Photo of Carl Bentson, the eponymous character in “Mr. Positive” directed by Mike Hazard and Emily Rumsey. (See the short film on TPT channel 17 December 20) by Article by Britt Aamodt   December 17, 2008message. Could it be from his comatose daughter? Meanwhile, in fashion land, lovers Bruno and Fillipa emerge from seclusion to astound the world with the “most dangerously stunning creation the world has…

*Editor’s note: This essay specifically refers to the iteration of the Deep North exhibition on view at the Rochester Art Center in late 2008. Chris Larson’s installation is now on view at the Burnet Art Gallery in Chambers Hotel, in downtown Minneapolis, from April 17 through June 13, 2009. One will not expect to find here the mellowness of cities, villages and countrysides in the older States. With…

Photo of Jessica Lind and Jason Peterson, co-founders of Yellow Tree Theatre, on stage in “String” (Photos by Rachel Wood appear here courtesy of Yellow Tree Theatre) by Profile by Matthew Everett   December 11, 2008life often imitates art. But in the case of Yellow Tree Theatre in Osseo, so far it’s worked the other way around. Take their holiday show, for example. Yellow Tree had plans to produce a…

Photo of Ann Ledy, courtesy of College of Visual Arts and the artist MUCH OF ANN LEDY’S ARTWORK EXISTS IN BETWEEN—between drawing and collage, between sculpture and installation. Often, too, it hovers between dimensions. A series of steel plates embedded in a wall, 1995’s untitled 7 casts pointy shadows like the teeth of a saw. Arranging shadows on floors and walls is one of Ledy’s methods of drawing…

by Profile by Britt Aamodt   December 1, 2008 of Western and Selby in Saint Paul and heads for Nina’s Coffee Caf�. Nina’s occupies hallowed ground. Beneath the coffeeshop, at garden-level, Minnesota’s homespun teller of tales, Garrison Keillor, has established that most venerable of American retail institutions�the independent bookstore. Patrons burble up from the stairwell of Common Good Books, toting…

by Review by Connie Wanek   November 18, 2008 to explore and make sense of their own lives�and, by extension, all of life�then Margaret Hasse has managed to put her days and nights�and, by extension, ours�into remarkable order and clarity. Her new book of poems from Nodin Press, Milk and Tides, is her first since In A Sheep�s Eye, Darling (1988), though she has published regularly and been widely…

DECEMBER 21, 2004. 0800 HOURS. NEAR MOSUL, IRAQ. A suicide bomber walks into an American Army mess hall tent and detonates himself on Christmas Eve, killing at least 22 people, including 14 U.S. service members. A photographer captures the moment just after the explosion: an enormous hole torn in the tent’s roof, desert sun streaming in on the rubble of overturned tables and bodies and chairs. The next…

by Review by Ann Klefstad   November 10, 2008 in Frank Big Bear�s brilliant work. It�s hard to comment on this show; as testimony to a long life lived in relentless service to vision, the work�s passion and intelligence is totally humbling. “I believe that I’ve paid my dues as a parent, as a taxicab driver, as a native, as an artist, as a survivor and as a human being,� Big Bear wrote in materials for this…

“Wheels to Nowhere.” These boots, courtesy of civic boosters, are placed all over Red Wing. (Photo by Sari Gordon) FIVE YEARS AGO I QUIT MY HIGH-PAYING CORPORATE JOB in Eden Prairie and moved to Ellsworth, Wisconsin, to write a book. I wrote and wrote and spent up my 401(k) and wrote some more. And then I sold some stuff on eBay and kept writing—until a squirrel moved into the ceiling over our bedroom and…