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Door County Art News: The Making of an Artist

Door County Art News:

Upon stepping into the re-created artist’s studio at the Miller Art Museum’s current exhibit, “Kewaunee Academy of Fine Art: The Making of an Artist,” it was as if I had been transported back to my childhood. Standing amidst an array of paint tubes strewn across a glass tabletop, an easel prone to play its next part in the production of a painting and a bulletin board tacked full of post cards, notes and sketches put me in a tailspin. The objects surrounding me were so reminiscent of my grandfather’s den, the room in his house that, for me, always held the most intrigue.

“Windfall,” 11”x14” oil, by Mara Pionek.

My grandfather, who was many things in his lifetime, including an exceptional football player, a soldier in WWII and a worker in a paper mill, dabbled in a number of artistic endeavors during his free time and into retirement. Primarily self-taught in all of these creative pursuits, I couldn’t help but wonder as I wandered around the rest of the exhibit at the museum how his life would have been transformed had he attended a program such as the one at the Kewaunee Academy of Fine Art (KAFA).

This particular art school was established in 2005 by Dick and Norma Bell. As Norma put it in her portion of the couple’s March 13th Museum Talk that detailed the school’s formation, “It became what it wanted to be.”

Neither she nor Dick had intended to create the academy in its present form when they purchased a more than century-old barn in 2000. Rather, Norma had originally wanted a place that was “unique” – one where she could have a studio space to delve back into her own artwork and teach art classes for children. In 2001, Norma and Dick opened the re-modeled lower level of the barn as Barnsite Art Gallery and began offering a few art classes. However, as participation in these children’s and craft-oriented classes began to dwindle, interest in some of the more serious classes that were being offered, such as watercolor and figure drawing, seemed to grow.

Realizing an instructor would be necessary to accommodate these needs, Norma and Dick hired Craig Bleitz, who remains with them to this day. Bleitz played an integral part in transforming the classes and developing the school, gleaning aspects from apprentice, academy and atelier styles of learning. He currently fulfills the role of Artistic Director at KAFA.

Upon opening the academy, the Bells had hoped that they might scrounge up interest from five to six students, enough to financially support the venture. However, there was much more interest than they could have anticipated. Around 50 individuals attended the first informational meeting, and of those, 12 students (four more than they had room for at the time) were selected for participation in the first quarter. Within six months, the facilities had to be expanded to include an additional six studios. Now one of only 12 such schools like it in the world, the Kewaunee Academy of Fine Art is able to accommodate 18 students in their intensive three-year program.

The goal of the exhibit at Sturgeon Bay’s Miller Art Museum according to Bleitz, who spoke briefly during the March 13th presentation and will provide more in-depth information at the April 10th Museum Talk, was to open up the almost cloistered environment to the community, exposing the public to the school and allowing them to explore the academy’s mission – that of preparing students for a career as a professional artist.

As one tours the exhibit, it is nearly impossible to believe that KAFA is not accomplishing this mission. Sister Bay artist Bleitz in coordination with Deborah Rosenthal, the Miller Art Museum’s Curator of Exhibitions, developed a progression of artwork that leads the viewer through all phases of artistic growth the academy students go through. It is as if through each pencil line, each brush stroke, and finally each finished product one can see the energy, toil and determination that these students have undergone.

I was particularly struck by two oil paintings depicting the same subject matter on display side-by-side in the back room of the exhibit. While the paintings of Soirsce Kastner and Lynn M. Denamur both exemplified strict discipline and attention to detail when it came to form, as well as portraying both the pallor and blush of human flesh, their individual painting styles were not overshadowed nor buried in the exercise. It seems that the learning environment of KAFA has been formulated to nurture not just artists but artists as individuals.

This notion was touched upon by Dick Bell during the Museum Talk. He said, “We have no right to tell a student how they should paint when they get out, but we have an obligation to make sure that they are master draftsmen and that they know the techniques [of painting].” He continued, “When you have a variety of teachers that come with different passions in their stomach about how they are going to paint, this is healthy because students get some alternative exposure to different painting techniques, and then they can choose their own way.”

So, I am taken back to my grandfather once again, curious how some of those choices may have transformed not only the space in his den but his life. How would those decisions and experiences have trickled down to my mother and eventually to me? Just perhaps, I might too be one of those 18 students standing in an actual studio at the Kewaunee Academy of Fine Art rather than the person writing about the re-created version.