Emergency Working Artist Project Grant FY21

Because I'm at high risk, I'm not traveling, and am restricting my gallery sales to web site and appointment only. I've had to permanently close Waters of Superior in Duluth, of which I was co-owner (at a significant loss), and where most of my retail sales took place. For years, a good portion of my income has come from sales to hospitals. The pandemic has brought that almost to zero. I have also taught and lectured, which of course, is completely shut down. Thus, any opportunity to be paid to continue to develop my art and techniques is very helpful in keeping my business alive, preparing it for the future, and meeting my family's needs (our daughter is a studio arts and environmental sustainability major at UMD. Because I have a retail gallery space, which is also where I produce my work, my overhead is much higher than someone who works out of their home. Very few programs designed to help with Covid-19 recognize those "overhead" costs. Most simply look at net income. I've produced dozens of calendars, books, videos and exhibitions over the years, always on budget and on time. I've received and successfully completed several previous grant projects. Success in this project will be my making several, high-resolution, winter landscapes with a drone-mounted camera, and creating a triptych from one of them. Being paid $2,000 for my time and materials will allow tme to continue refining photographing from the perspective of a drone, continue building a large body of work focusing on Blacklock Nature Sanctuary, and continue to refine making larger, face-mounted photographs. The triptych format is one that I've done some, and envision doing much more of with this mounting technique.