT IS THE HIGHEST OF ARTS” This quotation by Henry David Thoreau has been my mantra since I first started studying calligraphy in the mid-1970s. I came to realize that art is one of the most profound means to “increase the quality of the day.” As an artist, my mission is to bring more color into your daily life. I feel strongly that we need art and color in our lives. The current times are too often dark, heavy, confusing, and depressing. Art offers a bit of color into these days. I believe we need to create and maintain joy in our lives. Even a little bit of art will feed that joy and encourage us along our way. — Joyce Francis Medium: Mixed Media: Hand Painted Papers, Collage, and Stitching Price: $75.00
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ARTIST STATEMENT
A GOLDEN POEM
1 heart 6 of gold for those bold and 1 prost 8 giving life where stories rise from 0 3 active minds 3 able shapes 9 with shimmering, glimmering starlight — Sharol Nau
ARTIST STATEMENT Golden Celebration This mixed media collage was created from scraps of watercolor paintings, magazine print and acrylic paint. Follow the movement of dancing figures traveling on the continuum of colors mingling with the golden ratio. Shimmering stars, hearts and a celebratory toast to your health — 50 years of FiftyNorth. — Marty Amundson Title: Golden Celebration Medium: Mixed Media Collage Size: 12” X 12” $95.00
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BOUND TO SNOW I pulled up the blaze-orange stakes yesterday that mark the driveway’s edge for the snow blower and shovels. My husband says I’ve pulled them too soon. It’s April in Minnesota. Time to let go, I say. He thinks I’ve jinxed it—it’s bound to snow now. And so it does. Glittering snowflakes crust the green grass, roots draw in the white melting coverlet while emerging tulips, ready to burst into technicolor, cup waxy leaves like hands holding water to sip and the seedbed and soil give way to earthworms awakened from their dormant sleep, tunneling towards the hovering sun. This same snow, this same sun is the complexion of the pansies outside my mother’s hospice window. Next April, I’ll buy a bowl of pansies, place them on our deck facing the sun, pull up the orange stakes and wait for the snow to fall. — Jane Sarles Larson
ARTIST STATEMENT This Bound to Snow encaustic piece is inspired by the poem Bound to Snow. The last sentence of the poem reminded me of my experiences with putting plants outside in the early spring hoping that the snow of the season had ended only to realize it hadn’t! The piece is a sort of abstract bowl of pansies with snow softly falling on them reminding us of our great enthusiasm as gardeners always anxious to start the flowering season of the year. As an artist, I’ve always believed in the power of creating. I believe that creating, whether it be visual art, poetry, or any other creative endeavor, is essential for mental and emotional health. I also find it very rewarding to offer creations that are contemplated and enjoyed by others. Medium: Encaustic Not for Sale
— Barbara Bauer PAGE 33
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Thank you to the Echoes & Shadows Committee: Michelle Brant, Marie Gery, Marty Amundson and Pat Jorstad
Emcees: Becky Boling & Doug Green
Guitarist: Greg Smith
Event Crew: John & Chris Pogue, Gail Lewis, Judy Karlson and Eileen Cooper
Echoes & Shadow Guide Book design: Patty Ciernia
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More than 2000 vibrant, active members have found belonging, purpose and wellbeing here in our FiftyNorth family. We connect. We care. And we support one another. Every gift made to FiftyNorth stays with the FiftyNorth family. Your unrestricted donation supports our programs like Echoes & Shadows! Unrestricted gifts are used for general operations, to meet today’s needs with today’s dollars.
Thank you for considering a donation to support our FiftyNorth family and make thriving-through-aging possible for all.
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Celebrating 5o years! STAFF DIRECTORY Executive Director:
Marlais Brand 507-664-3701 | marlais.brand@fiftynorth.org Fitness Manager: Craig Swenson 507-664-3702 | craig.swenson@fiftynorth.org Operations and Membership Manager: Elaine Meyers 507-664-3703 | elaine.meyers@fiftynorth.org Program Coordinator: Lifelong Learning/ Community Outreach Patty Ciernia 507-664-3709 | patty.ciernia@fiftynorth.org Program Coordinator: Arts/Volunteer Michelle Brant 507-664-3707 | michelle.loken@fiftynorth.org Used-A-Bit Shoppe Manager: Fermin Notario Ponce 507-645-1399 | fermin.ponce@fiftynorth.org Used-A-Bit Shoppe Assistant Manager: Deb Olien 507-645-1399 | deb.olien@fiftynorth.org
STAFF DIRECTORY Front Desk (Reception Staff): Phone: 507-664-3700 | Fax: 507-664-3720 Brenda Bultman, Dan Corcoran, Bonnie DuPay, JoAnn Edwardsen, Bonnie Eliason, Kay Marosi, Jane Persons, Pam Toepper
HOURS FiftyNorth: Hours: Monday–Friday: 6am–8pm Saturday: 7am–4pm Sunday: Closed Used-A-Bit Shoppe: (Donations by appointment) 624 Water Street, River Mall, 507-645-1399 Tuesday–Saturday: 10am–5pm Sunday & Monday: Closed
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