Paths, Many

Last Friday I found myself at the panadería in Wadena, Minnesota. The shop was still dark and I feared they might not be open at all as I headed back to my car to quickly google their hours. Phew, I sighed as I learned that they opened at 8:00am. I was just early. My mission, to get a box of goodies and deliver them back to Vaimo’s office to feed her board members. My side quest, fuel myself for my drive to Bemidji. While leaving directly from home would have shaved off thirty minutes round trip, leaving from Wadena meant a stop for pan dulce and my sweet tooth couldn’t resist.

After running my quick errand, enjoying what I believe to be a specialty of the shop, a spiced hojarasca with a cookie crumble topper often found on the iconic concha, I was northbound on US Highway 71. Shortly after brushing the last of the sugary crumbs off of myself, it began to snow. Flurries accompanied me for the hour and a half drive as I made my way to the Watermark Art Center. I was off to see Joyce Jackson Arndt’s exhibition, Ninanda-Minwaajim - “I Seek To Tell A Good Story” up through November 11th of this year.

When I explained to the staff congregating near the front door I journeyed here to see her show, someone quickly walks back to the gallery featuring her work to prepare a video of the artist speaking about the show. There are four galleries housed within the Watermark Art Center, with the largest containing a wall of windows overlooking Lake Bemidji located directly across the road. Joyce Jackson Arndt’s work is in the Miikanan Gallery, located on the left side of a hallway corridor on the way to the natural light-filled beautiful space. According to the Watermark Art Center’s website, Miikanan Gallery is, “a permanent space to exhibit and promote Indigenous art in the region… The name Miikanan, meaning ‘many paths,’ reflects the physical location and historical importance of the region to Ojibwe people. Bemidji is located in the center of three reservations - Red Lake, Leech Lake and White Earth - making it the ideal location for a spot dedicated to Indigenous art activities.”

Many paths had been paved to make my way to this gallery indeed; as too the case for Joyce’s paintings. As a member of the White Earth Nation, Joyce Jackson Arndt wishes for viewers to see in her works, “a person trying to find their identity.” The interview video greeting viewers to the gallery, features Jackson Arndt’s voice transcribed and visible atop photos of her paintings and drawings from her artistic collection. She provides details about her life that shape the broader context in which she hopes viewers will bring to the work. “After being raised in foster care, you learn that you don’t really have an identity, you don’t really fit in with the white man’s world, and you don’t really fit in with the indian (sic) world.”

I know this feeling of searching for one’s place and not feeling at home from my experience as a biracial Chicana. Not white enough, nor brown enough, not Mexican enough, not American enough. These feelings also all too familiar for those of us occupying in-betweenness. And Chicana feminist theory is built, in-part, upon themes from Gloria Anzaldúa’s groundbreaking work, Borderlands: La Frontera, in which she argues the power in the space between. A concept later characterized as third space, where new opportunities exist in the ability to be between cultural norms, to exist beyond binary categories of this or that. This and that creates new pathways for opportunities.

Spanning three decades of gathered works, Joyce Jackson Arndt’s intimate collection of mixed media paintings craft a sense of self and community from a third space vantage point. She brings this perspective to paper (with a few canvases thrown in) through watercolors, oils, acrylics and inks. A variety of styles and subject matters span the small works, from zoomed cranberry bushes, to landscapes, to figurative scenes. Though they are all tied together with the sensibilities of loose medium application that gives the viewer a sense of freedom, joy, and my favorite, whimsy.

