haiku for Kohler Arts

Sink Mandala, Kohler Design Center, Kohler, Wisconsin, October 2009, all photos © 2009 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.

sinks, tubs, and faucets
beauty in beholder’s eye
form follows function

dazzled by bathrooms
Zen nests of relaxation
“sink into our tubs”

preconceived notions
dance and spin down spotless drains
life imitates art

We visited the Kohler Design Center after a writing retreat on Lake Michigan in Sheboygan County, Wisconsin. Most fascinating to me was the history of Kohler Company, founded in 1873 when Austrian immigrant John Michael Kohler purchased a cast iron and steel  foundry in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. The company made anything you can imagine out of cast iron and porcelain — from radiators to the first sink dishwasher. From farm implements to a generator for Admiral Byrd for one of his Antarctic expeditions.

Many of these vintage items are housed in the basement museum where we spent at least an hour walking around last week. The top photo is a shot of the inside of a black porcelain sink reflecting daylight through a large picture window. Sinks, tubs, and toilets never looked better. After you visit Kohler Design Center, you’ll not only want a new bathroom, you won’t be able to imagine spending time anywhere else.

Last time I was in Sheboygan County for a writing retreat, our host Jude took us to visit the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. Same family,  in full support of the Arts. The museum’s director is artist Ruth DeYoung Kohler, granddaughter of John Michael Kohler (her portrait hangs in the Kohler Design Center). She must love her work; she’s been the director for 37 years. The museum is housed in the 19th-century Italianate mansion that once belonged to her grandfather.

An hour north of Milwaukee, the Kohler Arts Center is known for giving back and building community through the Arts. Each year, between 16 and 22 artists are selected from hundreds of applicants to spend two to six months working in Kohler Company’s Iron and Brass Foundries, Pottery, and Enamel Shop. Kohler Arts is also on the map for exhibiting Outsider or self-taught art with particular attention paid to large scale installations and architecture. You can read more about the Kohler in the New York Times article by Jori Finkel, Way Off the Beaten Path, Letting the Outsiders In.

Another thing the Kohler is famous for? Its 7 theme based bathrooms painted and designed by artists. What could be more natural? According to the website, “the washrooms were one of the few public spaces where permanently installed works of art would be considered, serving to uphold the Arts Center‘s philosophy that art can enliven, enrich, and inform every facet of our everyday lives.”

If you’re ever in Sheboygan County, add the Kohler Design Center and the John Michael Kohler Arts Center to your list of enriching experiences. And prepare to start saving for a newly designed bathroom.

The Arts Center shall continue its leadership roles of nourishing diversity and building community through the arts. In all programming, the Arts Center shall cultivate connections: between artists and audiences, between artists and communities, between emerging and established artists, between local and visiting artists, between the Arts Center and other organizations, between art forms, and between past and present.

Luxury Bath, Swirl, Black & White, Above: Wall Of Toilets, Kohler Design Center, Leave It All Behind, Everyday Art, Things That Are Round, Kohler Design Center, Kohler, Wisconsin, October 2009, all photos © 2009 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.

-posted on red Ravine, Thursday, October 15th, 2009

-related to posts: haiku 2 (one-a-day), State Of The Arts (haiku for Kuan-Yin), Walking Your Talk (Do The Arts Matter), Martín Ramírez In Rain Taxi, Gripped By Cathy Wysocki

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Gearing Up For The MN State Fair — Artist Leo Stans

Minnesota State Fair Poster Art, detail of art by painter Leo Stans, St. Paul, Minnesota, June 2009, all photos © 2009 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.

 
 

The century-old Grandstand stood quietly in the distance when I rounded the corner by the historic J. V. Bailey House. I was driving to St. Paul for an ice cream social at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. The occasion was the June 11th unveiling of the 2009 State Fair commemorative painting by Belle Plaine artist Leo Stans.

Summer cottonwood flew through the air when I lined up for my root beer float. A few minutes later, I walked into the historic Bailey house and literally bumped into my friend Teri who works at the Fair. She introduced me to her coworkers, we talked a little Minnesota State Fair history, then she led me over to meet the artist.

Like poet Ted Kooser, Minnesota artist Leo Stans started out as an insurance salesman, dabbled in art, and began painting full-time in 1980. He painted wildlife, golf courses (he’s an avid golfer), and eventually transitioned into historical street scenes. In a newspaper quote, he said: “My thinking was that if you wanted to buy something nostalgic or historical, the only thing being offered was small towns and barns. I thought I would create a niche.”

According to an article by John Brewer in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Stans said he had been trying for the last 5 years to get a booth at the Grandstand to sell his work during the Fair. Ironically, that led to his applications making their way to the Fair staff and to his being awarded the 6th commission in the commemorative series last November.

 
 

Artist Leo Stans & Minnesota State Fair 2009 Commemorative Oil Painting, Minnesota State Fair Commemorative Oil Painting (Detail), St. Paul, Minnesota, June 2009, all photos © 2009 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.

 
 

I shook Leo’s hand and immediately began asking him about the 28″ x 42″ oil painting. He said he did the research for summer’s “Great Minnesota Get-Together” in the dead cold of a Midwest winter. It took him 3 weeks to sketch it out, another 3 weeks to put paint to canvas.

He explained to me that the painting moves back in time as you walk from the Grandstand to the Ferris wheel, blending clothing styles of the past with those of the present. And like Hitchcock who appears in many of his films, Stans paints himself into all of his paintings. (If you stare long enough at the top photograph, you can spot him walking down the Midway.)

For many, the Minnesota State Fair is about making memories, a family tradition going back for generations. By choosing the 100th birthday of the Grandstand as the central theme for 2009, and including other historic icons like the carousel and mascot Fairchild, Stans captures and brings those memories to life through paint.

