10 area artists featured in latest Charles Beck Gallery exhibit

“Second Wind,” a diverse exhibit of paintings, sculpture, jewelry and other artworks by 10 regional artists, opens Tuesday, Aug. 19 at the Charles Beck Gallery on M State’s Fergus Falls campus. An artist reception will be held Thursday, Sept. 25 from 4-6 p.m. in Legacy Hall. 

M State Ceramics Faculty Lori Charest says she got the idea for “Second Wind” upon reading about former U.S. President George W. Bush painting portraits in his retirement.

“I appreciated his turn toward art after being in politics,” she says of the former president. “I reached out to him with the idea for an art show highlighting him and others who have found a fresh breath in art. The offer was respectfully declined, but I decided to offer it again – to a group of less famous and more local artists who have all had different careers and are now loving the creativity found in their second wind.”

The featured artists include Shirlee Daulton, Kim Embretson, Kandace Creel Falcón, Kent Kapplinger, Dan Meckle, Ken Omundson, Susan Seaborn, Sandy Thimgan, Malcolm Thompson and Mary Jo Wentz. 

Shirlee Daulton: Daulton has maintained a gallery on Rush Lake in Ottertail for the past 37 years. A former registered nurse, she creates paintings, ceramics, prints, baskets and woodcuts that are inspired by her surroundings, and uses local plants such as corn husks, lake rushes, onions, and grasses to craft her own paper. At 95 years old, she still creates, shows and sells her work. 

Kim Embretson: After retiring from West Central Initiative in 2016, Fergus Falls-based Embretson decided to refuel his creative passions and study art at M State, where he discovered that drawing and painting scratched his creative itch. “I feel blessed to be engaged with so many people who appreciate art and cherish this place we call home,” he says.

Kandace Creel Falcón, Ph.D.: A former tenured associate professor of women’s and gender studies, Creel Falcón now enjoys painting and writing full-time and maintains a research-informed studio practice in the Erhard hills of rural Otter Tail County.

Kent Kapplinger: A retired professor of art and design, Kapplinger says he’s recently moved into a more relaxed pace with his artmaking. “I continue to love the printmaking process, analog machinery, and the environment… I retain a rural-based perspective that shapes my abstract landscapes and illustrates each family memory.”

Dan Meckle: A Fargo native, Meckle worked as an industrial welder for over 10 years. After an injury caused him to step away from the trade, he embraced artmaking full time, transforming steel into new, unexpected forms. “Welding was once my trade, but pain forced me to pause – and in that pause, I found a new beginning,” he says.  

Ken Omundson: Born and raised near Detroit Lakes, Omundson joined the Navy after high school and then worked as a physical therapist in California, Hawaii, Minnesota and other locations. Long interested in art, especially stained glass, photography and pottery, Omundson is primarily self-taught. He moved to the Fargo-Moorhead area and set up a studio in Felton after retiring in 2012. 

Susan Seaborn: A retired critical care nurse, Seaborn believes art has a healing quality for the artist and viewer. She creates watercolor paintings designed to project a positive energy and bring people joy, and is also skilled at plein air, silversmithing, knitting, needle felting, crocheting and tatting. A longtime resident of Fergus Falls, she now lives in Dent for most of the year, spending her winters in Arizona; her works reflect both environments. 

Sandra Thimgan: Thimgan grew up on a farm in rural Hawley and spent her professional life as a music educator, mostly in Battle Lake, where she’s now immersed in the art scene. “Creating art has always been a part of my life,” she says, explaining that she’s long enjoyed quilting, cross-stitching, embroidery, paper arts and more. “My ‘second wind’ really blew in upon my retirement in 2003… The latest breeze that has entered my art world is slab clay work.”

J. Malcolm Thompson: A self-trained artisanal jeweler and skilled intaglio printmaker, Thompson took up his arts full-time in 2016 after a career in residential remodeling. “The tools and techniques in jewelry making and intaglio overlap, and when I’ve finished printing a copper plate, I cut it up for jewelry,” he says. “Sometimes, remnants of the print image are preserved on the private side of the metal, now in its ‘second wind’ as earrings.”

Mary Jo Wentz: Wentz grew up spending her summers on Blanche Lake, near Battle Lake, and now resides there. After retiring, she got the urge to study art more in-depth and began painting with alcohol inks, then needle felting. “I loved the opportunity to really work with my hands and fiber,” she says. My favorite works reference daily life, the textures and patterns of the natural world, and my travels.” 

“Second Wind” will continue through October 30. Art exhibits are free and open to the public during regular M State Fergus Falls campus hours, and all are welcome to attend the reception with the artists.

For more information about Fine Arts at M State, visit minnesota.edu/fine-arts.