Watch Like Everyone's Pulling

Listen to the Essay

“And next up in the 3500 Farm Class, my nephew. He just started pulling last month, this is about his 3rd pull ever. He’s also 15 like Chase who just went before him.”

“What a fascinating commentary,” I whispered to Vaimo while sitting on the hay bale prickling the backs of our knees as we waited for the next tractor to pull a giant semi behind it. “We had a Farmall like that one” Vaimo said, “you see some of them have the tilting tires in the front like that, and some of the newer models just had the one.”

At the beginning of 2023 as we shared hopes and dreams over our traditional January 1st mimosas, I told Vaimo that I wanted to learn more things about her that I didn’t yet know. As we round the bend toward celebrating 10 years of marriage together (in one month aaaah!) I am constantly in awe and surprise each time I learn something knew about my sweet. This definitely fit the bill. Before then I didn’t even really know Farmall was a tractor brand. Yeah, I know, don’t take my rural cred away. While I knew my Vaimo was a farm kid growing up, I never in my wildest dreams could have predicted that she would say, “yeah, we’re a Farmall family. The Lindulas, they always liked John Deeres but we were Farmall, all the way.” Who would have predicted one year ago, five, ten, or even twenty that I would find myself at the Finn Creek Open Air Museum, celebrating the annual Finnish Folk Festival in a remote location of rural Minnesota? Though, here I was, wearing a pin on my shirt Vaimo placed gingerly there like a teenager pinning a corsage onto their date for prom that read, “have you hugged a Finn today?” Lucky for me I get to hug a Finn every day, but this pin just gave me an excuse to squeeze her even more tightly.

So, me and my Finn walked around the grounds to enjoy the other offerings at the festival. We stopped by vendor booths, picked up some bakery delights, ate Sloppy Joes from the dining hall to which Vaimo and I quizzically wondered if this was Finnish culture? We stopped to watch men saw a tree trunk, yes, this was one of the activities to enjoy at the festival. This huge saw cutting long boards of wood from a huge tree with four men operating a collective chorus of sawdust. One loaded, one pushed, one grabbed and one stacked. My favorite parts included the pyramid of sawdust that accumulated with each cut, and that the sawblade was huge! A few weeks out from the event and now I’m thinking the blade was at least five feet in diameter, but maybe it’s just grown even more in my mind. But the sawdust pyramid, how fun! A little conveyor belt contraption would pull a small scoop of sawdust away from the site of the cut and dump it a few feet away from the whole operation—  imagine an oblong sawdust ferris wheel. Quite delightful!

But the real action at the festival was definitely the tractor pull. “Oh yeah, it’s so good we got them back this year” said the Finnish American man at the gate taking our entry fee. Apparently everyone was excited. It was fascinating to be an observer of this niche interest group. In addition to the tractors with their drivers competing, some groups were accompanied by pit crews. How did we know that they were the pit crew you might be wondering? Well, they were driving a labeled white minivan that said so! Their attached vinyl logo matched that of the semi trailer being pulled by each of the aspiring champion tractor pullers. Apparently diehard fans of the tractor pulling variety travel around the region to various tractor pull events and this, this was not their first tractor rodeo. They had quite the spectator set up with a white tent they popped up for shade and rain protection, along with comfortable backed collapsible lounge chairs and snacks and beverages to keep them sated for the entire event.

On the semi-trailer was a huge stop clock measuring distance instead of time as the driver and passenger in the semi cab smoked cigars while being pulled along the track by the tractor competitors. Where the competition took place was a long dirt stretch just wide enough for a tractor to be pulling a semi and in-between each one of the pulls another tractor would come by, wetting down and grating the sand so as to limit dust and to level out the playing field for the next hopeful champion tractor puller. From my spectator view on the hay bale I could also see a stop clock posted a bit down the track for the drivers to see how long they could continue to pull? I’m not sure, I wish there would have been an entire run down of all the rules before competition began, but alas, I was simply a spectator, not an organizer of this event! It struck me that the only other times I’ve seen that kind of technology in other contexts was for running a race or at a swim meet. How interesting then to see these tools be used for tractor pulling, and how innovative! Humans really enjoy a competition and any chance for recreation that involves a clear winner can draw a crowd no matter what the mechanism fueling the race might be.

A couple of weeks earlier Hermanita and I happened upon a local embroidery shop in a nearby town. And when we went into inquire about a project I have in mind, the friendly shop owner shared that his mother-in-law was the one responsible for actually doing the embroidering. “I’ll have to get back to you about the design,” he said, “she’s at the tractor convention right now selling some of our merchandise and developing new customers.” I must say, I’d never really thought about a tractor convention before he mentioned it, but it made sense because right in the entryway of his shop hung several examples of machine embroidered tractors hanging in delightful hand-stitching hoops. As a stitcher myself fascinated with how thread can be used to make an image, I was intrigued by the customer base of tractor drivers and their connection to embroidery. So many tractors, and truly so little time. It makes me want to say what are the odds? But also the odds are probably pretty likely given we call home in the land of fields of corn; wheat and soybeans dot the landscape in between tree groves of oaks, maples and aspen.

