1 of 8
224siv.jpg
2 of 8
224sivtough
Liz Sivertson's “Tough Act to Follow”
3 of 8
224sivback
Paying close attention to detail, Elaine Sivertson produces extremely realistic paintings that reflect her lake region like “Back Porch.”
4 of 8
224sivmoon
Batik artist Jan Sivertson's "Moon Over Lake."
5 of 8
224sivpete
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.
6 of 8
224sivautumn
Jan's "Autumn Witch Tree."
7 of 8
224sivtough
Liz's "Tough Act to Follow."
8 of 8
224sivback
Paying close attention to detail, Elaine produces extremely realistic paintings that reflect her lake region like "Back Porch."
When it comes to the world of art on Lake Superior's Minnesota north shore, it seems that wherever you look, you'll find something produced, influenced or offered for sale by one of the "North Shore Four" of the Sivertson family.
The profusion of Lake Superior art produced by Howard Sivertson, his daughters Jan and Liz and his wife, Elaine, has become even more highly prized than the fish that Sivertson ancestors produced from the lake.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.