Soft Edges - a coffeehouse art show success

JJ arranges prints at a table in the upper loft of The Loch Cafe & Games.

Parking between the bookstore and coffeehouse was tight but navigable. This was February in Duluth, Minnesota, so places serving hot beverages or hot bodies (saunas) are where folks squeeze into slick lots and meet up with friends. Early in 2024, I met a new friend in the Duluth poetry scene and we were meeting at Wussow's for a cuppa & vibes. Turned out their poetry book, Too Many Hats, was for sale in Zenith across the lot, this lead to much overtime, a muffin shared, and a link to the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council (ARAC)'s Independent Artist Grants page.

Printmaking in my kitchen.

I applied in 80 minutes of nervous typing rhythm after the application deadline was postponed into August. The proposal was simple: use grant funds to buy pricey printmaking art supplies to put on an art show in the upper loft of a friend's brother's gamer cafe, and publish a few zines and my owner poetry book by the end of the project period. The end of the period was July 2025 when the Final Project Write-Up would be due. My inbox gave me the good news at the end of November- I was chosen! Work on prints and poetry launched immediately once the funds were secured into a Grant Funds checking account opened with my credit union. Gotta keep my eggs rowed up now that some of them were starting to hatch.

Coworkers also contributed work to the event.

In short, what were intended to be zines and an illustrator fee began print supplies, posters, invitations to other biologist artists, and shipping costs for the to mail me some of their work to add to the show. While self-teaching the ancient and respected craft of printmaking (and how to clean it up) I produced a glorious array of work, the crown of which I peeled from the final block and sighed to myself Ok, now we're arting. That would be the sturgeon one. Lots of boats. Must be all that boating I was so rad at on the West Coast, the liveliness of reservoir spray and saltwater sand polishing your teeth.

Ultimately, I renamed the event 'Soft Edges,' after a term borrowed from one of Waldemar Januszczak's art history documentaries. That's the goal for me with printmaking- nailing those smooth curves and soft edges.

Dr. Brewer & Tori Kay friending over the art

Along the way, new friend JJ came on the scene & helped by making a FB event & working tables. Dust in the Wind drove all the way from Michigan to part take in the Open Mic, see my new abode, meet my mom*, and be another essential limb of this grant-funded smorgasbord of biologic creative juice! Mi madre flew in, too! And like 40 local buddies swung by with dates and friends of friends to see what shook out of my oil-inked hype. Six other biologists and two non-biologists contributed work. My company's office ran aflutter with titillation over the stack of talent laid out for me to bring to the show. Local poet voices read their beautiful work at the Open Mic. An experience well worth the effort & time committed, and now I have a taste of the fun possible with community building art events. Look out, Upper Midwest!

Check out Bristol & Arin's work at their online shop for TernandTideDesigns!

with love & nothing else,

Rock Rat

Tori Kay

The Destroyer

*after meeting at a TWS Conclave sophomore year in college (both of us were 19), Dustin had never met anyone else in my life besides my ladybird; so it was a big deal for almost 14 years of hearing about each other that madre and Dust in the Wind could know the other was in physical human form

Thank you, brother, for making the trip

Dust in the Wind & Dancing Buffalo in Duluth 2025 going on 14 years of friendship