(calm music) - (Narrator) On this episode of "Postcards."

(mellow music) - [Grace] I love creating artwork, but equally as much, I love it when people love my work.

It's really important to me that my artwork brings joy to other people.

- I think I've kind of grown into realizing what my real mission is.

What I've kind of determined that I'm all about is community.

- I started making comics 'cause I was kind of lonely and depressed and wanted that connection.

And then suddenly you realize, oh, so are other people.

(cool upbeat music) (upbeat music) - [Narrator] "Postcards" is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

Additional support provided by Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen on behalf of Shalom Hill Farms, a retreat and conference center in a prairie setting near Wyndham, Minnesota.

On the web at shalomhillfarm.org.

Alexandria, Minnesota, a year-round destination with hundreds of lakes, trails and attractions for memorable vacations and events.

More information at explorealex.com.

The Lake Region Arts Council's Arts Calendar.

An arts and cultural heritage funded digital calendar showcasing upcoming art events and opportunities for artists in West Central Minnesota.

On the web at lrac4calendar.org.

Playing today's new music plus your favorite hits, 96.7kram, online at 967kram.com.

(bright playful music) - [Grace] I can't remember a time that I wasn't making art.

It's always been just a really big part of my life and yeah, it's just always been a constant for me.

I started taking my art to our county fair in Madison and showing it there as a 4H'er and that was really rewarding, really fun.

(playful music continues) I've always been really drawn to any art medium that is very tactile.

I love the texture of clay.

I love how in, and it's a easy medium to just pick up and start working with.

It's not like, there's not a lot of prep, there's not a lot of cleanup.

It's so, and since I make art all the time in polymer clay specifically.

'cause when you're more into the pottery side of clay, that can be like, I mean it's a big area of mess that you create when you're like throwing on a wheel.

So I love polymer clay.

I love how easy it is to just grab and start creating.

That's also why I like watercolor 'cause it's not as much prep as oil paint or something like that.

(bright upbeat music) So I make miniature sculptures of the national parks in necklace pendants.

So that is the basic description of what most people think of when they see my art.

That's what most people know me for is the National Park sculptures.

And I do describe myself as a miniature sculpture artist, but I am very, like, I love every, every kind of art medium I can get my hands on.

So I'm not just a sculptor, just a painter.

But when people talk to me about my art, they always comment on the texture and the depth in it.

Especially with the clay work.

I love creating something that looks like one thing from far away and then as you get closer, it looks like another thing.

We have been to about half of the national parks and we're constantly just checking more off our list.

(bright upbeat music continues) So I just feel like if there weren't national parks, I would not have a lot to be inspired by.

And I'm so thankful for those places that you can go hike and that I can go explore and take pictures and whenever I come back from a national park, I am so like newly inspired and ready to create.

And that's why I love them and that's why we want to continue to support them too.

Because it just feels, it feels right.

Like they're the reason that I have inspiration to create and I should give some of that back to continue to conserve those areas for future generations.

(light ethereal music) Art fairs are awesome.

They're such a great way to meet the people that I have connections with online or have purchased my artwork on my website.

Everyone is always so happy at an art festival.

It's just kind of infectious.

Like every booth is so different that when you are attending an art festival as a customer, you feel like you are going into everyone's little world.

(ethereal music continues) And the social media side is nice too, 'cause once people do meet you at an art festival and they want to continue on your journey with you and seeing what you're doing, they can follow you online.

And I love it.

I think that every part of what I do, I try to make it a really creative experience.

(uplifting music) Hello there.

This is me at the Stone Arch Bridge Festival.

I'm sculpting bison today.

And I thought, what the heck?

I should show you how I do that.

So here I am, sculpting bison.

Gotta put a little tail fluff on it and a little horn.

And Randy came by and he said hello.

He was wearing one of our hats, totally cute on him.

And then I found out I was in the Star Tribune and I was like, wow.

Also Sydney bought an Isle Royale print, that was so fun.

I think I smelled my board.

This is called a still life.

Jordan was looking for his long wispy hair on his leg.

He said it was just flapping in the wind.

And then I think, yep, it's done, wow.

Look, they're all done.

Pretty soon, walk with me, walk with me.

They're gonna be on necklace chains and then you can wear 'em everywhere you go.

My husband brings me to the art fairs.

I don't plan the festivals.

He plans the festivals.

I am so not good at that part of the business.

He's very great at organizing.

He loads up our trailer, he knows where we're going, he knows where we're parking, where we're staying, the times of everything.

I'm along for the ride.

(energetic music) - For Earth Clay, I am kind of the logistics guy.

