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Selective Focus: Dunedinville

Dec 16, 2024 No Comments

A few families in the Hunters Park neighborhood created Dunedinville during the pandemic when the only way to roam Bentleyville was by car. This past weekend, they gathered for the fifth year in a row, celebrating the holiday season in multiple yards. The gathering has grown since its first iteration and now includes its own website, podcast, origin story, board game, theme songs, live music and a comic book. The celebration is “famous for its killer sled tracks, fueled by in-house ice and snow-making capabilities.” Check out some of their slick slopes, light fixtures and moments from this year.

Random Christmas, Hunters Park, Selective Focus

Selective Focus: Boubville 2024

Dec 14, 2024 No Comments

Boubville — not at all to be confused with Bentlyville; that would never happen — is a winter celebration that takes place on a property in Duluth’s Central Hillside neighborhood. In addition to the musicians performing, some of the artistic experiences this year include an interactive phonebooth called “Bent-to-Boub InterOpterative Phones” by Swertyman, “Ghosts of Dinners Past” by Annmarie Genuisz, “Silent Crude” projections by Allen Killian-Moore, a gift shop to peruse, a blacklight forest, an interactive electronic instrument made by Digetic and Ginger Juel, and more. Collected here are some snapshots captured by Jess Morgan at the first two nights of the 2025 spectacle.

Art, Photos Annmarie Geniusz, Blacklight, Boubville, Christmas, Daniel Benoit, Jess Morgan, Joy and Melancholy, Judas Bardon, Sabrina Wertman, Selective Focus, Seven Seeds Inc, Swertyman, The Quilz, Whispered the Rabbit

Selective Focus: Swerty’s Visual Art

Dec 03, 2024 No Comments

Behind the scenes putting together the layout of Duluth-based zines and poetry collections is a visual artist creating works in several mediums. Sabrina Wertman, or Swerty, has paintings and other artwork available at Alt Creative, The Loch Cafe and Games, and recently had a display up at Wussow’s Concert Cafe. They created the poster for the 2024 Boubville event, where attendees can interact with a new art installation they’re curating. Their visual art can continuously be found in issues of On the Record, a local arts zine that they contribute comics and complete the layout process for. Photos of their artwork and an interview with Swerty can be found below.

Art Boubville, Comics and Cartoons, Duluth Poetry Chapter, On the Record, Sabrina Wertman, Selective Focus

Selective Focus: Clowns, Jesters and Mimes

Nov 21, 2024 No Comments

A group of clowns at Cherry Koch’s clown karaoke birthday celebration at The Embassy. Photo by Jess Morgan.

Various arts experiences featuring clowns, mimes, jesters and circus-inspired shenanigans are having a moment in the Twin Ports arts scene. Some of those fools happen to be on the payroll at Perfect Duluth Day, which makes it the perfect journalistic inside-job for a feature marking the 10-year anniversary of PDD’s Selective Focus arts feature.

Art Clowning, LGBTQIA2S+, Selective Focus

Selective Focus: The Photographic Eye of Eric Sturtz

Oct 28, 2024 1 Comment

Left: Eric Sturtz self portrait. Right: Stony Point.

When looking at Eric Sturtz’s body of work, it’s clear the natural world inspires him. His photographic journey has taken him to the Grand Canyon and the hills of South Dakota, as well as out of the United States to places like Iceland.

Art, Photos North Shore of Lake Superior, Photographers, Selective Focus

Selective Focus: Fall Colors 2024

Oct 07, 2024 No Comments

For a few weeks starting mid September, the fall leaves in Duluth are at their most vibrant. Maples turn around Labor Day and birch and poplar closer to Lake Superior begin to turn in early October. Hike the North Shore or head to the top of the hill for a marvelous show of red, burgundy, orange, yellow and gold.

Featured here is Perfect Duluth Day’s annual collection of select images from Instagram showcasing nature’s palette.

