“The North Shore Four” - Liz, Elaine, Howard and
Jan Sivertson - beam for the camera outside of
Sivertson Gallery in Duluth, Minnesota’s Canal Park.
But while they take their art seriously, it quickly becomes apparent that
it’s inaccurate to describe them as “serious artists.”
Gently poking fun at one another and comically interpreting a photographer’s
direction while posing for a group photo, it’s obvious that they enjoy
a good laugh and that each is a willing victim of the joking. The irreverent
attitude even shows in Howard’s coining of “The North Shore Four” to describe
their family phenomenon thus referring tongue-in-cheek to the more lofty
and prestigious “Group of Seven,” who so influenced Canadian art.
As these four Minnesota artists were earning their accolades in the world
of art, the Sivertson Gallery, opened 20 years ago by Howard and Jan in
the basement of his Grand Marais home, grew into an important legacy on
its own. The gallery has become an outlet for regional artists whose works
are featured there and for patrons seeking authentic regional artwork.
While the Sivertson Gallery, Art of the North of Grand Marais and Duluth,
Minnesota, celebrates its 20th anniversary in the art community this year,
it could also be a celebration of nearly 110 years of Sivertson life on
Lake Superior.
In 1892, the original Sivertsons, Severin “Sam” and Theodora, immigrated
from Norway to fish at Isle Royale, Michigan, rearing their two sons, Arthur
and Stanley, and two daughters, Bertha (Eckel) and Myrtle (Johnson), on
the income from commercial fishing.
Stanley and Art followed their father into the fishing trade and established
Sivertson Brothers Fishery and the Grand Portage-Isle Royale Transportation
Line. Their sisters married Isle Royale fishermen, so it seemed predestined
that Howard, Art’s only son, would likewise be inducted into the family
business - until he inexplicably displayed a pronounced tendency toward
seasickness and proved to be “too dreamy” and unhandy with fishing gear
to be a reliable partner in the busy confines of a fishing boat.
 Batik
artist Jan Sivertson’s “Moon Over Lake.”
When Howard matured enough to start fishing, Art constantly needed to admonish
his wayward son. “Quit your dreaming and pay attention,” he’d say as buoy
lines heavily laden with rock anchors, hundreds of feet of net or the sharp
barbs of long hooklines were sent over the side of the boat, threatening
to entangle and drag the day-dreaming boy overboard or to snag him badly
enough to cause serious injury.
Instead of his ancestor’s instinct for fishing, Howard somewhere acquired
an artistic bent that changed the direction in which his branch of the
Sivertson family tree grows. The gene is obviously dominant since son Jeffrey
is credited by his dad as sharing Jan and Liz’s artistic inclination. The
artistic accomplishments of Howard’s second wife, Elaine, add another facet
to reflect beauty from the Sivertson artistic gem. (Her name, too, is Jan
but she goes by the nickname to reduce familial and outside confusion since
their marriage on March 23, 1985.)
After the gallery opened in 1980, Howard discovered that he was much more
enthused to create artworks than to sell them and begged out. Jan took
full responsibility for the gallery and nurtured it through those early
years. A recognized batik artist, it is Jan’s contribution as manager of
Sivertson Galleries that has provided an important artistic lifeline -
not just to members of the family but to many regional artists. Without
that outlet for their works, many recognized artists might find their artistic
efforts less lucrative and patrons would find it considerably harder to
shop for authentic northern art.
 Howard’s
“Pete, Pals and Rock Harbor Light” celebrates Pete Edisen’s life and fishing
career at Isle Royale. It will be included in his fourth book, to be published
in 2001.
“From the beginning, our mission has been to exhibit artwork that reflects
the character of Lake Superior’s beauty and depth, environment, history
and people,” Jan says. “Over our 20-year history, many artists have helped
us meet that mission and each of them deserves credit for our success.
It’s been exciting to watch interest in local artists grow and to be able
to put customers in touch with local works.”
Twenty years of tending to business has meant sacrificing some of her own
artistic production, Jan says. “The galleries do take time from my art,
but provide other excitement for me. Several years ago, I became interested
in original pieces by the native people in the far northern arctic areas
of Canada and Alaska. Those pieces have become an important addition to
our gallery offerings.”
From the modest start-up in Howard’s basement, Jan moved the business to
downtown Grand Marais in 1982. As the business embraced Inuit and Native
Alaskan art, the tag “Art of the North” was added to the gallery logo.
