Local, award-winning art up for bid at ‘Oh, It’s a Holiday Thing!’
MINOT, N.D. – As the holidays approach, so does the Northwest Arts Center’s second annual art auction, “Oh, It’s a Holiday Thing!”
On Saturday, Dec. 17, the community is encouraged to put on their finest holiday attire and enjoy an exciting celebration, commemorating the year with great food, excellent company, delightful music, and a chance to bid on original art with a social beginning at 6:30 p.m.
“It is a wonderful way for everyone to celebrate the holidays, along with the end of the year, while supporting artists and local arts organizations,” said Greg Vettel, Northwest Arts Center director. “When you add in being able to take home original art, it becomes an event you can’t miss.”
Silent bidding opens in person and online at MinotStateU.edu/nac on Tuesday, Dec. 13 at 10 a.m. and ends on auction night at 9 p.m. A live auction will begin at 8 p.m. and features selected pieces from the exhibition. The auctions feature artwork from local, regional, and national artists plus Minot State faculty and students, including Walter Piehl, Linda Whitney, Monte Yellowbird (Black Pinto Horse), Carol Fielhaber, Tanner Lind, and Doug Pfliger.
Offering both silent and live auctions allows us to have an exciting in-person event, and also make amazing art available to those not able to make it to the Northwest Arts Center on Saturday,” said Vettel. “We’re thankful to Justin Anderson, director of the Minot Areas Council of the Arts, to be our auctioneer again this year.”
Piehl, a world-renowned artist and painter and professor emeritus of art at Minot State University, has placed “Freckles Brown Study – American Minotaur Suite” up for auction. The mixed media on paper piece is 30 x 15 inches in size and demonstrates Piehl’s unique blend of Western and contemporary artistic styles.
Warren Granger “Freckles” Brown was a hall of fame rodeo cowboy with a career spanning from 1937 to 1974. When Brown won the World Bull Riding Championship in 1962, he was the older champion ever at 41. This portrait of him as half man, half bull underlies Piehl’s American Minotaur series.
“You have to be a minotaur to ride the bull,” Piehl said.
Whitney is a professor emeritus of art and hails from Valley City. Her piece, “Quilled Cape” is a mezzotint with applied earth pigments at 18 x 12 inches.
Her mezzotints were born out of a childhood love of Native American culture, an introduction to printmaking at a very young age, and being a self-described shy, dyslexic girl and have been exhibited in North American and throughout the world.
“There are two types of dance represented in this body of work,” Whitney said of “Quilled Cape.” “The fancy shawl dance is a demonstration of athleticism and the dancer’s indomitable spirit. The jingle (dress) dance is about healing and the sounds of the jingles is reminiscent of the wind in the trees. Each part is hopefully honoring and respecting the long history of the Indigenous culture.”
"Freckles Brown Study - American Minotaur Suite" by Walter Piehl and "Quilled Cape" by Linda Whitney.
Fielhaber was born and raised in Bismarck, received her art education degree from Minot State, and later spent time as gallery director and temporary art instructor at the University.
In 2013, after a life of waiting and longing to choose her soul-feeding path of creating art, she had a vivid and forceful experience that caused her to “choose her life and open her gifts” and has been painting ever since. Her 30 x 30 inches acrylic mixed media piece, “Within Creation,” will be up for auction at “Oh, It’s a Holiday Thing.”
“The spirit and purpose at the heart of my life is to encourage not only myself, but others to be empowered to take ownership of the unique gift of their own experience, choosing what feeds their soul and makes them who they were meant to be,” Fielhaber said. “I work to live and create art that will inspire the spirit and truth and resilience.”
Lind, an artist based in Portland, Oregon, explores emergence and complexity using abstract painting directed by processes that balance intention and unpredictability. His works have been exhibited nationally, including at the Plains Art Museum in Fargo and the Center for Contemporary Art and Culture in Portland.
His piece, “Untitled,” is acrylic, ink, and flash on canvas, measuring 24 x 24 inches.
“My painting riff is a growing and expanding lexicon of marks, paint, and thought that makes room for spontaneity and experimentation,” Lind said. “I don’t believe that experimentation should be a side exploration that is then later used to inform a painting, but that it should be assimilated into the immediate painting process.”
Pfliger’s piece, “Cowboys-Bandana-rama” is a 24 x 24 inches mixed media collage on canvas is a new twist on a previous series.
“Walter Piehl sent me the collage elements in the piece and thought I should make art out of them,” Pfliger said. “The irony is that I purchased those elements for him years before that, so he would do the same. When they came back full circle, I felt obliged to incorporate them into a new series.
“I send images of the finished paintings to Walter for critique and advice, and he sends me more potential collage items. I view it as a long-distance collaborative effort.”
Pfliger received his degree in art education from Minot State, his Master of Fine Art from the University of North Dakota, and taught and made art for over 30 years. He is fully retired and currently lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
"Creation" by Carol Fielhaber, "Untitled" by Tanner Lind, and "Cowboys-Bandana-rama" by Doug Pfliger.
Within his lifetime, Yellow Bird has experienced life through a series of passions that have assisted to define and redefined him: teacher, horse trainer, and martial and visual artist.
The 2004 Minot State alumnus has put his piece “Together” up for auction, an example of ledger art.
This expression was adopted as a means of historical storytelling for the Indian peoples of the Great Plains during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Although the Plains Indians had no written language in which to record their history, they would depict life by drawing and painting on any kind of paper or cloth they could find, often ledger books.
“There are so many stories untold — the issues we face, the incongruities that have occurred, our history, and the true heartbeat of our heritage,” Yellow Bird said. “At its core, lies a harmonic balance between humanity and nature which I like to showcase using color representation and symbolism.”
Want to browse the auction items — including the aforementioned pieces by Piehl, Whitney, Fielhaber, Yellow Bird, Lind, and Pfliger — before bidding begins? The “Oh, It’s a Holiday Thing!” art exhibition is currently on display at the Northwest Arts Center and will be available online starting Tuesday, Dec. 13. The Center is open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday, 1-5 p.m.
The Walter Piehl Gallery is located on the lower level of the Gordon B. Olson Library at Minot State University, with its own entrance on the south side of the library. The exhibitions and all auction events are free and open to the public. Proceeds will go to support the Northwest Arts Center and participating artists.
“Stay out of the cold and spend an evening with art, friends, great music, good food and drink!” said Vettel. “You won’t want to miss the Northwest Arts Center’s ‘Oh, It’s a Holiday Thing!’”
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Published: 12/13/22
