This Saturday, February 1, the Arts Council for Long Beach is hosting an opening reception for SHINE, an exhibition of works by recent recipients of the Council’s Professional Artist Fellowship Grant. The exhibition, being held in The Collaborative gallery, will feature works by Margie Darrow, Jeff Foye, Jessica Kondrath, Annie Stromquist and Kurt Simonson.

While each of the five artists exemplify excellence in their work, the diversity of media each employs is quite diverse. Darrow is primarily a painter whose work often incorporates details from nature and history. Kondrath is a choreographer whose work depicts “the movement as a visual version of the music.” Stromquist creates mixed media works on paper, using a variety of processes, that result in intimate and evocative images. Foye is a video and performance artist, collaborating with Gordon Winiemko as JEFF&GORDON.

Kurt Simonson is a fine art photographer whose ongoing project, Northwoods Journals, reaches back more than 10 years, and developed from his discovery of a letter.

“Northwoods Journals explores my upbringing in Minnesota through a mixture of landscape, still life, and portraiture,” Simonson explained. “I’m interested in the merger of myth and memory that happens when you revisit the places and stories of your childhood.

“The core of the project revolves around an image of an envelope entitled ‘Not To Be Opened Until My Death’ – which is a photograph of a letter that my grandmother left for the family to read. It has become a fitting metaphor for me about family secrets, the things that are left unsaid or things that we hide from.

“It’s my hope that, by focusing on certain emotional tones and common family dynamics, viewers can enter into the work whether or not they related to the specifics of my family dynamics, or of Minnesota as a specific place. Although the character and humor of Minnesota plays a big part.

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“Minnesota is a strange place- simultaneously sweet and sinister, at times. There’s a dark humor that comes out in some of my photos, similar to the kind of humor you find in Coen Brothers’ films. For example, the image that is on the SHINE exhibition announcement is called ‘Rat Wreath,’ and it’s a Christmas wreath that my brother and his kids made out of all the rats they had caught in the house that week. There were six rats zip-tied to the wreath, although my photo focuses on the mother/child nativity scene at the top of the wreath. It’s the sort of thing that is simultaneously grotesque and hilarious. And I think that’s pretty common in Minnesotan humor.

“I also think it speaks to a general tone of what it’s like to grow up in that culture, that there are things that are lighthearted and joyful, but there are also things that are buried just beneath the surface.”

The letter from Kurt’s grandmother was never spoken of amongst his family members.

“I discovered it by accident one day when I was going through family documents, long after she had died and it had been opened. That’s another part of Minnesota culture: You just don’t talk about things. So that’s a primary reason that the photo of the envelope has become such a symbol of the whole project. It represents things that are there, accessible, but not visible, open, or shared.

Northwoods Journals was not created to open or expand dialog between Kurt and his family, but he admits that it has sparked a few conversations.

“It has made it easier to break the ice by giving a context for me to ask more questions to my family, and to connect with them more. I have lived in California for half my life now so, in many ways, this project has been an attempt to integrate the two halves of my life.”

Kurt strives to work intuitively.

“Rather than planning out any ideas in advance, I like to be present to the moment, and see what presents itself in terms of photographic opportunities. In that sense, shooting digitally (which I’ve done for most of the Northwoods Journals project) is much more helpful because it allows me to not worry about how many photos I’m taking. Truth be told, I prefer film, and I was trained on film but, in the end, I think it’s about choosing the medium that best fits the project.”

Kurt is also an Associate Professor of Photography at Biola University, and he recognizes a significant connection between his teaching and art-making.

“My MFA thesis project was all about collaborating with three of my students to figure out what happens when you work within the crossing of art education, mentorship, and friendship. Teaching keeps things fresh for me, and presents me with new challenges almost every day. It’s hard for anything, especially your art, to get stagnant when you are constantly surrounded by new ideas.

“Since it is a relatively small school, Biola’s art department is very close-knit. We professors become close friends with many of the students after graduation. In fact, we typically send off each graduating class with a reminder that we are all peers now, artists working together to make the best work we can make.

Biola is a Christian school that provides a ‘biblically centered education.’ Kurt says that his faith plays a role in his work, but indirectly.

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“I don’t like art that is essentially propaganda, whether that’s political or religious. I think art works much more effectively at intuitive, poetic, or inter-personal levels. In that sense, though, faith plays a large part in my work because my work tends to be very personal and, as such, anything that is significant to me tends to come out in my work. It comes out indirectly, and I think that’s important. I think we all have unique and important stories in our lives, and our art comes from those stories, but the work is typically more successful when those stories are inviting rather than confrontational.

“I think Northwoods Journals has been a long journey of self-discovery. It’s been a way to reconcile the first 18 years of my life with the last 18. It’s helped me to understand, and even embrace, the place that I came from, which has made me who I am today. In many ways, the project is my own ‘Not To Be Opened’ envelope except, rather than keeping it sealed, I’ve opened it up to work through it.”

To learn more about Kurt Simonson and his work, visit KurtSimonson.com.

Selections from Kurt’s Northwoods Journals will be on display as part of SHINE. The Collaborative gallery is located at 421 W. Broadway. The opening reception takes place from 6-9PM on Saturday, February 1. Paid street parking, and validated parking in the building, are available.

The Collaborative operates as a partnership between the Arts Council for Long Beach and the Museum of Latin American Art. The two organizations alternate exhibition curation.

To learn more about the Arts Council for Long Beach, visit ArtsLB.org.

Photo credits:
Kurt Simonson portrait by Jennifer Schwartz
Other photos by Kurt Simonson, from his Northwoods Journals.

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