Serendipity: the Faculty of Making Fortunate Heritage Puzzles
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Keokuk Vol. V, No. 3 ict Summer 2011 istr t D er A en geth Pu nm w to bli rtai tory flo cation Ente Where the Arts, Culture & His of the Keokuk Cultural and The Inside Scoop Crazy Days .................. 6 Rollin’ on the River ....... 7 Will Whitmore .............. 8 Renaissance Weekend ... 10 KFAC future events ....... 11 Courtyard Books ........... 12 Serendipity: The faculty of making fortunate Heritage Puzzles ........... 14 711 Franklin St. .............15 Keokuk Depot ...............17 and unexpected discoveries by accident. The Work Begins ..........19 Cooking with Liz .......... 24 Story by Elaine Tweedy Foley / Photos by Rita Noe The Tenth Life .............. 27 Poetry .......................... 31 eginning at a nondescript KCED - A look back ...... 33 B mailbox planted next KCED Map ................ 34 to a potholed rural road, the Calendar of Events ....... 35 gravel drive winds uphill through dark old-growth hickories. Squirrels skitter up List of Advertisers shaggy bark. Driving slowly, Conn Communications .. 32 I peer through the shadowy Courtyard Books .......... 12 forest as the road curves Cramer Real Estate ...... 20 through the dusky timber. Eagles’ Nest .................. 19 Although I’m hoping to 1st Community Bank ... 13 find a house—surprise!— suddenly radiant sunshine Hawkeye Restaurant ....... 6 like a spotlight blankets a low Hotel Iowa ................... 25 building in a small clearing. Hy-Vee ........................ 25 The contrast of intense light KFAC ........................... 11 surrounded by dark woods is a KSB Bank ................... 15 serendipitous surprise. Kevin Kuckelman, Atty .. 23 Summer sun filters through Lud’s Restaurant .......... 17 a crimson Japanese maple. River Hills Village ....... 28 Parked nearby, incongruous in the rustic setting, a shining State Central Bank ....... 30 white mini van is splashed with Sutlive Real Estate ........ 9 a colorful RJN graphic across Vigen Memorial Home .. 10 both sides. Lingering beneath cascading lavender wisteria, I inhale the heady fragrance. A knock on the wide front door garners a welcoming “Come i-n” and I enter the comfortable home of Rita Noe Veins of Truth, digigraph, 9” X 13”, 2009. Long and her long time friend, Ruth a believer that what is seen with the physical eye barely Egeland. An immediate sense scratches the surface of true reality. Rita exploits digital Keokuk Cultural of peace and calm and serenity possibilities in this image of Phaelenopsis orchid blooms. & Entertainment surrounds me. Japanese District pottery and wall hangings are 329 Main Street Keokuk, IA 52632 prominent. Rita’s matted and 319-524-5056 framed prints are everywhere. Continued on Page 2 www.keokukdowntown.com Continued from Page 1 Steaming tea warms handcrafted mugs carried into the studio. Ruth stays long enough to point out Rita’s continuing re-do of the studio. “She tore everything Keokuk CED Board of Directors down to the studs, built all new cabinets, and now she’s putting it back together again…only better.” Rita explains that when the studio was built in 1970, it was Tom Seabold, Ex-Officio designed as a jewelry studio. It no longer worked efficiently after switching to Joyce Glasscock, Ex-Officio printmaking a number of years ago. Ed Kiedaisch, President Windows opening to the surrounding woods embrace the natural world as an Carole Betts, Vice President element of her work. Long before it was in vogue to “be green,” the two former Deanne Enderle, Secretary teachers’ house and necessary clearing were designed to exist unintrusively with the Dev Kiedaisch, Treasurer woods and its creatures. They have not “civilized” the encroaching woods and the Noel Brown only domestic plantings are immediately adjacent to the structure. The homestead Tom Gardner appears to be of the trees rather than among them. Rose Marie Karre The natural world is even brought inside with the ash drawer and door pulls Pam Kelly Rita designed and carved to “add an organic, three-dimensional element” to the Alka Khanolkar Rita Noe geometry and precision of the cabinets. Mike O’Connor A desire to add an organic, Chuck Pietscher and three dimensional, Sandy Seabold Britny Soper element to the pristine Jeanne Tyler geometry of the new Bill Vandersall studio cabinets, led to Ed Vinson these door and drawer pulls, which Rita designed The Keokuk Confluence is a quarterly and carved from 2” thick publication of the Keokuk Cultural & ash. The “buttons” are Entertainment District. Advertising and news may be submitted by calling or carved from cocobolo, e-mailing the contacts listed below. a dense hardwood from All opinions expressed in this publication Central America. are those of the advertisers, writers, or other news sources, and do not reflect the opinions Her Macintosh computers and a large inkjet of the magazine, the publisher, or the editor. printer occupy one corner of the studio, where The Keokuk Confluence