I figure out art shows and where we're going and how to get there and what we do for setup and everything.

I build all of our displays.

So I kinda get the inspiration from Grace, what she kinda would like or what she has in her mind for like what would look good.

And so then I break out my grid notebook and I start drawing stuff and figure out, you know, how big everything can be and how it should fit in the trailer and how big our booth space is and how to display stuff and try to make everything as streamlined as possible.

So when we get to shows, it's quick to set up.

(energetic music continues) I love that we are our own bosses.

I love that we get to come and go as we please.

And we also travel a lot because of it.

I know I like the freedom of it and I like the people that we meet through it.

It's good.

Yeah, it's a pretty good pairing between Grace and I and just how our different abilities and talents kind of work together, I feel it has created a pretty unique opportunity, I guess for us and (bright uplifting music) We're just trying to see how far we can take it.

- [Grace] I love so many things about living in the Midwest because we do so much traveling and we're in really busy cities all the time, there is nothing like coming home and just the peace and quiet of this place and just, it's definitely my happy place.

I've lived here my whole life and I love it.

I love the community, too.

(bright uplifting music continues) I love creating artwork, but equally as much, I love it when people love my work.

It's really important to me that my artwork brings joy to other people.

It would be hard for me if people did not like my artwork.

And so that's why the entire process, like the creation process is so, so interesting and fun.

And I'm constantly creating, whether it's with clay or watercolor or drawing, I'm constantly making art.

But then to have others enjoy it is, that's just, it's just a full circle experience.

I love it.

(bright uplifting music continues) (machinery whirring) (mellow rock music) - [Mary] Okay, so let's see.

In a nutshell, Bruno Press started with my dad.

The Brunos were from Pennsylvania and we moved here when my dad got a teaching job at St. Ben's, College of St. Ben's.

So he taught in the art department there for like eight years.

And I was just like a wee little lass.

(mellow rock music continues) I was always an art kid, you know, I always, I just loved everything that he did.

So I was really into it and I'd spend time out here with him kind of not really thinking that long term, you know, it was just cool and fun to mess around in the shop with my dad, but basically that was when it all started.

(mellow rock music continues) It all changed when he passed away in 2003, it was real sudden he was young, 63, healthy.

And so I think that was the first time that I, first time in my life that I felt like a calling, you know, like I think I gotta go home.

(tender music) I moved back here to sort of start getting things going.

I mean, it sucked being in here because everything was kind of left how he left it, you know?

And it was really weird being in here.

So I would drag my 14-year-old niece in here at the time, you know, just to like take the edge off and we would like just drink tons of coffee and print swears on cards, you know, 'cause there's like no adults around.

The cards sort of got the ball rolling.

I was printing sweary cards before it was cool, OG.

(upbeat rock music) And you know, I was like doing art fairs and doing stuff like that and I was nervous for a while because I didn't know if people like sweary cards, but turns out they really like sweary cards.

So, you know, I was selling cards, making a bunch of money.

I mean, old ladies liked it.

Like everybody, it was crazy.

I had my cards in a store in St. Joe.

It doesn't exist anymore.

But she had like, you know, because she didn't feel like she could put some of them out, she would have a special room or a special drawer, you know, so they were kind of like, tipper gourd, and people were like, we wanna see the bad cards, you know, so it was awesome.

(upbeat rock music continues) The cards were what really got Bruno Press started and then I kind of realized that I didn't wanna just do cards and I didn't wanna just be beholden to stores that always want new, new, new.

And like, I can't keep queuing the funny, you know, if it's not, if it doesn't organically happen.

I was starting to print like some junk, you know.

So I was like, I'm just gonna chill on that.

And I started doing more posters, art prints, teaching classes here and workshops here.

(mellow music) This would be, I'm gonna start a new linoleum block print and I'm actually, I got my buddy Sinead on here.

I just thought about, you know, doing a little homage to this little trailblazer.

So basically what I do is I start with kind of designing it.

I have an image and then whatever text I'm gonna carve, I have to flip it, you know, it has to be backwards.

Then I have my carbon paper underneath.

You guys remember carbon paper?

Get that down, tape it down and then use a pen to transfer it onto the block.

You know?

So that's the first step.

And once you've got the whole image transferred, like so, then I'm gonna take my barrage of tools, which like, the files are my favorite.

Then I've got some little Japanese guys and some giant dudes, got all kinds of sharpening accoutrements.

And then I just sit here with my insane googles and carve until my eyes bleed and then I print it.