From her works I see the urgency in which she wishes to get her message across with the way that she often works wet on wet. I get the sense these images come quickly to her, as she works to define figures with outlines of back, over areas of colors that she has washed behind, rarely letting layers dry fully between workings. My favorite work, Not Red Dawn, Morning Prayer, featured these little squiggles of orange in a mostly leaf-less tree. The squiggles connect to the large curved orange form in the background yet are so unexpected, so full of life and possibility. A touch of humor in their springs, a flicker of hope and liveliness in the face of shedding leaves in autumn. The figure in this piece, is walking alone, perhaps a self-portrait of the artist who admits in her interview, “And it’s really hard to find a place for you to fit in, and the only solution that you come to is that - you don’t fit in.” While we each remain on our individual journeys to find where we belong, I see evidence of her ongoing exploration of her Ojibwe heritage in the tenderness of how she depicts the relationship between humans to the natural world. Whether in her more abstracted or more realistic stylings, the illustrative marks provide a keen eye for the details of northwestern Minnesota through lakes, prairies, and pine stands.

I must admit I was feeling a certain kind of way about Northern Minnesota as I faced the dreary day. Gratitude for another day on earth, and a bit of frustration about the impending long winter ahead. The sky and ground are again starting to look like each other— a wash of grey,  my least favorite standalone hue. The days are definitely shortening, and with snow on the ground I’m wondering about the stamina needed to survive another winter as I face my SAD doldrums. But it is against that background of a grey sky and a greying ground that I first noticed the brilliance of golden tamarack stands among evergreen pines. I’d never really seen them before, though they’ve been there all along. Joyce Jackson Arndt says that her art is a quest to find her identity. And certainly, those of us who have an opportunity to see her work will likewise think about ourselves in relation to her, and in relation to the joys and challenges of living in Northern Minnesota. The small, intimate works made me feel like gathering around a fire and listening to her tell the many stories contained here. For now, her parting words from the video interview will have to do. She says, “I discovered my identity and that is painting, doing art, loving art…” Same Joyce, same.

Artist Offerings

• Tickled by my writing being quoted in this article: Transitioning From Academic Writing to the Narrative 
• Loved this highlight of much good work related to Latinx art in the Twin Cities Metro area, now ready for the rural version!
• This feel good story about rural folks coming together is the spirit guiding one of my upcoming and emerging paintings

Creative Ritual

Two and a half weeks flies by am I right? We are on the last legs of 2023 and I'm happy to report two more rejections are added to my belt, one from the Jerome Foundation, one from a local pitch I made for an exhibition. Alas, the work continues and I try to keep it moving. I've completed my first student loan debt protest banner and it's still looking for a public home. This week I'll write the first accompanying essay and post it to my website. This multidisciplinary project has been taking up a lot of my energy, though now that I'm on the side of complete, I am feeling better about the point of it all. Sometimes I can get really bogged down by the metrics we are all tracking - selling work, getting eyes on the work etc. I'm trying to find other measures of success, like the feel of the banner in my hands and the sense of accomplishment after hand embroidering nine large letters. I'm not exactly sure what the next couple of weeks will bring, but I'm going to focus on using my sun lamp and staying warm. Below are some ways to see my work and stay in touch.

On view
I have a painting in this group show Not Your Mother’s Quilt which you can see virtually here and in person through November 15 at the Kavanagh Gallery located in the Fine Line Creative Arts Center in St. Charles, IL.

Ways to Connect

• Work of Art Workshop (Promotions) in New London, MN November 13, 2023 
• Ongoing - sign up for an Artist Career Consultation with me or another engaging Minnesota-based artist from around the state - for most (MN Residents) you've got one free session with any of us, take advantage of it! For others, sliding scale to meet with us!
• Ongoing - become one of the extra special KCF support group members that provides reliable and monthly support to yours truly! Welcome new subscribers and much gratitude to those who have been funding this project for years! I am in the midst of prepping and printing my exclusive print offering for my monthly subscribers and the first five new folks who sign up will receive this year's new print and last year's as a bonus. I've got three spots remaining! (Last year's print is below for reference)

Questions to ponder

What have you recently noticed that has been there all along? 
What is your relationship to art? 
How have you expereinced third space perspectives? 
What paths are you currently traveling and why? 

Thanks for journeying with me. I hope, as always, that you take what you need and leave the rest for someone else, or for another time. 

-KCF

The Art of KCF Newsletter is a fiscal year 2023 recipient of a Creative Support for Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.