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By Griff Wigley, on November 1, 2011, 9:56 am
Northfielder Barry Cipra, freelance mathematics writer, alerted me to the one-day (Oct. 21) exhibit at Dean Kjerland’s ArtOnWater Gallery last week: The Art of Mathematics in Wood- a special evening of mathematical puzzles, games, and art. The invitation poster reads:
  This handsome, hands-on collection of puzzles and games can be appreciated on many levels, from novice to expert. There are building blocks for sculpture and design, put-together and take-apart puzzles, arrangement puzzles, sequential movement puzzles, sliding block puzzles, and two-person games.
Loren Larson, professor emeritus of mathematics at St. Olaf College, constructed many of these pieces while working with award-winning mathematics writer Barry Cipra. Come play with the puzzles and join Loren and Barry for an evening of entertaining mathematics. Its free. Light refreshments will be served. Students are welcome.
This Northfield event is part of the international Celebration of Mind in honor of Martin Gardner the renowned mathematical expositor and longtime author of the Mathematical Games column for Scientific American.
See the album of 13 photos (large slideshow, recommended), or SLOW CLICK this small slideshow:
By Griff Wigley, on June 4, 2011, 11:55 pm
By Griff Wigley, on November 23, 2010, 8:00 am
By Griff Wigley, on June 4, 2010, 11:05 pm
  
Musician Lori Williams (alto sax, piano, vocals with new band ‘Lore’) accosted Dean Kjerland in the middle of Division St. tonight, plastering the back page ad for Riverwalk Market Fair, “The Art of a summer Saturday,” from the June NEG next to his ‘staff’ button.
The Riverwalk Market Fair Grand Opening is tomorrow, 9-2, downtown Northfield. The ad includes this:
Fine Art and Fine Craft
Browse a changing weekly palette of various media: oil, watercolor, acrylics, pottery, glass, sculpture, fiber, jewelry, wood art, mixed media. Lower Riverwalk, east side of the Cannon.
Fresh, Local Produce
our region’s finest growers of local and organic fruits and vegetables, and producers of minimally processed meats and cheeses. Don’t forget the fresh cut flowers for your table! Adjacent to Bridge Square in Sesquicentennial Legacy Plaza.
Artisan Foods
Taste the quality difference… check out our handcrafted breads and pastries, fresh coffees, old family recipes and new creations. Eat here and take some home.
For more, see:
By Griff Wigley, on June 3, 2010, 11:22 am
 A sharp-eyed Dean Kjerland, AKA Mr. Riverwalk Market Fair, alerted me to this item strapped to a sign at the entrance to the Just Food Co-op parking lot.
What is it?
And when that question is answered to my satisfaction, what else could it be if one’s imagination is left to run rampant?
By Griff Wigley, on March 11, 2010, 8:52 am
  I noticed a ‘Riverwalk Market Fair’ sign on the door of Dean Kjerland’s Art On Water Gallery on Water Street, now home to the Riverwalk Arts Quarter (RAQ).
A Google search on the phrase ‘Riverwalk Market Fair’ brings up a single result, this week’s March 9 City Council packet:
The City has received a request from Riverwalk Market Fair to use public spaces between 2nd and 5th Street (Bridge Square and Riverwalk area) for a summer market. The event is proposed for Saturday’s 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. from May through October. The proposed market would feature local fine arts, fine crafts, cut flowers, local produce, artisan foods and other products as well as musicians and street performers. The Riverwalk Market Fair has filed to become a Minnesota nonprofit organization.
The RAQ web site and RAQ Facebook group make no mention of this exciting development. Anyone have details?
By Griff Wigley, on December 24, 2009, 6:46 am
  I got a call from Dean Kjerland at Art On Water Gallery yesterday, alerting me to some lily pad-like ice floes circulating below the Ames Mill dam. He wondered whether they were pollution related. Rob Schanilec at By All Means Graphics theorized that last summer’s repairs to the adjacent retaining wall may be causing a different circulation pattern in the water, as he doesn’t remember this phenomenon occurring.
Wikipidia has an entry on ice circles. Evidently, there are two different types. More photos here.
Update 12/25: Patrick Enders emailed me this photo of a single large ice circle at the foot of the dam that he took with his iPhone about 1-2 weeks ago. He says in a comment below that there were two of them.
Update 01/12: Another batch of ice circles has formed during the current cold snap:
  
By Griff Wigley, on June 25, 2009, 9:57 am
 
I got a tip from Dean Kjerland on this new art installation at Northfield City Hall. The center panel reads:
Art at City Hall 2009
…inspiration; sufficiently enabled
art glass panels: American Opal Glass
commissioned by: Norman Butler
project chair: Dixon Bond
design: Dean Kjerland
special thanks: Joel Walinski
‘Twould be cool if there was more information about this (and other RAQ news) on the dormant Riverwalk Arts Quarter (RAQ) website.
By Griff Wigley, on March 19, 2009, 6:54 am
By Griff Wigley, on February 27, 2009, 5:15 am
   Some of the snow shovelers in downtown Northfield during yesterday’s thunder snowstorm:
Top: Jerry Bilek, Monkey See Monkey Reads
Middle: Cathy Collison, Glass Garden Beads
Bottom: Dean Kjerland, ArtOnWater, Kurt Larson, Larson’s Printing
By Griff Wigley, on September 27, 2008, 8:21 am
Robbie and I’ve been in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico the past week, vacationing with some friends from Kenyon, MN. (You may have been wondering about the lack of quality/quantity of my participation here on LoGroNo. Now you know why.)
    
The oceanside boardwalk in the center of Puerto Vallarta is called the Malecón, home to many whimsical bronze sculptures which, as I watched over the course of a few hours, were amazing in their ability to engage people for play and photos.
I left town about the same time the news hit about the Riverwalk Arts Quarter, spearheaded by ArtOnWater’s Dean Kjerland, getting funded by the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation (SMIF).
Dean blogged about it on Northfield.org:
 A group of arts entrepreneurs, supporting organizations and businesses surrounding the downtown riverwalk from 2nd Street to Bridge Square has been awarded a major grant by the McKnight-funded Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation (SMIF).
The grant was awarded to the founding members of the Riverwalk Arts Quarter and will be used to build a community-wide coalition to engage in what SMIF terms ‘asset-based economic development’ concentrating on the existing assets here in the north end of the downtown including the arts resources and underutilized riverwalk. The organizing members represent an unusual concentration of investments in a dozen facilities plus equipment and staff dedicated partially or fully to serving the visual artist and its patrons.
I’d love to see some Malecón-type whimsical public art on Northfield’s “underutilized riverwalk.” I can imagine thousands of visitors’ photos plastered all over the internet within a few years, providing a free, never-ending viral marketing campaign for downtown Northfield.
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