is not responsible she creates her current medium of choice, for any errors. digigraphs. “After producing photo-based Contents are copyrighted. Reproduction serigraphs (silkscreen) for about 30 years, I of any material in this publication without went digital,” she explains. “I coined the word written permission of the publisher is ‘digigraph’ to acknowledge the new technology prohibited. © 2010 Keokuk Cultural & and retain the traditional aspects of printmaking, Entertainment District. namely creating limited editions.” The deadline for copy and advertising is Noe has installed deep wall cabinets to one month prior to publishing (generally the store her framed and matted prints. They were 28th of the second month of the quarter.) designed specifically for the four sizes of prints Email stories and articles to Joyce Glasscock she produces. They also hold mattboard, foam at: [email protected]. core, framing supplies and shipping boxes. Publisher: Sandy Seabold “This reconstruction had been a dream of [email protected] mine for many years,” Noe revealed. “It has Content: Joyce Glasscock finally come about with the help of friend John [email protected] Maddox. The locked-out Roquette employee is Calendar: Carole Betts a consummate woodworker. We started building [email protected] the specialized cabinets in February in John’s Advertising: Bill Vandersall workshop. We would cut and fit all the pieces at John’s shop, then bring them to my studio, [email protected] Rita “really got into her where we put them together,” Rita said. A total Editor: Tom Gardner of 13 cabinets were built of Melamine MDF and work” durng the cabinet- Editorial Advisors: building stage of her studio Elaine Foley trimmed with the leftover pieces of ash. Joyce Glasscock The studio can accommodate Noe’s three- Janet Fife-LaFrenz dimensional endeavors as well. Metals, clay, mixed media, wood, and sculpture are Dev Kiedaisch some of her 3-D artistic disciplines. Award-winning work is done here. In a self- Ed Kiedaisch effacing manner she has had work accepted in 98 national and international juried Designer: Julia Logan exhibits for her artistic expressions, commenting, “Acceptance by my peers is very Advisor: Rita Noe meaningful to me, especially when some of those Technical Advisor: Ed Vinson peers (jurors) are extremely well-known artists.” Continued on Page 3 2 Continued from Page 2 Known locally for her teaching career, for her varied artistic talents and more recently for her “digigraphs,” Noe is truly a Renaissance woman. “My first memories include wanting to be an artist,” she remembers. “But when I was a sophomore in high school and Bill Dawkins was my art teacher—well, I knew I’d found what I loved. It was like ten thousand flash bulbs went off.” Noe credits Dawkins for nurturing her confidence as an artist. “He always said ‘You can’t teach art, but you can create the atmosphere to let it happen.’” She remembers that in the early ’60s the KHS woodshop was converted to art classrooms, so woodworking tools and saws were available. The art students learned how to use the woodshop facilities in their self-expression. “Mr. Dawkins was literally building his new home during my senior year, and he would share with us some of the unique features he was creating. Throughout the summer after my graduation, I visited his worksite almost every day.” After graduating from the University of Northern Iowa, Noe couldn’t believe her good fortune when she was hired in 1966 to teach at KHS with her mentor. She received her MA degree in Art from UNI in 1970. But by 1978, Rita Noe was ready for a new chapter in her The Lesson, digigraph, life and she left KHS to exercise her talents as staff photographer for the local newspaper. 9” X 13”, 2010. The Since 1982 she has embraced life as a fulltime professional artist, including a graphic simplicity and abstraction design business for 20+ years. In pursuit of new vistas and innovative perspectives, Rita has of the posterization traveled to 49 of these United States, to 14 European countries and from the west to east technique harks back to boundaries of Canada. Rita’s serigraph-producing Following a trip to Japan in 1984 with the Des Moines Sister City Commission, she has years, with the additional returned to Japan 16 more times— possibilities of digital mounting 12 solo exhibits between techniques. Accepted in 1985 and 1992, and in her capacity juried Diamond National as founder and executive director Art Competition 2010, Hot of Keokuk Sister Cities Association, Springs, AR, 8/6-30/10. Inc. “One of my observations is that Japan is a vertical country; even the signage is vertical. That influenced the format of my serigraphs for a long time. But when my subject matter is the Midwest, they have to be horizontal.” Noe especially enjoys Japanese cuisine (“I guess you could say those experiences in Japan changed both my pallette and my palate.”) and that society’s expectation of service and respect. Continued on Page 4 Shosenkyo GORGEous, digigraph, 20” X 30”, 2009.