(mellow hip hop music) I would say that Bruno Press is 100% an homage to my dad, you know, like I think that, you know, he was an amazing designer.

He was an incredible printer and silkscreen artist and coming back into this space and being like surrounded by all of everything my dad had, it is just, it's what motivates me.

And it's always been about that.

Like even my logo is designed, you know, with his logo and then I built my logo around here.

It's kind of all about that.

I mean it's grown into for sure my own thing, you know, and I took it in a direction that I don't think he ever would've.

But all the things I do when I travel and get to visit printers all over the world, like I'm always kind of thinking about that.

But yeah, it's for sure all starts with Don.

(mellow hip hop music continues) I think the things that I'm most proud of are a little bit all over the place.

I am really proud of my saucy card line for sure.

And I think it's really recognizable.

But like the posters, a lot of the posters that I do, I think I've kind of grown into realizing what my real mission is.

And I think what I've kind of determined that I'm all about is community.

(mellow hip hop music continues) In the last five, six years, I've sort of been the voice of trying to promote everybody because St. Joe is is really cool.

And I think, you know, I've always felt like, (mimicking glass squeaking) like the little guy in the metro is like so cool and like rural is like meh, lame.

Like they're so backwards and weird.

And while there is some of that, like there's a ton of cool stuff happening in rural Minnesota and I think I've always felt that and I've always been screaming about that.

But it's really nice to have like a whole community of people that are all doing amazing things.

(gentle groovy music) Every visit to our charming, locally owned businesses isn't just a transaction, it's an opportunity to connect with the folks who pour their hearts and souls into their shops.

They know your name and they make you feel like family.

And that's what makes Joetown special.

When you shop locally, you're investing in dreams, supporting families and making our town thrive.

(machinery clacking) And this also like, kshht, will save you from like putting your head in there and getting fa-kow.

(gentle uplifting music) Like, I think, everyone, you know, every printer has injured themselves on every press, but I think this one like (beeping) scalps you.

Not good, but if you like mind the safety stuff, you ain't gonna get hurt.

Every once in a while, like the little guys have like, I've tried to do this and they've like, tshh.

It's not good, but how cool is this press?

(gentle uplifting music continues) I think that my dad would be pretty stoked about what I'm doing, I think he'd be really proud.

I think that, you know, I have taken this print shop to some pretty far, distant lands and created something that feels really good and it, I mean it's super motivated by the legacy he left and it just, I think he'd be blown away.

(gentle uplifting music continues) Beyond the like the digital obsession that we have, I think we're also really obsessed with like instant gratification.

You know, I want it now, I want it three seconds ago.

You know, like that there's nothing about letterpress that is fast.

You can't get it fast.

You know, there's something really beautiful about that.

And I think even myself when I print, I can get really compulsive, like I wanna finish this right now.

And usually when I get like that is when I screw up and I end up having to start over.

Like it's just really good training to like, slow down dude.

You know, this stuff will get done when it gets done.

And I think that's just important to remember.

(gentle uplifting music continues) (bright exciting music) - I grew up on a farm outside of Cottonwood, Minnesota.

It was like a dairy and farming soybeans and corn.

I had two older sisters, so I'm the baby of the family.

My interest in art like started as soon as I can remember.

(bright exciting music continues) I've always been really interested in people.

So that's what I do a lot of.

My work that I'm paid for, the stuff that people commission me for is usually really realistic portraits.

I work like directly from photos.

So it's gonna look almost exactly like that photo in an illustrated kind of story book looking, comic book looking form.

So that's what I do for commissions.

For my own art, I still do portraits, but I kind of gotten bored with the traditional stuff.

So I try to add in like mixes of a background of flowers or octopuses or something completely random and just putting it together.

But it's still a portrait.

(gentle uplifting music) But I do comics and they're about my life.

They're very short and I have a system now that I just always do a four panel comic so it can fit in a square box and you can see all of them in one page.

(gentle uplifting music continues) And I started kind of doing those cartoons because I desperately wanted to do like a graphic novel 'cause I love comics, but I'm not really a writer.

So I was like, okay, I'm gonna do these about my life now.

(laughs) (mellow music) That was kind of an interesting turning point in my life.

Like I started doing them when I was living alone, had been single for a really long time.

I was feeling really disconnected from people.

All of my friends had gotten married, some were having kids, my sisters were married and having kids.

So I felt like kind of left behind and just kind of a little depressed, probably.

And was just looking for more connections.

So I started doing these comics and I was doing 'em almost every day.

(mellow music continues) So I'd share them on social media and then people really liked them and like people related to them.