In 1995, Jan opened a gallery in Duluth’s Canal Park. A second Grand Marais
gallery opened last year.
“The galleries are doing well and pretty much take care of themselves on
a day-to-day basis, so it’s time for me to get back to doing my art,” Jan
says. Closing their Bayfield gallery last year means more energy for her
work and for the new gallery in Grand Marais. Jan focuses on the wax and
dye work that batiking entails in studios in her home in town and in her
cabin at the far end of the Gunflint Trail.
Jan’s “Autumn Witch Tree” (top) and Liz’s “Tough Act to Follow” (bottom)
contrast their artistic techniques.
As Jan concentrated on making the gallery a success, Howard devoted his
total effort to his artwork - a lifelong dream woven through his boyhood
on Isle Royale, the summers he fished to pay for his education at Minneapolis
School of Art and the 25 years he labored as a commercial artist in Duluth.
Once his kids were grown, he divorced and retreated to a cabin in the Superior
National Forest to hone the skills he’d need to do serious art. After three
years, he emerged from his self-imposed exile, moved to Grand Marais, bought
a home there and began producing art to sell in the gallery.
Calling himself a landscape and narrative artist, Howard paints realistic
scenes of people and nature. Be it a solitary musher driving his dog team
across a frozen landscape or a “snoose moose” mooching snuff from passengers
at an early steamship dock, his paintings tell tales of lives lived in
our northern reaches.
Howard’s efforts produced a collection of paintings based on his boyhood
and the folklore of Isle Royale. Fascinated by the stories he found as
he researched his paintings, he uncovered a talent for storytelling. Thus,
a body of manuscripts grew beside his stack of paintings.
By 1991, Howard found a publisher for Once Upon an Isle, a beautifully
illustrated look at the life, humor, hard work and splendor of a childhood
on Isle Royale. His curiosity about early life on Minnesota’s north shore
led him to other images and more tales.The Illustrated Voyageur
came out in 1994, followed in 1996 by his third book, Tales of the Old
North Shore. The out-of-print The Illustrated Voyageur was re-released
in 1999 by the same publisher that produces Lake Superior Magazine.
As the books draw attention to his paintings, his original artworks and
limited edition prints command not only attention but significant cash
as well - no doubt satisfying the business side of daughter Jan.
Meanwhile, Elaine was pursuing her own path as an artist. A native of Kansas,
Elaine started to paint in 1975 while living in Bay City, Wisconsin. Studying
the detail of natural objects and turning them into artwork, it seemed
only fitting that she relocated to Grand Marais, where a new scene emerges
at virtually every glance.
 Paying
close attention to detail, Elaine produces extremely realistic paintings
that reflect her lake region like “Back Porch.”
Producing realistic, detailed land and seascapes and other subjects from
nature, Elaine has been a professional artist since the early 1980s. Initially
favoring oil and watercolor painting, she has more recently concentrated
on mixed media using watercolors and collage and still produces a considerable
number of paintings in acrylics.
After graduating in 1982 from the University of Minnesota-Duluth with a
degree in fine arts, Liz took a page from Howard’s past. She retreated
to a woodsy setting and lived several years in a 16-by-16-foot cabin. It
has since been expanded to 16 feet by 32 feet but retains its rustic character
with an outdoor biffy and nature’s scenery and critters lurking just beyond
her windows - sometimes serving as models or inspiration for her work.
A bit less realistic than the pieces produced by her father or Elaine,
Liz’s paintings lean toward impressionism yet retain the deft feel for
nature inherent in every piece signed by a Sivertson. Like Howard, Liz
is a published artist, but she is more likely than Dad to use quirky titles,
like “Tough Act to Follow,” affixed to a painting of the night sky glowing
with a brilliant auroral light display.
Asked about the inspiration for these whimsical titles, the irrepressible
Sivertson sense of fun forces a grin and Liz says, “It’s usually because
the painting didn’t turn out quite the way I planned and I have to figure
out a way to explain what I meant.”
As the others laugh, it’s clear that this artistic family really isn’t
“artsy” and that each is completely at ease with where they are in their
lives. That ease may stem from the successes they have achieved - but it
might also derive from a shared sense that they carry more than a century
of family history that makes the north shore of Lake Superior exactly where
they belong.
|
