Public Open Studio Event:
Featuring Elizabeth Belz
Saturday, July 1, 2017; 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The Gazebo, Marine on St. Croix
Artist and Craftsperson Elizabeth Belz will fire up her coal and gas forge and show how “blacksmithing is a science within itself” in this open studio event. Come watch her work and ask questions while she turns hot pieces of steel into works of art.
Belz has studied at the Perpich Center for the Arts, Minneapolis College of Art & Design, University of Wisconsin-River Falls, John C. Campbell Folk School and Century College. Most recently she has been a Craft Education intern at the North House Folk School in Grand Marais.
Artist at Pine Needles is a residency program exploring the connections between science and art, sponsored by the St. Croix Watershed Research Station of the Science Museum of Minnesota. Two to three artists or writers stay each summer at the research station’s James Taylor Dunn Pine Needles cabin north of Marine on St. Croix, interact with research scientists and the local community, and provide a public program based on their work and their residency.
2017 Artist at Pine Needles named
Sarah Stonich (Minneapolis MN), Elizabeth Belz (Grand Marais MN) and Karlyn Eckman (St. Paul MN) have been selected as residents in the Artist at Pine Needles program for Summer, 2017.
Sarah Stonich is the author of several novels, including The Ice Chorus and These Granite Islands. Her novel Vacationland was a MN Book Award finalist and has been a selected community read by nearly a dozen Midwestern cities. First, in a trilogy set at a remote resort in Northern Minnesota border country, Vacationland will be followed this spring by Laurentian Divide. Stonich will continue work on the final piece of this trilogy, Watershed, during her residency.
Elizabeth Belz, a Stillwater native, primarily works with metal, fiber, printmaking, and basketweaving. She has studied at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, John C. Campbell Folk School, North House Folk School and Penland School of Crafts in the Blue Ridge Mountains. During her residency, she will create a series of sculptures, made of forged and fabricated steel with added natural elements, inspired by the landscape at Pine Needles.
Karlyn Eckman paints in the genres of landscape, historical and nautical art, working in oil and watercolor painting and metal point drawing. She will use the residency to reflect upon the intersection of her two professional lives, which are united by water. In addition to her art, Eckman has been a professor in the Department of Forest Resources at the University of Minnesota, where she focused on the human dimensions of water quality issues. “Water is the unifying theme of my life’s work, and I seek to capture its beauty and to interpret its condition,” says Eckman.
Artist at Pine Needles
The Artist at Pine Needles residency program invites natural history artists or writers to spend 2 to 4 weeks to immerse themselves in a field experience, gather resource materials, and interact with environmental scientists and the local community.
The setting for the Artist at Pine Needles project is the James Taylor Dunn Pine Needles Cabin, located just north of the village along the St. Croix River.
Applications will be accepted from writers and visual artists who focus on environmental or natural history topics. Participants will have an opportunity to interact with environmental scientists and to create links between their art, the natural world and the sciences.
As part of the program, artists will be encouraged to design an outreach project to share their work with the local community and to contribute an original work for the benefit of the research station.
Housing and rustic studio space is provided for the artists' choice of a 2 to 4 week residency.
How to apply
Application materials for each summer's residencies are posted here during the first week of January. Applications are accepted until the end of February (check annually for exact dates), and artists are notified of the selection decision by the first of April. Two or three residents are selected each year.
For more information, contact Sharon Mallman, Assistant Director, (651) 433-5953 ext. 13 or mallman@smm.org.
Participants - Artist at Pine Needles
2016
| Kim Roberts (Washington, D.C.) Poet |  |
| Gary Noren and Marty Harding (Chisago City, Minnesota) Photographer and choral director |  |
| Marly Beyer (Portland, Oregon) Illustrator |  |
| C.B. Sherlock (Minneapolis, Minnesota) Book artist |  |
2015
| Soyini Guyton and Seitu Jones (St. Paul, Minnesota) Writer/poet and Sculptor |  |
| Joshua Cunningham (St. Paul, Minnnesota) Plein air painter |  |
| Tara Shukla (Grinnell, Iowa) Botanical artist/painter |  |
2014
| Dave Beck (Menomonie, Wisconsin) Video/3D animation |  |
| Anne Marie Queenan (St. Paul, Minnesota) Video/documentary/writer | |
| David Spohn (Lindstrom, Minnesota) Printmaker |  |
2013
| Bonnie Ploger (Shoreview, Minnesota) Painter |  |
| Susan Armington (Minneapolis, Minnesota) Painter |  |
| Su Smallen (St. Paul, Minnesota) Poet |  |
| Jessica Zeglin (Minneapolis, Minnesota) Painter/Sculptor |  |
2012
| Sally Gierke (Bettendorf, Iowa) Potter |  |
| Ryan Rodgers (Osceola, Wisconsin) Photographer |  |
2011
| William Powers (New York City, New York) Author/journalist |  |
| Jim Proctor (Minneapolis, Minnesota) Sculptor |  |
| David Luke (Minneapolis, Minnesota) Photographer |  |
2010
| Dave Beck (Potsdam, New York) Digital Artist |  |
| Michael Eble (Morris, Minnesota) Painter |  |
| Jeanne Kosfeld (St. Paul, Minnesota) Painter |  |
2009
| Bethany Kalk (Minneapolis, Minnesota) Painter |  |
| Ann Myers (Marine on St. Croix, Minnesota) Photographer |  |
| Robin Smith (Denver, Colorado) Printmaker/charcoal |  |
2008
| Anne Canright (Del Rey Oaks, California) Writer |  |
| Kathleen Heideman (Minneapolis, Minnesota) Poet |  |
| Darcy Love (Sauk City, Wisconsin) Fiber artist |  |
2007
| Mark Odegard (Marine on St. Croix, Minnesota) Painter, creative journalist |  |
| Vera Ming Wong (River Falls, Wisconsin) Painter, botanical and scientific illustrator |  |
| Kim Gordon (Minneapolis, Minnesota) Painter |  |
2006
| Rebecca Silus (Minneapolis, Minnesota) Painter |  |
| Linda Gammell (St. Paul, Minnesota) Photographer |  |
| Stephanie Torbert (Minneapolis, Minnesota) Photographer |  |
2005
| Naomi Cohn (St. Paul, Minnesota) Poet |  |
| Gwen Partin (St. Paul, Minnesota) Printmaker |  |
2004
| Merlyn Chesterman (Devon, England) Painter/printmaker |  |
| Susan Maakestad (Memphis, Tennessee) Painter |  |
2003
| Seitu Jones (St. Paul, Minnesota) Photographer/visual artist |  |
| David Morrison (St. Paul, Minnesota) Painter |  |
2002
| Laurie Allmann (Marine on St. Croix, Minnesota) Environmental writer |  |