And then even my mom was like, "Oh, I'm so glad you're doing these comics 'cause now I know what's going on in your life."

You know, like I'm not that outgoing of a person.

So like I don't talk about myself that often.

I don't talk that much.

So these comic books were an interesting way to share my art and share my experiences.

And a lot of people even were like, I can't believe how personal you get and how much you're sharing and that's really brave.

And I was like, I don't know, I think I was kind of desperate for connection.

So I didn't feel like it was brave.

It was just, it didn't, you know, the connection was worth more than people knowing about my life.

(laughing) So that was an important thing for me to kind of get my art out there and also get my art on like a regular schedule that I was doing it a lot.

(gentle uplifting music) Art helps with connection and even with the comic books, you start finding out that like I started making comics 'cause I was kind of lonely and depressed and wanted that connection.

And then suddenly you realize, oh, so are other people.

I'm not the only one that's like this even though I felt like I was.

(gentle uplifting music continues) I think it was in 2021 that I got a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board and it was to work on a few different things.

It was to like work on developing a website that I could share my comics on other than just social media.

But a big portion of it was a portrait series that I was really interested in doing.

And the portrait series was to kind of talk about the moment in history that was Covid.

So the portrait series was 35 portraits of people in their face masks.

And then I was really fascinated by people's face masks, like what they chose to be on their masks and things like that.

So that's why I kind of chose to do the portrait series.

It was a moment in history that was interesting and unique and I liked face masks.

I liked seeing what people chose to have.

(gentle uplifting music continues) So my sister Jessica owns a miniature petting zoo (laughing) and then I helped her with it all the time.

You know, especially, I think she created it kind of when I was in college.

But I would help her throughout the summers, setting up the petting zoo and walking the ponies and all of that.

And then eventually she was like, "Hey, you're an artist.

Should we add something more to our festivities that we can bring, you know, do you wanna do face painting?"

I was like, "Okay, I'll give that a try."

(gentle music) So we started offering face painting with the pony rides and the miniature petting zoo.

Face painting is something that I have been doing for probably almost 15 years.

So at this point, I have all of my designs memorized and if I get sick of a design, I take it outta the book and I don't have to do it anymore 'cause it's my own business.

(laughing) I can do that sort of stuff.

(gentle music continues) These are Blick, they're dual tipped.

So one's got like a chisel fat end and one's got a brush tip end.

I usually like the brush tip end 'cause you can be a little more artsy with it.

The other one's blocky, but they're alcohol-based pens.

And what that means is that they blend a lot better than like water-based ones.

So I can kind of easily blend two colors together, especially when I'm working on vellum like this 'cause it's kind of a slidey material.

It's like, it's not porous.

So mixing kind of works.

It's almost like painting with markers a little bit.

And I really love them, (laughing) but I mix.

So like I might use water-based markers on here at the same time I'm using alcohol-based markers.

So sometimes when there's even a bigger block of white, I'll use whiteout on it.

This is what artists mean when they're multimedia.

They're not just using (laughs) pens and markers, they're using office supplies.

So now if I turn that back around, his eye's white and I can use some of my gray markers to add shadow.

(uplifting music) As the older I get, you know, it does, I get recognized more.

Like when I was younger I felt like I had to try so hard to be out there as an artist and you know, I would go to some small art sale fairs and not feel like I was making an impact or selling very much things.

And it just always felt so hard.

But the longer you're in it, the more opportunities you have.

You know, the longer you're there.

Galleries start actually inviting you to exhibit instead of turning in applications and sort of begging galleries to know who you are, you know?

So the longer you stay with it, the more you get.

And now I get a lot of more commissions than I used to get.

I wouldn't say I have more commissions than I can handle, but I have a lot more than I ever expected I would have.

So art has paid off more than I thought it would and has been a bigger part of my life I think, than I thought it would've been.

(uplifting music continues) (cool upbeat music) - [Narrator] "Postcards" is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

Additional support provided by Margaret A Cargill Philanthropies, Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen on behalf of Shalom Hill Farms, a retreat and conference center in a prairie setting near Wyndham, Minnesota.

On the web shalomhillfarm.org.

Alexandria, Minnesota, a year-round destination with hundreds of lakes, trails and attractions for memorable vacations and events.

More information at explorealex.com.

The Lake Region Arts Councils Arts Calendar, an Arts and Cultural heritage funded digital calendar showcasing upcoming art events and opportunities for artists in West Central Minnesota.

On the web at lrac4calendar.org.

Playing today's new music plus your favorite hits, 96.7kram.

Online at 967kram.com.

(bright upbeat music)