Bloomington Artists Showcase Work in Gallery Exhibition
Three Bloomington artists are featured in "Blooming! A Celebration of Bloomington Artists," an exhibition at the Inez Greenberg Gallery sponsored by Artistry.
Leon Erstad, who has worked with rocks, glass and tile for the past decade, said he enjoys revealing the natural beauty inside stones through his art. Erstad moved beyond jewelry making to create larger displays that showcase the patterns in agates and jaspers without the limitations of wearable pieces.
Janet Adams, a resident of a senior cooperative since 2006, and Steve Sack, a retired Star Tribune editorial cartoonist turned sculptor, also have work in the exhibition. Sack, who retired three years ago after more than 40 years creating editorial cartoons, now focuses on humorous, whimsical 3D figurines that reflect his cartoon perspective.
The artists praised the diversity of styles and media represented in the exhibition. Sack described the range of talent as "remarkable" and said viewing other artists' work was "fun and exhilarating and inspirational."
The exhibition encourages community members to visit the gallery to view the variety of local artistic talent. Adams noted that Artistry's accessibility makes it "a great gift to the community."
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Source document
[0:00] - It's a beautiful
gallery, a great showcase
[0:03] for local artists, so I'm
very happy to be here.
[0:06] - It's really fun. I
wish we'd do it more often
[0:08] because I think there is a lot of talent
[0:10] that we don't know about.
[0:12] - My name's Leon Erstad.
[0:13] I live in Bloomington,
[0:14] and for the last decade I've
been doing art with rocks
[0:18] and glass and tile.
[0:20] - I'm Janet Adams.
[0:22] I live in Bloomington
in a senior cooperative.
[0:26] I moved here in 2006.
[0:29] - My name is Steve Sack.
I'm a lifelong cartoonist.
[0:32] I worked for 40 some
years for the Star Tribune
[0:36] doing editorial cartoons.
[0:37] I retired about three years ago,
[0:39] and now my hobby is
creating 3D sculptures.
[0:44] The work I have here is just
things that I do for myself,
[0:48] basically. It's humorous,
whimsical figurines,
[0:51] and I've always drawn cartoons
[0:53] and that's kind of the
way I see the world.
[0:56] - I've always enjoyed looking
at rocks and cutting into them
[0:59] and seeing the beauty on the inside
[1:01] and started out doing a
little bit of jewelry,
[1:03] but found that awfully limiting
[1:05] because the patterns in many of the agates
[1:08] or Jaspers are big and and nice.
[1:11] And so I wanted to think of
a way to display the beauty
[1:15] of the rocks without needing to hang it
[1:17] around somebody's neck.
[1:19] - I've been experimenting with the idea
[1:22] of what's the least you can
do and still call it art.
[1:26] So you'll see some of my
pieces are very, very simple
[1:28] and almost nothing is happening,
[1:31] and yet they're kind of cool,
[1:33] for me.
[1:34] This particular exhibit,
the range of the styles
[1:37] and media that are there
is just really remarkable.
[1:41] And to see the talent
of many of the artists
[1:44] that are displaying there
is fun and exhilarating
[1:48] and inspirational, and it's
motivating me to do more.
[1:52] - I hope people come out and take a look.
[1:54] Other artists have wonderful work there
[1:56] and it's always fun to
see people's expressions.
[1:59] - It'll be fun. Yeah, there's
such a variety among our works
[2:02] and even among our individual
works of one artist,
[2:06] there's quite a lot of variety.
[2:08] Artistry is a great gift to the community
[2:10] and that it's so accessible
is part of the gift.
[2:13] I know when I moved here,
I came, I saw and I joined,
[2:18] and I've been part of it ever since.
[2:21] I want all my friends to come.
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Local Art Exhibit and Community Engagement
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