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I am pleased with the Prairie Dances metal art created to complete the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council (SEMAC) and arts and cultural heritage funding grant. This is just the beginning of this metal art series.  As I discussed with numerous people during the Capstone Artist Reception, I love the process of creating sculptures in cast…

The October 30th capstone event at Chatfield Center for the Arts marked a milestone for the Prairie Dances project. Twenty people, including six Prairie Enthusiasts members, attended Stephen Winter’s presentation, Prioritizing and Preserving Prairies. Forty-nine art patrons from the Twin Cities, Red Wing, Rochester, and Southeastern Minnesota joined me in the gallery to view and…

Every day, I look for monarch caterpillars in the rose milkweed by my studio door. On a typical day, I find three or four large and one small caterpillar happily munching the milkweed leaves.  For weeks, I have been watching for a chrysalis to appear. I was surprised and delighted to find the one centered…

The butterflies are nearly complete, with only a few remaining finishing touches. I am waiting for the copper to patina to a nice rosy-brown; then, I will apply wax to the copper to stop the oxidation and additional color change. The last step is to form the structural ribbon and attach the butterflies. I struggled…

I was delighted to find this sizable monarch caterpillar in the milkweed by my studio door. Unfortunately, after two days, it vanished. I examined the milkweed but could not locate a chrysalis. The upside is that I discovered four smaller monarch caterpillars on the same plant yesterday. I am optimistic about finding several chrysalides in…

Objects resulting from inspiration, observation, and creativity infused with science, engineering, and experimentation.  This week, I have been in production mode, transitioning sketches on paper into art in metal. The object above is an experiment designed to “engineer” the process of connecting butterfly parts to a structural frame. The experiment involved connecting multiple pieces of…

The Prairie Dances Capstone Event will include a presentation by Stephen Winter, a Certified Wildlife Biologist with The Wildlife Society. Stephen is a board member of The Prairie Enthusiasts, a regional land trust dedicated to ensuring the perpetuation and recovery of prairie, oak savanna, and other associated ecosystems in the Upper Midwest through protection, management,…

Beauty belongs inside and out.  I have been working outside the studio these past few weeks, planting and improving my gardens.  First, I added a new garden; not that I need another garden! After digging up the old construction grass and weeds in front of my studio, I installed a new barrier border and covered…

I have to reiterate that Liz is a phenomenal teacher.  I also have to say that I am a good student, and I am very proud of my exercises from lesson three, creating filigree. I intend to use this artistic process to create light and airy wings for my dragonfly, a monarch butterfly, and a rusty…

My “Prairie Dances” mentor, Liz Bucheit, is a goldsmith, jewelry and body adornment artist, and a teacher with over 30 years of experience creating Scandinavian metal art. AND, Liz is not afraid of fire.  Her first task was to teach me how to light and calibrate my new jeweler’s torch. Next, we discussed the flow…