I’m a history buff and drawn to his dreamlike Twin Cities street scenes. The 2009 Fair painting has much the same feel and has been reproduced on postcards, posters, and buttons with proceeds benefiting the Minnesota State Fair Foundation. (The State Fair has a long history of being independently funded and has not received government appropriations since 1949.)

 
 

   

Minnesota State Fair Postcard, Minnesota State Fair Poster Art (II), St. Paul, Minnesota, June 2009, all photos © 2009 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
 
 

The Minnesota State Fair 2009 begins August 27th and ends September 7th. And if you become one of the Friends of The Minnesota State Fair you will receive exclusive benefits including gate tickets, pre-sale access to Grandstand shows, bricks, benches, and more. Purchasing a $50 Yellow Ribbon package by August 1st, 2009 grants you the following:
 

• Friends of the Fair card
• FunFair news
• Invitation to annual pre-fair event
• Hospitality invitation to J.V. Bailey House during the State Fair
• 2 State Fair and/or parking admission tickets
• 1 State Fair annual pin
• 1 Blue Ribbon Bargain Book with 100 great State Fair deals

 

There are also Green, Red, Blue, Purple, and Silver packages to choose from. Liz and I are looking forward to this year. Happy Fair going!

 
 

 

 

Thanks to Leo Stans for permission to photograph him and his work, to Teri for reminding me about the art event, and to John for providing me with the newspaper clipping from the June 12th St. Paul Pioneer Press article by John Brewer – Painting Celebrates Fond Fair Memories.

 
 

 

 

Below are links to past red Ravine posts and photographs about the history, foods on-a-stick, and fun available to all at the Minnesota State Fair. And if you check the comments on several of the posts, they are dripping with little-known Fair facts, trivia, and nostalgia from a mutual friend of ybonesy’s and mine, Teri Blair. For more of the Fair experience, you can also view my Minnesota State Fair Series on Flickr.

 
 
 

• MN State Fair On-A-Stick
• MN State Fair On-A-Stick II – Video & Stats
• Nightshot – Carousel
• MN State Fair On-A-Stick (Happy B’Day MN!)
• On-The-Go List Of Must-Haves (MN State Fair)
• Mary In Minnesota (haiku for yb)
• food on-a-stick haiku

 

-posted on red Ravine, Wednesday, July 8th, 2009

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Martín Ramírez In Rain Taxi

It’s a low, slow, pre-holiday. I was feeling uninspired until Liz came home and threw the summer print edition of Rain Taxi on the living room table. I quickly ran my eyes down the list of authors and found a review of Brooke Davis Anderson’s book, MARTÍN RAMÍREZ.

Anderson is curator of “Martín Ramírez,” a retrospective that features 97 of the artist’s works on paper. I’m constantly running into reviews of the show, starting with a Sunday Morning a few months ago. I tend to pay attention if something keeps bopping me in the face.

Born in Jalisco, Mexico, Ramírez (1885-1960) was a self-taught artist, who after a series of hardships, spent the latter half of his life in California mental institutions. Rain Taxi reviewer, Eliza Murphy, gives high praise to Anderson’s book:

Curator Brooke Davis Anderson has not only orchestrated a phenomenal retrospective of Ramírez’s impressive output, but here gathers scholarly essays that offer a range of perspectives on the artist, inviting “critics, curators, collectors, dealers, and writers to move beyond the ‘sound bites’ of the past fifty years to a more holistic understanding of his work.”

The Ramírez retrospective continues to tour, and recently moved from an extended stay at the American Folk Art Museum in New York City, to the San Jose Museum of Art. The only Midwest date begins October 6th, at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

All this is driving me to think about a short trip east when the leaves turn. Like Minnesota, Wisconsin is beautiful in the Fall. Liz says it’s 5 hours, 34 minutes, and 345 miles, a long drive for a weekend stay.

But I’ve never seen the Milwaukee Art Museum’s white concrete Quadracci Pavilion designed by Spanish architect, Santiago Calatrava. The building alone looks like a work of art.

Two for the price of one; maybe it would be worth the drive.

 

-related to post, Joan Didion & Martín Ramírez

 

MORE INFORMATION & RESOURCES:

 
American Folk Art Museum, MARTÍN RAMÍREZ

MARTÍN RAMÍREZ
By Brooke Davis Anderson, with essays by Víctor M. Espinosa and Kristin E. Espinosa, Daniel Baumann, and Victor Zamudio-Taylor, a foreword by Maria Ann Conelli, and an introduction by Robert Storr.

• Published by Marquand Books in association with the American Folk Art Museum, 2007 (192 pages, 137 full-color illustrations, hardcover, $55).
• Available exclusively at the American Folk Art Museum Book and Gift Shop or through the publisher, Marquand Books.

MARTÍN RAMÍREZ Travel Schedule:

• Mexican Heritage Plaza/San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California
  June 9–September 9, 2007
• Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
  October 6, 2007–January 6, 2008

Outside In, Art Review | Martín Ramírez by Roberta Smith, New York Times, Art & Design, Jan 26th, 2007

Art Brut , Phyllis Kind Gallery, Self-Taught Art

Martín Ramírez at Marquand Books: “Martín Ramírez … is my favorite outsider artist. Come to that, he’s one of my favorite artists, period.”  Article by Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker.

Silent Artist Has Voice After Death: Confined To A Mental Ward, Martín Ramírez Refused To Talk, But Spoke Through His Art by Caitlin A. Johnson, CBS Sunday Morning, March 25, 2007

 

-posted on red Ravine, Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007

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