“Do you think they give out ribbons or trophies?” I asked Vaimo after sitting through the first heat of tractor pullers to hit the long stretch of dirt track. I thought about how in the cross country races of my youth, spectators often had to walk or run to cheer on the participants of that sporting event. I also remember hours in the heat on burning metal bleachers under the glare of a hot New Mexican sun wishing to be in the pool instead of beside it. What a different experience of listening to a loud motor rolling by at 3.5 mph. Such a unique competition and sport and spectatorship. What fascinating ways we humans devise to keep ourselves entertained. How joyful to get to witness others taking pleasure in their hobbies, talents, or passions on any track. And of course, a special shout out to the tractor puller who was driving a 1949 Oliver 77 who clearly took great pride in shining his machine and who cares about the overall aesthetic aspect of the event. In my dream world the tractor pull would feature an artistic judging category like figure skating. The technical score would include the distance pulled before the big wheels begin to spin out, and the artistic score would be awarded on complete package visuals. Out of all the pulls I witnessed, only the driver of the 1949 Oliver 77 matched his beast. I appreciated that thoroughly. I also think in addition to the “farm” versus “improved” categories of pulls, there should also be some kind of accounting for the age of the tractor. Surely a 74 year old tractor should get additional merit for still running? Right? Well, anyways, I guess it’s time for me to get back out to the fields. Wait, I’m not a farmer! I just like to watch them pull semi-cabs loaded with a long trailer on dirt fields on a random Sunday in August.

What I’m Reading

The Girl I Am, Was, and Never Will Be: A Speculative Memoir of Transracial Adoption by Shannon Gibney

If you're looking for a book that you will find yourself coming back to think about more and more, this one may be for you. Shannon Gibney plays with the memoir form in so many ways in order to elucidate her experience as a transracial adoptee. While the book solidly centers her experience as a mixed-race Black woman coming of age as a transracial adoptee, her exploration of family ties, bonds, and what could be possible through fictionally writing alternative timelines for her many selves, resonate for all of us seeking connection and belonging to the people to whom we are born, or by whom we are raised. Deep magic and gratitude that this book exists. For those into memoirs this is a text that firmly realizes the power of playing with form for liberation. 

Artist Offerings

• Love these pink walls and this write up of Nepantla Cultural Arts Gallery
• For those who want to think through how pop cultures shape a place and how community navigates cultural differences turn to Liberal, Kansas and the Wizard of OZ
• I swoon over Mary Cassatt's brushstrokes and how we can understand her experience of domesticity through her work
• I am very excited about the opening of Semillas Gallery in Minneapolis, MN and can't wait to see the innagural show

Creative Ritual

Whew! Did you miss me? I missed you all! August was a wild ride, I tried to get this out before I headed into a 7-day silent meditation retreat, but that just did not happen. However, after coming out on the other side of that experience I have much to share and more will continue to emerge in the writing of this space as well as the pacing of this space as I plan into 2024. A couple of trips to the Twin Cities including one same day roundtrip to install and then celebrate the opening of Immigrant Roads - a selection of many of the works from my railroad series at CLUES - took place and will continue through September. The wonderful Luis Fitch shared a pitch on Art Hounds about the exhibition. I am so delighted to have the important work of CLUES be highlighted on MPR! I managed to get two pieces of work out for group show considerations prior to leaving MN and steady progress was happening in the studio prior to my departure. An oil painting I completed six months ago was finally ready to be glazed and shipped, and is now in its new home with a happy collector!

Upcoming opportunities with KCF:

September 9 1:00-2:00pm Presentation on my work and the historic Santa Fe Railroad Bunkhouse in Matfield Green, Kansas with picnic to follow, we will be celebrating the 100 year anniversary of the bunkhouse as well as doing some on-site archival collecting, please join us!
September 16 12:00-4:00pm I will be in the CLUES Latino Gallery in St. Paul, MN giving artist talks during Fiesta Latina, stop by and see me
ONGOING Book a session with me as an Artist Career Consultant, Minnesota residents get at least one session free and mentoring for anyone is based on a sliding scale basis
 

Questions to ponder

What interesting groups of humans who gather around a shared passion have you happened upon recently? 
What is your relationship to tractors? 
How does it feel in your body when you're participating or being a spectator for a competition? 
What pastime, hobby, or interest has brought you joy? 

Thanks for journeying with me. If you've made it all the way to the end, I really appreciate you! 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.