Photos Fall Colors, Instagram, Selective Focus

Selective Focus: A Late Spring Aurora Borealis

May 13, 2024 No Comments

Northern Lights on the shore of Lake Superior at Glensheen Mansion. (Photo by Mike Mayou)

A startlingly strong Northern Lights show was visible across the United States this weekend, viewable from even the Florida Keys. Instagram is brimming with spectacular shots from in and around Duluth thanks to this solar storm.

Outdoors Instagram, Northern Lights, Selective Focus

Selective Focus: Homegrown 2024 (The Weekend)

May 06, 2024 No Comments

Select images via Instagram from the final three days of the Homegrown Music Festival.

Music Homegrown Music Festival, Instagram, Selective Focus

Selective Focus: Homegrown 2024 (The First Five Days)

May 03, 2024 No Comments

Select images via Instagram from the first five days of the Homegrown Music Festival.

Music Homegrown Music Festival, Instagram, Selective Focus

Selective Focus: Aaron Reichow’s Duluth Music Scene Photos

Apr 25, 2024 No Comments

Self portrait of Aaron Reichow, shot in a mirror at the Blush nightclub in 2022.

Aaron Reichow started taking photos of the Duluth music scene around 2014 when one of his favorite bands, Low, was doing a residency at Fitger’s Brewhouse. The band’s music got him through “a lot of periods of my life,” Reichow said. Low was set to play all of their songs in a random order across several Thursdays around the same time Reichow’s youngest child was starting to sleep through the night. “In my marriage, I did most of the child care, all the bedtimes,” he described. “And when they started to get older, I thought ‘well, I can go out again without feeling guilty.’” A practice in photography helped him reclaim the intention of going out again. And with time, his hobby turned into a professional art form. Read more about his work in the interview below.

Music, Photos Aaron Reichow, Photographers, Selective Focus

Selective Focus: When the winter that wasn’t, suddenly was

Mar 26, 2024 No Comments

Select images from Instagram showing scenes of what might normally be considered a very typical late-season snowstorm … if there had been a winter in winter.

Photos Selective Focus, Winter

Selective Focus: When Winter Was

Feb 13, 2024 No Comments

Apostle Island Ice Caves, 2014, photo by Chris Plys

There is still time for the winter of 2023/24 to show its stuff. For now, all we have is the past.

Destination Duluth, a nonprofit that shares images and stories on social media in an effort to promote the city and region, recently declared “We want winter back!” A group of photographers have contributed photos from “when we had real winters,” posted with the hashtag whenwinterwas.

Photos Destination Duluth, Photographers, Selective Focus, Winter

Selective Focus: Masha Conner’s Character Drawings & Pro-Choice Art

Nov 09, 2023 No Comments

When Masha Conner isn’t working as a nurse at WE Health clinic, she can be found pouring her passion for abortion access, drag shows and cosplay into her character designs. A collection of her drawings and a recent interview can be read below:

Art HOTDISH Militia, Masha Conner, Selective Focus

Selective Focus: Maelo Cruz’s Comics and Paintings

Nov 01, 2023 No Comments

Photo by Jess Morgan

A few years after moving to Minnesota, Maelo Cruz self-published a 64-page comic called “Part Timer,” about a character who “dreams of being a full time artist while working a regular job that sucks the life right out of them.” His artwork is primarily autobiographical and self-reflective, giving viewers a glimpse of his experience living and growing up in Puerto Rico and fatherhood. View and learn more about his comics, below.

Art Comics and Cartoons, Maelo Cruz, Selective Focus

Selective Focus: Kathryne Ford’s Paintings, Prints and Visual Art

Oct 27, 2023 No Comments

Photo by Nia Sayler.

Duluthians who love the local music scene may have stumbled across Kathryne Ford dancing with her acrylics while live painting. Ford performs most Tuesdays at the Rathskeller with jazz group the Hot Club of Duluth. A collection of Ford’s work called “See the Bloom” is on display at Wussow’s Concert Cafe through the end of October. Below is a recent interview and some snapshots of her artwork.

Art Kathryne Ford, Selective Focus